Bye Bye Bloat my latest mini eCourse  is finally ready!

It’s all about getting back to basics with your gut health, improving digestion and eating consciously for seamless digestion and a healthy daily poo. It’s full of tips to stoke your digestive fire and today I am giving you one of the main points I discuss in the course because I’m generous like that, why the timing of your meals is super important and may hold the key to saying bye to the bloat for good.

Snacking all day is actually terrible for your gut health. It is a quick path towards bloating, constipation and sluggish digestion. Ideally we want to focus on three main meals a day with some long breaks in between. This is optimum as it increases stomach acid and enzyme activity to really prep your belly for digestive efficiency.

Granted there are those who will require more than three meals, children, teenagers, pregnant women, athletes, and those with a lot of muscle who work out a lot. Some health conditions may also require more frequent, smaller meals. But the majority of us will do just fine on three filling meals per day.

I want to introduce you to the Migrating Motor Complex – a fancy term for the muscle contractions in the GIT lining that helps to move food along your digestive tract so it can be processed and eliminated. Here’s the catch – it only works efficiently when your stomach is empty and you are in a fasted state (3+ hours between ingesting food). So if you are eating every three hours or less your migrating motor complex may not be kicking in and food & waste is languishing in your intestines causing trouble like a gang of bored teenagers at the shopping centre.

In a nutshell snacking prevents food from being digested, absorbed and eliminated as fast as it should be!

But won’t I get hungry? I hear you ask… Yes, a little before your next meal which is healthy & normal. You want an appetite after all. But the key is carefully constructing your meals – as I teach in Bye Bye Bloat, The Thrive Method and Food Freedom. If your meal is balanced with plenty of protein, healthy fats and complex carbohydrates then you won’t be thinking about food for a few hours. If you sit down to a meal of toast then no you won’t be able to last until the next meal. It’s the protein and fats in particular that have the satiating effect and make three meals possible. The benefits far outweigh a few natural hunger signal 15-30 minutes before your next meal.

So next time you reach for a snack at the first tiny sign of hunger, remember to practice flexing your Migrating Motor Complex muscles and take a pause before your next main meal. Have a big drink of water and check back in with yourself after 10 minutes, are you actually hungry or is this a habit, boredom or emotional reflex? You can thank me later for improved digestion and a more healthy weight!

As always, if you know someone else who also needs to hear this, please share it.

FYI Bye Bye Bloat ($97aud) is only available as a gift for joining my other programs but if you’re desperate email me hello@tessarickardnutritionist.com and I’ll see what I can do.