Why your bloating gets worse when you start eating 'healthy'
You finally clean up your diet. More veg, more fibre, fermented foods, the whole lot. And somehow you feel WORSE. This isn't bad luck. There's a mechanical reason for it. When your gut microbiome is already out of balance (which it probably is if you're in this community), dumping a load of fermentable fibre on top of it is like throwing petrol on a fire. The bacteria that are already overgrown get MORE fuel, produce MORE gas, and you end up more bloated than when you were eating like crap. Here's what's actually happening: Your small intestine is supposed to be relatively low in bacteria. When bacteria migrate up from the colon or overgrow there (this is basically what SIBO is), they start fermenting food way earlier in the digestive process than they should. Foods that are technically "healthy" like onions, garlic, broccoli, beans, and kefir are all highly fermentable. So you're feeding the problem. This doesn't mean healthy food is bad. It means the ORDER matters. You need to reduce the bacterial overgrowth first, support motility so your migrating motor complex can keep things moving, and THEN gradually reintroduce those foods when your gut can actually handle them. If you went "healthy" and got worse, you're not broken. You just skipped a step. What did you notice got worse when you tried to clean up your diet? Drop it below.