When you sit down to a meal, you are of course looking forward to enjoying your food and feeling satisfied afterward. Unfortunately, if you eat foods that your stomach can't tolerate all that well, you may wind up experiencing stomach discomforts such as bloating, aching, constipation, or diarrhea. While you likely can tolerate most foods you eat just fine, here are some you may want to avoid or cut back on if they produce stomach issues.
Broccoli
Though this cruciferous vegetable is without a doubt one of the healthiest vegetables you can eat, broccoli can also be one of the hardest on your stomach, especially when eaten raw. Containing complex sugars that are hard for the stomach to digest, it's also very high in soluble fiber, meaning it takes much longer to break down within your digestive tract. As a result, you may experience gas, bloating, and an upset stomach.
Ice Cream
Though you probably love ice cream on a hot summer day, it may not love you back. If you tend to have various types of GI distress after eating ice cream, such as bloating or diarrhea, gastro health could find you suffer from lactose intolerance. Should this not be the case but you still have problems, this could mean too much of it is being digested in your large intestine, which often results in an upset stomach.
Fried Foods
From French fries and chicken fingers to sausage, hamburgers, and much more, you may be like many other people and love to eat fried foods. But along with not being a heart-healthy meal, fried foods can also wreak havoc with your GI system. In many people, fried foods move through the digestive tract too fast, which can result in diarrhea. However, since fried foods are very low in fiber, you may find they sometimes stay in your digestive tract too long, leading to bloating and constipation.
Citrus Fruits
If you have been trying to eat healthy by having more oranges, grapefruits, and lemons in your diet but now find yourself experiencing stomach discomfort, the culprits are probably the citrus fruits you are eating. Though good for you in many ways, citrus fruits can also irritate your stomach lining, resulting in acid reflux. As an alternative, try bananas or applesauce, both of which are much easier on the stomach.
If you like some foods but they don't like you back, it may take some trial and error to determine the problem and how you can make changes to your diet. By focusing on your GI health, you can create a diet that will work best for you each day.