Why Do I Bloat After Every Salad?

(Hint: It’s Not the Lettuce—It’s Your Digestion)

You’ve ditched the drive-thru, packed your plate with leafy greens, and—boom—your belly balloons like a party balloon before you even leave the table. “How can healthy food make me feel so puffy?” clients ask every week.

Most of the time, the lettuce isn’t the real culprit—it just shines a light on the logjam in your digestive tract that crunchy, raw veggies make impossible to ignore.

The Two-Part Problem

1. Low stomach acid.
   Those crunchy greens don’t give up their goodies easily; your stomach needs a hearty dose of acid and hardworking enzymes to pry open their fiber shells. Once we pass 35—or run on stress or heartburn meds—our acid supply slips. Instead of getting digested, that “healthy” salad just parks in the gut and ferments, leaving you gassy and puffed up.

2. Fiber overload without enough bile.
   Greens, crucifers, and seeds are fiber superstars. Great for you—once your liver and gallbladder send enough bile to emulsify the fats and move fiber along. Sluggish bile flow turns that fiber into a traffic jam.

The 2-Week “Digestive Tune-Up”

Give this easy tune-up a try and watch how your next salad goes down without a fight:

• HCL+2 — 1–2 caps before each meal
  Boosts stomach acid so raw veggies break down instead of fermenting.
• Bile Builder — 1–2 caps with your heaviest meal
  Thins and moves bile, helping fiber and fats exit smoothly.
• Chew every bite 20-30 times (minimum)
  Turns crunchy greens into “pre-digested” mush, easing the gut’s workload.
• Warm half your veggies
  A quick sauté or steam switches on digestive enzymes and tames bloat.

Stick with the routine for two weeks, then put your salad to the test again. Chances are those greens will go down easy, your belly will stay flat, and you’ll actually feel the boost you expected from the first bite!

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