Is snacking ‘bad’ for endo belly?

I had a client recently ask me this and she’s not alone. Many who come to me for chronic endo belly, are worried that their snacking habits are making things worse.

So, is snacking a problem?

It’s a tricky question to answer…

Let’s start with what happens to the gut when we snack.

Between meals, two hours after you’ve eaten, a cleaning process is switched on so to speak, in your small intestine. The small intestine should only house food for about two hours, then the food moves on, and the rest of the digestion occurs in the large intestine. This wave-like motion clears the small intestine of food debris and bacteria that should actually be in the large intestine and this in turn keeps the small intestine clear and prevents gas, bloating, etc. that can occur if food and bacteria are allowed to build up in there.

Every time we eat or drink something that has calories (so say a flavoured water, or a coffee with milk) it turns off. However, the process, called the migrating motor complex, kicks in overnight too, when we’re essentially fasting between meals.

In someone without small intestine bacterial overgrowth and without other gut problems like microbiome imbalances, the overnight fast is typically enough to keep on top of things, though a decent break between meals is the ideal scenario for gut health and for keeping insulin levels down.

To be clear in case you’re a new listener to the podcast, small intestine bacterial overgrowth is a condition where bacteria are living in abnormal levels in the small intestine. The small intestine houses a very tiny number of bacteria, whereas in contrast, there is lots in the large intestine, and because the small intestine was not designed to house bacteria in his way, when SIBO occurs, we get damage to the small intestine and difficulty absorbing nutrients.

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