Bloating and transit: where to actually start

The digestion aisle is one of the most crowded online, and one of the easiest to sort: a cheap fibre beats every other intervention on number of clinical trials, and the rest is judged case by case.

Before buying anything

Four free levers explain the majority of the improvements people get. They come before any product.

• Water. Increasing fibre without increasing water makes constipation worse. It is the most common mistake, and the easiest to fix.
• Regular mealtimes. The gastrocolic reflex follows a schedule: a steady rhythm helps transit more than people think.
• Movement. A walk after a meal speeds up gastric emptying and transit. Thirty minutes a day is enough.
• Sleep and stress. The gut-brain axis modulates motility and visceral sensitivity: many functional complaints worsen during periods of high mental load.

Our pick: blond psyllium

It is the fibre with the best evidence-to-price-to-tolerance ratio on the market. Its value comes from its viscosity: it holds water, which produces a double and sometimes counter-intuitive effect — it softens hard stools and firms up loose ones. It also lowers LDL reproducibly across trials.

Protocol: start at 5 g a day, in a large glass of water, and build up gradually over ten days to 5 g twice a day if needed. Leave two hours around any medication, because the viscosity can slow its absorption.

Probiotics: read the strain, not the CFU count

A probiotic is defined by its strain. Two bacteria of the same genus can have completely different effects: extrapolating from one to the other has no validity. Yet the dominant sales argument in the aisle remains the number of colony-forming units — the most visible and least useful piece of information.

The rational approach: identify your indication, look for a strain studied for that specific indication, check it is named on the label, and run a four-week trial. If nothing moves, stop — the effect, where it exists, is generally transient and ends when you stop taking it. Probiotics do not durably colonise the gut.

The subject is covered in depth in our piece on the microbiome and plant diversity.

The comparison table

What we ruled out

• “Detox” cures and colon cleanses. No physiological basis, and repeated enemas disturb fluid and electrolyte balance.
• Activated charcoal for daily use. It also adsorbs medicines and some nutrients: occasional use at best, never as a routine.
• “Universal” digestive enzymes. Justified in specific conditions, such as pancreatic insufficiency, where they are prescribed. No demonstrated value outside that.
• IgG “food sensitivity” tests. Not validated for diagnosing intolerance: they lead to pointless and impoverishing food exclusions.
• Elimination diets run alone. The FODMAP protocol works, but supervised: badly run, it durably reduces microbiome diversity.

The twenty-one day protocol

1. Days 1–7: count your plant species and aim for thirty over the week. Add a pulse twice.
2. Days 1–7: alongside that, settle your hydration — a simple marker, pale yellow urine — and walk twenty minutes after your main meal.
3. Days 8–14: introduce psyllium, 5 g a day, in a large glass of water. Go to two doses if needed, gradually.
4. Days 15–21: add a daily portion of fermented food (plain yoghurt, kefir, raw sauerkraut, miso).
5. Beyond that: if one specific symptom persists, a probiotic with a named strain for that indication, four weeks, then review.