What is Borborygmi?

Borborygmi can be thought of as stomach growling, a gurgling stomach, loud digestion noises or simply put – noises that emanate from the stomach.

Borborygmi is the sound of undigested carbohydrates within the digestive track, or gut. As the digestive system breaks these carbohydrates down a lot of gas and wind is created and as such causes a lot of noise, discomfort and embarrassment. Some people create more wind and noise than others but the cause is always the same.

It is very unlikely that you would experience this condition if you were to eat a higher protein, higher fat, low sugar and low carbohydrate diet. In recent studies fructose has also shown to be a major contributor toward this condition which occurs in many high sugar fruits and table sugar (refined sugars).

Some stomach noise (borborygmi) is natural and occurs in everyone, but some people experience severe cases of it which can be embarrassing, painful, frustrating and difficult to prevent. In order to prevent this condition we need to know what causes it. This article is focuses on the main causes of borborygmi, why it happens and hopefully this article will help people avoid these ‘triggers’ which will help their condition.

Top 5 Causes of Borborygmi

1. High Fibre Grains: Foods such as grain, oat, wheat and rye majorly contribute to borborygmi. Foods such as bread, porridge and cereal are very common causes of loud stomach noise. These are not ‘natural’ foods (when compared to meat, veg, fruit, nuts and seeds) and so it is more difficult for the body to break down and as such causes a lot of wind and noise
2. Fructose / Sugar: Fructose plays a big part in borborygmi, as does sugar. Fructose is found in many fruits. Removing high sugar fruits from your diet can greatly reduce this condition. The best fruits to remove are apples, oranges, grapes and any tinned fruit. Despite being associated with a healthy diet natural or concentrated fruit juices should also be removed.
3. Beans: Beans and Legumes have shown to cause borborygmil Beans in particular are big gas causing foods. Remove these from your diet and see if there is any improvement in your stomach noise.
4. Unbalanced Diet: This is a major factor in borborygmi. What is your current diet like? You may think that it is perfectly fine and well balanced but try writing a food diary and I believe you will be shocked. Try only eating protein and vegetables at meals and not mixing your fats, and carbohydrates. Are you eating processed foods or bread? Are you eating junk food more often than you should?
5. Milk: Dairy products are a big cause of this condition also. This does not apply to everyone (it personally didn’t apply to me but I know many people that it did) but it is worth reducing your intake of milk in particular. How much coffee are you drinking, can you reduce your milk intake this way?

Summary

To sum up: try and eat as natural as possible, make sure that you know what is going into your body. Take a look at my article called Common Causes Of Borbroygmi for a more thorough write up of this article. If you reduce these 5 key factors from your diet you can begin to see the benefit.