EP.265/ Can snacking worsen the endo belly?
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.
And the other thing I should explain is insulin. We talk about blood sugar, glucose, and insulin a lot on this podcast, but if you’re new, here’s a super quick breakdown. When we eat carbohydrates, they break down into glucose, which is absorbed into the blood stream. This process triggers the release of a hormone called insulin, which delivers the glucose to the cells for energy. This is all fine when everything is balanced well, but if we have constantly elevated insulin levels, this can actually cause damage to the body, including hormonal imbalances like high testosterone levels, oestrogen dominance and low progesterone levels. So, of course, having a break between meals give us a chance to lower our insulin levels, though eating for balanced blood sugar is really the key to keeping insulin in check.
So, to recap, if someone doesn’t have SIBO or any gut problems, they can likely get away with snacking between meals without too much of a problem, though the best option for health would be to give a few hours gap between eating if possible.
However, in someone with SIBO (and SIBO is very common in our community), we do find that what we call meal spacing, is helpful. Meal spacing for SIBO has been studied, and the ideal minimum time between meals is four hours, with a 12 hour fast overnight. It used to be about six hours, but they’ve actually seen good results with just four, which is great news for those of us who like to snack (including me).
The problem is, if you have unstable blood sugar (or just really enjoy a good snack) going that long between meals just isn’t realistic and may cause you stress or in the worst-case scenario, disordered eating.
So, here’s a good rule of thumb – try to leave some time between meals *if* you can, but if you get hungry, don’t leave yourself to start getting shaky and hangry, because that’s not great for the body (or endo) either! Blood sugar fluctuations affect our hormones, whether they are spikes or dips, so preventing yourself from getting to that point of feeling starving is important for managing endo and your hormones. If you find yourself hungry a lot between meals, the chances are that your main meals are not keeping your blood sugar levels stable, so start working on those and see if that helps over time.
Remember, with blood sugar balancing meals we want fibre, fat, protein and complex carbs and the general ratio is: half the plate is low starchy veg (which makes up your fibre), quarter of the plate is protein, and another quarter is the starchier carbs like beans or sweet potato. You then want to add your fat, which should be a minimum of two heaped tablespoons, roughly, so say half a small avocado. For some of us with blood sugar challenges, you may find that reducing the starchier carbs a bit more and increasing the low starch carbs like green veggies a better way to manage blood sugar in the beginning, and over time you should be able to tolerate more starch.
Additionally, when you do snack, choose snacks wisely – a complex carb that contains a nice amount of fibre (like fruit) paired with protein and fat will help you stay fuller for longer and can help to keep blood sugar levels stable. If you just eat carbs alone, your body will use them for fuel more quickly and you will feel hungry again shortly after.
If you try this and it works, great – remember, it can take some time for your blood sugar levels to improve, so you may still find for the first few months you’re still getting hungry between meals, but you should start to see gradual improvements. If not, work with a practitioner and if you don’t have that kind of money, I suggest buying a cookbook called The Glucose Goddess Method, which is a fantastic resource for balancing blood sugar.
If you can’t manage to go without snacking for whatever reason, just aim for some kind of break between dinner and breakfast – 12 hours is optimal, but just do what you can. Some of my clients start with eight hours and then build up to 10 and so on.
Some people get low blood sugar during the night, which may show up as waking up in the early hours feeling wide awake and unable to sleep, waking in the night hungry or waking up in the morning absolutely starving and desperate to eat. Low blood sugar at night is really just a symptom of imbalanced blood sugar during the day, so going back to working on your meals and snacks should begin to help but check in with your dinner particularly.
If it’s a high carb meal like pasta, start to play with your ratios to ensure you have enough fat, fibre and protein, because what will happen with a high carb meal that’s not properly balanced, is that your blood sugar levels will spike and then they’ll come crashing back down at night, which will cause you to wake up, as low blood sugar triggers a cortisol release and cortisol is our waking hormone.
The other issue with dinner is eating too little carbohydrate at night, so don’t do the opposite thing either – don’t go with a low carb dinner, just focus on those ratios I mentioned and make sure you have some good quality complex carbs on your plate.
If you’ve tried that and it’s still not helping, having a protein rich snack just before bed, and start your fast from there. That may mean you last meal is at 10pm and your first meal is 8am, giving you a 10 hour fast and not a 12 hour one, but that’s okay – like I said, just do what you can.
I also want to mention if you’re doing all you can to balance your blood sugar and you’re still struggling with getting hungry between meals, it might be worth seeing a GI specialist. Many of us in this community have postural tachycardia syndrome and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Both of these can cause issues with the gut like accelerated stomach emptying, which means food doesn’t have time to properly break down and absorb, so you end up feeling hungry quickly afterwards. There are a few problems that these conditions can cause with the gut, and some of them could even be driving some of your bloating, so if you do have POTS or EDS, I recommend that you speak to a gastroenterologist who is specialised in these conditions.
Now, the other challenge with avoiding snacking that I alluded to earlier, is disordered eating patterns. Seeing snacking as ‘bad’ is not going to be a helpful way to view our food and over time, it can create obsessions or unhealthy behaviours like going without food even when we’re hungry. If you’re someone who has a history of an eating disorder or you’re currently struggling, I really wouldn’t worry about snacking and just go ahead and enjoy your food when you want. If you think it might help with your bloating, say you have SIBO, then you need to discuss this with a trained practitioner and a mental health professional, both will be able to support you with this in a healthy way, but honestly, avoiding snacking is really not the be all and end all when it comes to the endo belly. There are many other contributing factors, and I can almost guarantee you that your snacking habits, are not the key culprit, or even a runner up, so I wouldn’t force yourself down this path of avoiding snacks if you know it’s going to be triggering for you.
So, in short, yes – meal spacing and being mindful of our snacking habits may help with endo belly, but it’s very unlikely to entirely resolve the problem alone and if you have blood sugar balance problems or a history of an eating disorder, cutting out snacks cold turkey is probably going to cause you more problems, so it’s best to work with a practitioner.
Let’s not demonise snacking, but let’s just be mindful of it.
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