Do Green Powders Give You Flatulence?

One of the most common questions people ask before they decide to incorporate a green powder into their diets is, “do green powders give you flatulence?”

A lot of people are worried that the high fiber content and the appearance of brand-new ingredients will cause their body to go into chaos and they will suffer badly from flatulence.

Within this article, we are going to tackle this question head-on, so you know what to expect when you start taking a greens powder and if flatulence isa real possibility.

Should you expect flatulence when you first start to use green powders?

Regardless of how sensitive or strong your stomach is, when you change your diet, your digestive system normally encounters some minor problems. In the majority of cases, this is completely normal.

The body has to adapt to the change in diet, and this might be an especially big change if you have gone from a fairly poor diet with lack of nutrition, to then using a green powder that provides you with all of the micronutrients you need daily. Sometimes people’s digestive systems don’t react too much to changes in diet, but these are the lucky ones!

If you start to encounter digestive problems after starting to use a green powder, like gas, bloating or even diarrhea, we advise halving the dosage you are taking. If this doesn’t help ease the issues occurring, you may need to stop taking the powder until your digestive system calms down. Then you can start to add small doses back into your diet day by day and see if that eases the problems.

In most cases, having bloating and flatulence when taking super greens powders is just embarrassing and isn’t an indicator of any underlying problems.

Normally, any digestive issues like that should reside within two weeks after starting a greens powder. However, if discomfort and digestive problems are still occurring after this time, we recommend visiting a nutritionist and depending on how severe the symptoms are, see a doctor.

Why green powders may cause flatulence?

Increase of fiber

The majority of green powders contain a considerable amount of fiber due to the number of vegetables within the powder. A lot of the vegetables used within green powders are high in fiber. For instance, Spinach, Kale and Spirulina are all high in fiber content.

All fibers can cause flatulence, especially if you abruptly swap from a fairly low fiber diet to a high fiber diet. Gas occurs due to the digestion of fiber because bacteria within the colon produce gas as a by-product when digesting fiber.

Fiber is essential within a healthy diet, and shouldn’t be thought of in a negative light. It has a range of benefits, from normalizing bowel movements to lower cholesterol and controlling blood sugar levels. Fiber also assists with decreasing bloat, so green powders containing fibre can help reduce bloating.

Gasses bound to powder when mixing the powder with water

When the green powder is added to water or blended with water, small amounts of gas escapes from the powder and can cause a small layer of foam to form on top of the drink. This is completely normal, and these small pockets of gas can cause people to experience minor flatulence when consumed.

However, some brands think that the foam that forms when mixed with water isn’t aesthetically pleasing, so they mix the powder with binding chemicals so that once the powder is mixed with water, no gas can escape. When someone then consumes the drink, their digestive system pulls apart the chemical ,bond and the gases from the powder are released (1).

This can cause larger amounts of flatulence to occur, along with bloating.

If this is something you’re concerned about, it’s a good idea to contact the manufacturer yourself in regards to this and ask if they use binding chemicals for aesthetic purposes.

Food Intolerance

Unfortunately, one of the reasons a green powder may cause flatulence when consumed could be due to food intolerance.

Green powders contain a variety of ingredients, and you could be intolerant to something. If you think this is the reason green powders are causing you flatulence, visit a doctor to get an allergy and intolerance test.

Typically, your body will become accustomed to the increase of micronutrients and fiber within green powders after a week or two. However, as mentioned above, if you suffer from digestive problems for more than a few weeks, consult a medical professional.

In most cases taking a greens powder like SuperGreen Tonik every day is good for digestive and overall health. If you notice any mild digestive complaints then you can simply reduce your serving size or temporarily stop whilst your body gets used to it.

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