Hello lovelies! As you may now my birthday was earlier on in February and I have been cheating myself all the way through February with delicious bagels, sandwiches, cakes and donuts. All of this junk food made me feel super bloated this past week and it made me realise that I need to get back to eating healthy again. I especially tend to feel super bloated when I have had bagels or sandwiches, which is super annoying as they are not even that bad for you. Anyway, whenever I feel this painful bloating coming up there are always a few drinks I make myself to help with that bloated feeling. Because if there’s one thing I hate in life, it’s to feel bloated all month.

So there are three drinks I always tend to go for and they are all actually teas. I find a cup of tea very soothing, just like the British. I find that this is the only kind of drink that really helps settle my tummy and make it feel less bloated so I can keep doing fun things throughout the day.

Ginger root tea

This first tea is something that all the Dutch people seem to be going crazy for at the moment. It’s fresh ginger root tea. I think we all know how great ginger is for your digestion and gut in general, but I love having ginger root tea. \

My family have always been a ginger root tea people and we love to use it for multiple purposes, such as bloating, a sore throat or if you have a cold. It’s definitely not everyone’s favourite and most of my friends think I am rank for even drinking this in the first place, but I love it! It’s something my mum used to make me when I was younger too and felt a bit off as it’s super soothing and healing to drink. The great thing about ginger root tea being a thing everywhere in Holland now is that I can usually order it alongside a sandwich at a restaurant and don’t even notice any sort of bloating that I could have going on.

Peppermint tea

I started noticing my bloating problems when I started interning two years ago. I would have the most painful bloating after I had my lunch in the afternoon, which I had not really experienced before, as I had never really sat inside an office all day until then. Anyway, I soon discovered that peppermint tea is another great tea that helps reduce that painful and bloated feeling.

The first four months I used to only drink peppermint tea religiously as it again really helped me with that bloated feeling. I even got some other interns and co-workers hooked on peppermint tea as they would sometimes feel bloated after lunch too. My favourite peppermint tea is from Twinings. In Holland most people also love to add fresh mint to their tea, but I find the scent of fresh mint in my tea super overpowering, which leads to me having the worst migraine, so if you’re sensitive to migraines, maybe avoid fresh mint teas and just go for a peppermint tea instead.

Any tea with fennel in it

The last tea that I love to drink is actually a tip my aunt gave me. She’s very much into natural ingredients and loves her herb teas very much, as she also struggles with bloating and other health related issues. Anyway, I once told her after we had lunch that I would have the worst bloating now as I had a sandwich. We walked around the neighbourhood a bit and then went back to her home and she showed me all of her detoxifying teas – I know, we have thrilling conversations haha! It’s funny, because these sorts of teas are always called detoxifying, but they don’t necessarily detoxify. What they really do is just help you get rid of the bloated feeling. She showed me her teas and I noticed they all had fennel in them. I asked her about it and she then told me that fennel is also a great tea to drink for when you have super painful bloating going on. It makes you pee a lot though, which is only good for you too, but if you try one, do be aware of that. My favourite tea to drink that has fennel in it, is from Pukka and it’s their ‘Detox’ tea. I think I read somewhere that they had to change the name in The Netherlands as it didn’t have a detoxifying effect and it misled consumers by the name. I still love this tea very much though, so I don’t really mind the name change.