The first thing that causes feeling “overfull” is eating more volume than your stomach can comfortably handle. Much of the Standard American Diet (SAD) is designed to be super easy to eat. It doesn’t require very much chewing before you can swallow it and take another bite. It’s a good way to get people to eat more and for the food industry to make more money. The problem is that the stretch receptors in your stomach don’t have a chance to say, “Hey! Enough!” before it’s too much. Not only is it too much, it’s also very heavy, dense food with very little fiber. Which means it moves out slowly and you feel heavy, full and bloated for a long time. Hence the need for a nap.
Animal proteins can also cause bloating. Most people eating the SAD don’t even realize how regularly they are uncomfortable until they start adding more plants to their diet.
It happens less when eating the WFM way because the fiber in whole foods require us to chew more so it takes longer to eat. The fiber also helps us to feel full sooner. You may also notice that on the rare occasions when you do eat more than you should, you aren’t as miserable because plant foods aren’t as calorie dense and heavy in your stomach and they move through more quickly.
