On Bloating, Bitters, & Old Plant Wisdom
Confessions from the Wild: Volumn I
I don't have a dramatic story to tell you.
No rock bottom, no official diagnosis, no before-and-after that would make a good Instagram caption. Just a quiet, persistent mystery that took me the better part of two years to solve, and an answer so simple it made me laugh out loud when I finally found it.
Here's the mystery: I'd wake up every morning feeling light. Easy. Completely fine. I'd make breakfast, usually eggs, toast, and sauteed greens. I'd make sure to chew thoroughly and mindfully. I'd do all the things. And then, slowly, reliably, the bloating would begin.
Not dramatically or painfully. Just a progressive tightening over the course of the day. Somedays by evening, my pants fit like I'd gained 10 pounds since morning. Then I'd wake up the next day feeling light and easy again, and the whole thing would start over.
The thing that made it particularly maddening?
I have a master's degree in nutrition. I know what I'm eating, why I'm eating it, and what it's doing in my body because I spent years studying it. If anyone should have been able to solve this, I felt like it was me.
So I did what I'd suggest anyone else do. I eliminating foods. I tracked. I adjusted. I tried one thing and then the next, methodically, the way you're supposed to.
I was eating really well. Not the entirely mythical "perfect," but genuinely, carefully well. And nothing consistently helped.
The most frustrating part wasn't the discomfort, though that was real. It was the feeling of being a mystery I couldn't solve in my own body. Of knowing so much and still not knowing this.
And then eventually, something shifted. Not profoundly, but quietly.
The problem wasn't something I was eating. It was something I wasn't.
I landed on two things that actually helped: a tablespoon of raw enzyme-rich vinegar in my water everyday, and a couple dropperfuls of herbal digestive bitters right on my tongue just before meals. That's it.
Simple. Unglamorous by most standards. Old folk wisdom that got lost somewhere between the invention of antacids and the protein powder aisle.
Bitters have been used for digestion for centuries, by herbalists, by grandmothers, by bartenders who didn't know they were mixing medicine. Bitter flavor on the tongue triggers a cascade of digestive responses: saliva, stomach acid, bile, enzymes. Everything your body needs to actually process a meal.
We used to get bitters through the foods we ate, dandelion greens, radicchio, wild plants. Somewhere along the way, we bred the bitterness out of our food supply and wondered why our digestion got confused.
Of course, bitters aren't the full picture. But they're an important part.
When I finally felt relief, my first thought was: duh.
That's why I made Gut Flora Digestive Bitters. It's the best of both worlds: bitter herbs in raw enzyme-rich vinegar. Burdock and dandelion root to stimulate digestion, chamomile and calendula to sooth, yarrow and coriander to support the whole process. Everything your grandmother's grandmother would have reached for, in a small bottle that fits in your bag.
I'm not saying it'll solve every mystery. Bodies are complicated and I've learned some humility about that. But if any part of this sounds familiar, the bloating, the trying everything, the eating well and still feeling off, it might be worth remembering what we've forgotten.
The plants don't care about your credentials. Old plant wisdom just waits, patiently, until you're ready to return to it.
To living wildly well.
