gut feeling
Are you reading this with your top button undone? There’s a reason we’re all feeling particularly gassy and sluggish right now – and it’s probably not what you think…
words: Angela Hui
digital artwork: Timea Balo
It’s 3.30pm, I’m in an office full of people and the high-waisted Aligne jeans I loved at 8am are beginning to feel like a torture device. I stealthily pop the top button under my desk and rub my protruding stomach. If I were working from home, I would whip them off completely and lie motionless on the floor in my pants in the hopes that the cool surface would soothe the pain. But working half-naked is socially unacceptable, so I soldier on for the rest of the day feeling like I’ve swallowed a space hopper, occasionally nipping to the toilet to tactically release some gas. Sound familiar?
Rising inflation
The feeling of being bloated – of having an unpleasant build-up of gas in your abdomen, to be precise – isn’t a new phenomenon for any of us. As many as 53% of people in the UK experience bloating according to Guts UK, and women are more likely to suffer than men for a whole host of reasons, from our fluctuating hormones to the societal and behavioural pressures at play when it comes to our bodies and particularly our bellies. But right now, the conversation seems fit to burst. We bring up how by Dr William Davis become bestsellers and a series dedicated to digestion air on primetime Channel 4 ( is a fascinating watch). But it’s not just talk: NHS gastroenterologist Dr Philip Hendy has noticed more of his patients, particularly women, complaining of abdominal discomfort in the post-pandemic world. Something is going on with our guts. “I honestly don’t remember feeling bloated before we started going back into work again,” says Heli Radford, 27, an optometrist from London. “Sure, I’d sometimes eat one too many slices of pizza and feel uncomfortably full for a bit, but it was different to that hard, round belly I get now after sitting down all day. It makes me hate the tailored trousers I wear to work and count down the hours until I can be back in my pyjamas.” She hits on the particular curse of the office bloat: it can be massively exacerbated by what we’re wearing. When you’re feeling swollen and a waistband sits on that sore spot just above your belly button, it’s hard to stop thinking about the discomfort. Unfortunately for us, most of the clothes we’re wearing right now do just that. In the 70s, freedom dressing in loose-fitting kaftans and flowing maxis was du jour, while the baggy bottoms and teeny crop tops of the 90s gave our midriffs space to breathe, if little else. But since the turn of the millennium, our clothes, as a rule, have been tight. Lycra appeared in everything from our waist belts to our jeans, and though we’ve dabbled with the less confining trends of yore, we’re apparently still gluttons for punishment. “Stiff denim is very on trend right now and the cut of the moment is high-waisted, so that can be a little restrictive,” says Lucy Reber, ’s acting fashion director. Personal shopper Sadie Little, who works with women up and down the country, also thinks our battle with standard sizing could be a culprit. “There are so many different cuts and styles that sit on our bodies in different ways now, and when I’m dressing people I’m pretty free with sizing – it’s just about what looks and feels good,” she says. “But I’ve noticed how resistant people can be to sizing up, and I get that it’s coming from feeling pressure to ‘stay the same size’. But I wonder if we end up wearing tighter, less well-fitting clothes sometimes because of that.” Even when your favourite jeans fit perfectly as you get dressed, they could cause major problems after four Zoom meetings and an email power-hour hunched over your laptop. “Clothing with tight waistbands worn for long periods of time, especially after eating, can disrupt the digestive journey, leaving you feeling crampy, bloated and uncomfortable,” explains Megan Hallett, a nutritional therapist and women’s health expert. “When the digestive flow is disrupted, it takes longer for food to move through your system, resulting in those unfavourable symptoms, and posture can play a role too if your waistband is cutting off blood flow at just the wrong spot.”
