danone activia yogurt- problems

Due to having problems with bloating, I decided to include a pot of activia yogurt to my daily intake. After a week I found that I was no longer bloating, now five weeks in, my stomach bloats up like a football after eating lunch (a light lunch) and find myself to have really bad stomach cramps.

Apart from the activia, theres been no major change in my diet. So is the problem this yogurt or am I just being a big girls blouse?

x

Acivia is to help with getting regular right? I was thinking of eating it as well but if I eat anything that is high in fiber or sugar alchols which are in all sugar free foods then I bloat up like a balloon. I eat a few raisins, I bloat, I eat a sugar free anything I bloat, I eat anything usually I bloat. Does this happen to you as well. I mean anything.
So it might be that thier is an extra amount of some form of fiber or sugar alchohls which are in sugar free which is like a laxative item and that sure makes a person bloat.

I've been eating the Activia yogurt almost every day for about a month now.  I have been having strange cramps, and I hadn't thought about it until I read this posting, but I wonder if it is related to the yogurt.  I do think that it has helped me to be more regular.  I have not noticed any bloating, although I have never noticed bloating over anything before.

I think a week or so off of the yogurts will help me decide if it is them thats turning me into a bloated whale at 2pm every day.

Although I am interested in the idea that it could be fibre and sugar alcohols thats causing the problem. Ive substitued my usual bar of chocolate for either dried apricots or prunes, and they are both very high in fibre and sugars.

Asking around, I have found that half of the people (who Ive asked) who are on activia find that they get very very bloated and have stomach cramps. Im thinking that some people may be sensitive to the probiotics and whatnot that the yogurt contains.

I did the same thing, and I found if I ate it right after a meal, usually breakfast, then I didnt get bloated or crampy.

I have been on it for a week now and have been eating it everymorning for breakfast.  Then by lunch time I am getting a bad belly-ache and very you might say (gassy)... I don't feel its making me regular and I feel more bloated than befor I ate it.  Does anyone else have the same feeling?

hi yingla,

i am feeling exactly the same as you, i started to use activia as i was feeling bloated and with the advert they have about helping you with digestive problem i thought it would help but now about 2 weeks after i started to use it i feel even worse than before, i've been trying to think about any dietary changes but there is none so i really think this might come from the yogurt so i think i'm gonna stop straight away, do any other people feel the same as us???

Hi all, I have also had terrible problems with being bloated for *years* now. I had the same feeling some else mentioned that eating *anything* causes it, with certain foods particularly troublesome. I am not blocked up though. Well just over the last week I have switched to a *low* sodium doet and it really helps! Much of the bloating is water retension. I used to use herbal diuretics and they helped but only temporarily. I couldn't keep taking them or I would gert a bit dizzy/lightheaded from lowered blood pressure. Going low sodium addresses the problem before the bloating and doesn't so far have the blood pressure effect of the diretics. I notice the biggest difference just under my chest, with the stomach area itself still a bit "hard" but at my lowest salt intake much smaller. But inside my abdomen feels much relieved, and the lower salt the more relieved it is. I even see that my legs have become a bit thinner. Ratcheting up the salt ratchets up the bloating. Then I don't mind the bloating as much because I "chose" it in order to have a nice lunch out with a friend. I can't say the bloating is completely gone, but better and more controllable. Of course one needs salt so don't go without (maybe even check with your doctor if you have blood pressure issues). This switch has involved eating low sodium bread, a mock soy sauce I make from an online recipe, Smart Balance (salt free and otherwise healthy) margerine *spray*, Tabasco (lowest salt hot sauce), salt-free herbs from Penzey's Spices (online) ... I have also started making my own yogurt and enjoy it an believe it's at least healthy. Milk/yogurt has salt, so overdoing it to cure bloating may be a bit mixed up if the bloating is caused by water retention from salt intake. I sure didn't realize how much salt I was eating. Really had to cut back on processed foods from eating out and fast home dinners. I now steam all kinds of grains, eat lots of fruits and vegetables, etc. etc.... if you start looking at sodium on all the labels of what you eat you could be shocked to realize what a high sodium diet most of us have, even when dieting!

I have not tried Activita, but if it does have sugar alcohols in it, that could be your problem. I had major problems with sugar alcohols about a year ago. I was eating some low carb protein bars with sugar alcohols and had no problems for about a month. Then, all of the sudden, every time I ate anything with sugar alcohols, I would get very gassy and have major cramping, and for lack of a more gracious way to say this, ragging diarrhea. I stopped eating anything with sugar alcohols and have not had the problem since.

Please see my blog:

"http://activia-adverse-events.blogspot.com/"

It tells a pretty bad event which MAY have been by eating Activia as directed!


Tom

What kind of foods are high in sugar alcohols?  I'm sure that I have the same problem, and I know that I can't eat too many "sugar free" foods, and definatly no more than one or two dried apricots... But what else is naturally high in it??  Boy am I glad to hear that I'm not the only one...

I just got 20 cups of Activia for I am going through a bad episode of GERD.... and now I realize Activia may be part of my problem.... 45 minutes after having the yogurt my belly aches and i have started bloating.....

I mean I just bought 20 cups of Activia. After having one of the cups.... i got the belly ache

I must be the exception. I have been eating Activia for 2 weeks. Before starting I was bloated and gassy all the time. It really has helped me. I eat mine as a snack before going to bed.

You would probably do much better with a Probiotic tablet.  The sugar alcohols are really bad.  I take Healthy Reflections Probiotic and eat 35 plus grams of fiber a day and stay regular with no bloating.

I'm sensitive to dairy products, so I think I'll steer clear of the Activa. Many people are sensitive to dairy and don't realise it.

hooray for this post...  I was beginning to think I had something seriously wrong with me.  I recently had a mild bout of constipation so as well as increasing my fibre intake decided to get some Activia. About 7 days later I wasn't constipated but I was veering between regular and having diarrhoea and had severe stomach cramps.  After about 5 days I was off work with it, went to the drs, who ordered a stool sample - nothing.  By now I was in agony so he ordered me to have fluid only for 1 day and no dairy for a week (so no Activia).  After the week off I felt much better.  I re-introduced all my regular foods, all fine.  Then I started taking the activia again... and 48hrs later I was on the loo for an hour with  real pain in my stomach again.  I stopped it and 2 days later I was back to normal, I re-introduced it again 48hrs later same thing.  So I've just thrown the whole lot in the bin.

I have done some reading on this latley acutually... yogurt (especially yogurt made with low calorie sugar substitutes) have been linked to bloating... although I don't remember where I read this or even why this happens but this article seems to support what all of you are feeling..or is it the other way around?

Now that it sounds like you have the culprit, if you still want the digestive benefits, you may want to try  kefir instead of yogurt. It can be made cheaply and easily at home and is more beneficial than yogurt. If you're interested

You can find out more info here :
http://users.sa.chariot.net.au/~dna/kefirpage .html

This website can probably help you get started:
http://www.seedsofhealth.co.uk/