4 tips to avoid belching

Sudden and uncontrollable belching can be very unpleasant and embarrassing. Don't get caught in an awkward social situation: try these four tips to help prevent belching and put your mind at ease.

• One dictionary definition of burping—"bringing forth wind noisily from the stomach"—has a poetic ring to it. But burping is anything but poetic in real life.
• Experts say the occasional release of air from your stomach after a large meal is perfectly normal. Sudden, uncontrollable attacks of belching, however, are anything but. These "attacks" can be embarrassing and even painful.
• The good news? Most of the time, the cause is simply air that you've inadvertently swallowed. Here's how to preserve your dignity.

• Gulping your food and washing down big bites with a beverage are two surefire ways to send more air into your stomach, which is likely to resurface as a belch. Taking small bites, chewing thoroughly and pacing your meal by putting down utensils between bites can all help because they give your body time to move trapped air into your intestines or simply absorb it.
• Chew especially well if you're eating a plateful of crunchy raw vegetables like broccoli, cabbage, lettuce and cauliflower. Air that becomes trapped easily between the crushed food particles ends up in your stomach.
• More mealtime tips to minimize the amount of air in your tummy include: letting hot beverages cool before sipping, not using a straw, skipping carbonated drinks if they make belching worse for you, and taking a few minutes to relax before eating if you're feeling tense. Anxiety has been linked with excess air ingestion in several studies.

• Chewing gum and sucking on hard candies produce extra saliva, which prompts more swallowing and sends more air into your stomach. Experts say we swallow an extra "teaspoonful" (about five millilitres) of air every time we swallow saliva. That's not much, but after several swallows, you've got a big air bubble in your stomach. And when that air is heated by your body's toasty 37°C (98.6°F) temperature, the air expands by about 10 percent, creating the perfect setup for a belch.
• Similarly, when you smoke, you inhale air, which can return as a burp.

• Dutch researchers who compared 14 "excessive belchers" and 14 "normal burpers" came to a surprising conclusion. While both groups had the occasional "normal belch," problem belchers continually swallowed extra air and immediately let it back out. Digestion experts call this type of nervous belching eructio nervosa.
• Air swallowing is often an unconscious habit. Experts suggest that approaches such as relaxation exercises, speech therapy, hypnosis and simply holding a pencil between your teeth (you can't swallow when your jaws are separated in this position) can help keep extra air out.

• Repeated belching can be a sign of infection with the ulcer-causing bacterium Helicobacter pylori. This common bug can inflame the lining of your stomach and even trigger a process that burns holes in it. Along the way, it produces bloating and tummy gas.
• Other signs of an H. pylori infection or peptic ulcer include heartburn, indigestion, nausea, chest pain, weight loss and fatigue. If you have unexplained belching, ask your doctor about a blood test or a breath test for H. pylori. If the results are positive, you may be treated with an antibiotic.