My stomach is growling when I’m not eating. What does it mean?

You may have stomach sounds or stomach growling when you’re hungry, but hunger is not what’s causing it. Something called the migrating motor complex is what causes stomach growling. This is a certain housekeeping condition in your body where it’s cleaning out debris (extra food particles).

One really important function of the migrating motor complex is that it can prevent SIBO. SIBO is a condition where you have too much bacteria in your small intestine. The majority of bacteria should be in the large intestine. When bacteria get into the small intestine, you’ll start to be robbed of nutrients. You could also start to experience a lot of bloating from fermentation going on in your small intestine. When you have SIBO, you can have a lot of stomach growling and stomach sounds going on because your body is trying to clean out the small intestine and it can’t.

How to stop stomach growling:

• Eat (but if you have SIBO eating could increase bloating)

• Increase bile salts

• Decrease stress

• Fix SIBO (increase bile and take betaine hydrochloride)

• Do intermittent fasting