My Gut Was Broken for Years — I Just Thought It Was Normal
The Lunch That Always Fought Back For most of my working life, lunch was a battlefield. Not the food itself — the food was fine. Korean office lunches: rice, soup, a few side dishes, maybe some grilled meat if we went out. Normal food. Nothing exotic. But somewhere around my early fifties, every meal started fighting back. The bloating would start about thirty minutes after eating. My stomach would expand like I'd swallowed a balloon. I'd loosen my belt one notch, then two. By 2 PM, I was sitting at my desk trying not to let anyone hear the sounds my gut was making. Gas, pressure, a heaviness that sat right below my ribs and refused to move. After work dinners — the ones with soju and samgyeopsal and clients who needed entertaining — the next morning was always punishment. Three trips to the bathroom before 9 AM. Sometimes more. My stomach would swing between constipation and the opposite, sometimes in the same week. I kept a bottle of digestive tablets in my desk ...