activity 2:Balloon Burp! Unfortunately, taking sodium bicarbonate to reduce the amount of acid in your stomach can make you feel so bloated that you think your stomach's about to burst. To understand why this happens (and to discover a cunning way to blow up balloons without losing your breath) you will need a small empty plastic bottle, sodium bicarbonate (bicarbonate of soda), lemon juice (or vinegar) and a balloon. What to do: Put about three teaspoons of sodium bicarbonate in the bottom of the empty bottle. Pour in about 25 millilitres of lemon juice - enough to cover the sodium bicarbonate and a bit more. Very quickly stretch the neck of the balloon over the top of the bottle - sometimes it helps if you blow up the balloon first and then empty it, as this stretches the rubber. You may want to ask someone to help you, one person to pour and the other ready with the balloon. Hold the neck of the balloon tightly on to the neck of the bottle. The balloon will begin to fill with gas. Why? The sodium bicarbonate reacts with the acid in the lemon juice releasing carbon dioxide. This carbon dioxide fills the balloon, just as carbon dioxide produced by stomach acid and sodium bicarbonate fills your stomach and pushes it outwards. You may notice that loads of foam has built up in the bottle - this foam also forms in your stomach if you swallow the bicarb, creating trapped gas. The only way to get rid of it, and make you feel less bloated is to belch (but make sure you say pardon afterwards!).
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