Going vegan and digestion
Posted by kittylove on Jul 03, 2007 · Member since May 2007 · 19 posts
For the past several years, I have eaten a diet that was mostly lacto-vegetarian with fish a few times a week, poultry once every week or two, and a very rare piece of red meat.
In the past few weeks I have decided for both health and ethical reasons to go about 95% vegan. Although I was already eating a fair amount of whole plant food, this shift has given me diarrhea.
Does anyone have suggestions/experience with this? I hate to up the animal and processed foods just to keep my bowels under control!
it is probably just the amount of fiber you are getting. in my experience you adjust to it pretty well. just make sure you don't discount all refined grains (for example, i use to only make cookies w/ at least half WW flour but now i don't care at all. similarly, i wouldn't eat non-WW pasta or white rice)... also, fruit seems to be a huge culprit in things like that, especially dried fruits. if you are eating cereals that have added fiber that could be bad, too. basically if you are vegan you are almost definitely going to have enough fiber and don't need to worry about getting all those extras.
could this be your problem? do you get tons of fiber?
When I first went vegan, I had very loose, diarrhea-type stool. Now I do if I don't eat a balanced diet. When I'm low on protein, it gets that way, but if I eat a balanced diet, it's like a banana - which is what you want, from what I read. I'm not sure if I had more diarrhea-type problems in the beginning because my body was adjusting or if I wasn't eating a balanced diet.
What types of foods do you eat that comprise the vegan portion of yoru diet?
I'm glad you brought this up; while this is not my exact problem at the moment (I decided upon choosing to eat vegan--going on a week now-- to also do a colon cleanse regimin, so I won't even go there...) :)
I'm retaining water like a madwoman though, and eeeh. Don't know if it's a side effect of the dairy/meat detox (if there is such a thing?) or I'm eating too much of something now that I've changed a lot of the elements in my diet? I'm drinking lots of water like I have always done (typically 8-12 cups/day) and I'm a little uncomfortable and confused.
Like I said, I'm new. Lots to learn...
I'm glad you brought this up; while this is not my exact problem at the moment (I decided upon choosing to eat vegan--going on a week now-- to also do a colon cleanse regimin, so I won't even go there...) :)
I'm retaining water like a madwoman though, and eeeh. Don't know if it's a side effect of the dairy/meat detox (if there is such a thing?) or I'm eating too much of something now that I've changed a lot of the elements in my diet? I'm drinking lots of water like I have always done (typically 8-12 cups/day) and I'm a little uncomfortable and confused.
Like I said, I'm new. Lots to learn...
this might be due to the fact that there is a lot of water in fruits and veggies and that they have a lot of electrolytes (Na, K, Cl) which help you retain water...
Please don't go back to eating meat because your bowels are acting up! You're body needs time to adjust to the amount of fiber you're getting, and it's getting rid of the crap that has been sitting in your system from eating animal products. It'll take a little time, but your body will eventually get used to it! Your body is just cleaning itself out. You don't want to clutter it back up with meats and eggs and such. The body is such an amazing thing! It'll adapt to your new eating style, and in the end, your body with thank you! You just have to keep it up!
Anything I can do to make it stop? Haha... Seriously though, I don't like it.
No, it won't make me go back to eating neither dairy nor meat. I'm going to weather the storm and make it through... will it get better? Can someone give me a lil hope? :D
Thanks everyone- I'm sure it is the fiber; it's just that people usually recommend upping one's fiber gradually and it's almost impossible to do that when eating whole foods- you either eat them or you don't. It was a good suggestion to eat some refined starches; that has been kind of my instinct as they seem to be the only foods that absorb some of the water. I'm familiar with the "cleaning out" idea but I really don't believe it- the digestive system is made to clean itself by producing mucus and turning over cells.
hey meggs, you can try to avoid a lot of added salt in your diet if this is really the problem, but i am just throwing an idea out there! also, if you are retaining the water do you feel thirsty or are you just drinking out of habit? you may not need to actually drink as much as you used to.
Meggs, when I'm retaining water I drink dandelion tea. It's a diuretic and works like a charm for me.
Good luck!
In the short term, you can clog up your pooper a bit with a BRAT diet...bananas, rice, applesauce and toast.
Your body WILL get used to the change. We have discussed crap several times around here and I think we all agree...you can give up the loo as the "reading room" because you'll never be there long enough, not ever again.
The other thing is, we have been sorta brain washed over time by "restoring regularity" and "constipation" fixes. Most people have no idea what these really are, nor do they know that actual diarrhea is. From typing GI, I have the following:
"Normal" stools: Soft and/or slightly loose, easy to pass (no straining). Normal for a vegan I think
Regularity: A completely relative term for the individual involved. You don't have to go 3 times a day (which is what you'll hear is "being regular"). If your life long pattern is twice a week, then that is you. If it is 5 times a day, that is you. Few people are like my dad who could always dump on cue at 8:45 p.m. every night of his life, but he believed in timing his bowel movements for convenience (think sh*t, shower and shave).
Constipation: Large, hard difficult to pass, usually dry. This is the stuff of hemorrhoids and it gives laxative and advertising companies something to talk about.
Diarrhea: Medical term, literally dia- complete, -rhea - flow through. This isn't the loose stuff, this is liquid and frequently under pressure. This is not something you leave to go untreated for long periods of time. Like constipation, if this crops up with no dietary indiscretion associated with, it needs to be evaluated if it goes on for more than a couple of days. Diarrhea can lead to extreme dehydration in the summer time and this is not healthy for pregnant woman (I always had to have IV fluids in the heat of summer because I would get diarrhea so bad it would drain the water off of the baby too).
You body will get used to these changes, but you are in for a couple of weeks butt clenching and frequent trips. It sounds so dumb and counterintuitive, but you can use something like Metamucil (ohhh give me a vegan one!) whatever is meant to "bulk up" the stool. You'd think more fiber would make it worse, but this can actually help.
Thanks hespedal and rosewood.
I'm not sure if I'm thirsty or not, I think the amount of water I drink is habit at this point; a litre at the gym and another or so during the day. I'm going to keep an eye on this; thanks for the idea.
Rosewood, is there a recipe for dandelion tea?
Thanks all. Much appreciated.
Meggs: If you've also started drinking green tea, I find it makes me retain like mad. One of my symptoms was the more water I drank it seemed the thirstier I got!! On advice I stopped the GT for about 4 days and suddenly my body got rid of the excess water and the thirst stopped--and I dropped about 5 lbs. Now I seldom drink GT. Black tea doesn't affect me that way.
You can get dried dandelion at a health food store or herbalist. One teaspoon of the dried plant to one cup of boiling water, let it stand for about 3-5 min or until the water's cool enough to drink. I don't sweeten it, I just chug it down as is. (What's worse, the bitterness of dandelion, or the bitterness masked with sugar??) ;)
You're right, Yabbitgirl, you do have to chug that stuff down. It is naaaaaaaaaasty. But it works!
About retaining water, I agree with the dandelion. In spring you can pick the young leaves and put them in a salad. They are slightly bitter if they are young but nowhere near the bitterness they have when they are mature. I've never tried the roots, but I know you can make a tincture out of the roots, but it's more for the liver than a diuretic I believe.
I always eat lots of parsley (a bunch all at once sometimes), and drink lemon water when I'm retaining water. It never fails to work and can be cheaper or more convenient than dandelion or other herbal remedies.
yabbitgirl. that was interesting about the green tea, because I've been incredibly thirsty lately and not eating much sodium. But I *have* been drinking a lot of green tea! Now I know. I'll have to cut back and try more black and white tea.
Ladydragonfly1:
The devil has been whispering to me to describe my stools. However, I will refrain from doing that. Suffice it to say that I know what diarrhea is, and by the way it is *not* necessarily liquid, just more fluid than normal.
From Dorland's medical dicitonary:
diarrhea (di·ar·rhea) (di”ə-re´ə) abnormal frequency and liquidity of fecal discharges.
From Stedman's medical dictionary:
diarrhea (d--r)
An abnormally frequent discharge of semisolid or fluid fecal matter from the bowel.
I would be careful about getting medical information by just typing a term into a search engine; some of what you get is good and some isn't.
Sorry to be so confrontational, but I don't like to be told that I'm not experiencing what I'm experiencing.
As the Church Lady on SNL used to say, "never mind." I've realized that my diarrhea and thirst were not caused by my diet at all, but by my raging thyroid. Take home point: correlation doesn't always mean causality.