I have had problems for several years that have steadily got worse. I am at now at the point where I cannot eat any fruit or vegetables. My symptoms are strange in the respect I am constipated yet have soft normal coloured stools. On my worst days it would take 8 visits to empty my bowel and as a result i have piles. Until my bowel is empty I am unable to urinate properly and feel a constant pressure to go to the loo.
It has taken a process of elimination to establish veg is the problem. Over xmas when I ate mostly beige food my symptoms disappeared. I started the new year back on my 'healthy' diet and the symptoms returned with a vengeance. I stopped eating all fruit and veg and I immediately started having one normal bowel movement per day. Has anyone else got this problem? The thought of not eating my favourite foods again along with the weight gain is really depressing.
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Whirlygig
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I have looked at the list of foods you can eat and many of them set me off. As an example I had 5 slices of cucumber the other day and I was bad the next day. I think I have become so sensitive to any veg now do am interested in whether anyone else has this problem. I have looked on the web but I cant really find anything similar.
I'm in a similar position, recently tried the FODMAP diet but my stomach could not stand the fruits and vegetables on there. I'm now trying to get to the bottom of exactly which fruits and vegetables are causing me problems, so far I've only worked out that carrots and peas cause me no issues!!!
I'm really concerned that the lack of vegetables and fruit in my diet will have an adverse effect on my health.
Recently read on the NHS website that if you suddenly find that you are having to eliminate a lot of food from your diet then you should go see your gp. I'll definitely have to do this and recommend you consider it, especially as we'll be missing out on a lot of vitamins and nutrients! Although with the current stress of coronavirus, my doctor struggles to fit me in, for now I'm on a diet of just eating meat, carrots and peas daily.
Have you tried using digestive enzymes as well as HCl and Pepsin. Look into these as they may help if you are lacking the proper enzymes to break down your food and it is left fermenting in your colon.
Also, you may be like me where as I can only eat cooked vegetables not raw. I have terrible IBS-c and manage it with a low FODMAP diet as well as making sure I eat cooked food and avoiding highly processed food. I take enzymes as well to help break down the food.
Yes, thanks for the tip. I've been looking into it, might try to see if I can tolerate bananas first as they contain the enzyme that breaks down vegetables.
It's not about not being able to tolerate a certain vegetable, so you can never eat them. It sounds like your missing a certain species of gut bacteria which is resulting in you being unable to digest them.
Fiber is digested in our large intestine by our microbes, when were lacking it means the vegetables ferment create gas and come out undigested. You need to build up your Flora again, think of it as a garden plant the seeds, create the right enviorment with and slowly feed bacteria and they will flourish.
Avoid all raw vegetables, take a probiotic like biokult or optic bac, start on soups, slowly start expanding the variety of veg as you feel more comfortable.
If your confused reach out to a private dietician who will guide you on this, doctors can't do a lot I'm afraid.
As well as seeing your doctor and looking for possible underlying health problems causing this, I think if I were you I'd be eating the diet I knew I could tolerate, along with a good multivitamin/mineral supplement, and one at a time testing a wide variety of fruits and vegetables to see if I could find any at all I could tolerate. Hard to keep deliberately upsetting your digestion like that, but it's worth it if you can find even a few you can tolerate, to give you a healthier diet than without any at all.
Your doctor can refer you to a dietitian if you live in the UK, there's no need to pay a private one unless you have the money spare and don't want to wait for the referral to go through.
I have decided to try some fermented foods along with bananas, oats and nuts to see if I can try and improve my gut health. If it doesn't help I'm going to have to visit the docs.
Someone in another thread has recommended a probiotic called Alflorex. If you're in the UK they sell it in Superdrug. The reviews are very good, and it's specially formulated for IBS. I'm going to try it myself.
I do not know if this would help you but I had big problems with fruit and vegetables for years too. After much trial and error, I am now pain free. I never eat raw vegetables, the only ones I can tolerate are well cooked carrots, green beans , swede, turnips and sweet potatoes as long as I never eat more than 35 gr of each with a maximum total of 105 gr at any meal. The only fruit I can eat are melon (max. 120 gr) and bananas (half a banana twice a day). I have given up eating oats, whole nuts and chocolate or dairy and drink only water. I have hemp and nut milk I make myself and gluten free bread I also make without yeast or gums added.
It sounds drastic but I can now live normally without any medication. I do not recommend it as a permanent diet for anybody else but it might be helpful during a flare up.
Thanks for all the advice. I have tried eating 1 banana and 1 kiwi per day along with a tablespoon on kefir yoghurt. I have also taken a multivitamin and a acidophilus tablet as well. So far I am now at a stage where I can eat a little bit of veg on a sunday and a little bit on a thursday without to much of a backlash so thanks for all the advice. It"s taken a few weeks of persevering to get to this point but I'm going to see how I go but it's all a bit more positive. I will update with how things are going.
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