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I need help : Constipation.
Started
by Lero
on February 27, 2013
Have you ever been constipated after going vegan? Please, help me with any ideas on how to fix that. Thank you so much. Truly, your help will be greatly appreciated.
I would make a huge pot of soup with kale, chard, carrots, onions, celery and other veggies. Then add about a cup of lentils, chickpeas and kidney beans. Season with oregano and thyme. Use a vegetable stock. Eat this for lunch and dinner for two days and it should do the trick! Its filling and delicious. Low in calories and fat, so eat as much as you like.
drink A LOT of water. tea helps too. if you're new to veganism, it may be hard for you to give up gluten as well, but i find that eating a lot of gluten definitely clogs up my digestive system. but if you're eating bread, pasta, seitan, etc. a lot of the time, try to eliminate these products from at least one of your meals a day.
Dudes and Dudettes Thank you so much! I ate one clove of raw garlic the first night, then didn't eat much the second, but drank lots of water. It helped but still wasn't really working the way I thought it would. Then! Hallelujah, I made a green drink, but this time instead of putting in soy milk, or almond milk ( stayed away from soy milk for this past week , bought almond milk instead) I just used water as the liquid base. I put two whole leaves of kale, two little pineapple rings with some of the juice ( canned ), and 1 whole carrot , chopped with a drizzle of agave syrup. Mmm mmm Amen and Yahoo. Thank you all for these. ( And Lonica Lee Eisenbraun : Yes ! I did try aloe juice that I still had in my fridge , and it helped with the bloating and discomfort- hooray for aloe vera. ) x
When you go vegan you typically increase your fiber intake quite a bit. Even if you were vegetarian before. This requires a LOT of liquid to keep it moving freely through your system. A lot of the fiber foods we eat absorb a great deal of water, so the fluid intake we were previously accustomed to isn't adequate to keep it all moving along. You really have to consciously increase your fluid intake to compensate for the increase in fiber. I find that if I only go by my thirst cues it isn't enough. I have to keep count of the amount of fluids I consume during the day (including those in soups, juices, smoothies, etc) and when my count isn't high enough I drink an extra glass or two of water. If I don't stay on top of this then by the time my food intake has worked its way through all the way to my bowel it has turned into something resembling concrete and becomes quite uncomfortable. You can use other things to try to soften your stool or lubricate the bowel, but lots of fluid intake is the key to smooth bowel function.
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