anyone else have problems with high-fiber foods?

[MonkeyMan]

Fibrous / chewy foods create problems for me; I can't tolerate raw fruits/veggies, beans, or toasted grains (e.g., toast, pizza, oatmeal). I have stomach pains and intense hunger if i don't eat. However, when I do eat, and regardless of what I eat, I feel tired/lethargic/brain-fogged shortly thereafter.

I think bad gut bacteria are to blame for all of this ... they are living off of (and fermenting) the food matter that we consume, and they are smart enough to force you to eat (to relieve the stomach pains) because then they get what they need to survive.

For what it's worth, I took antibiotics, on and off, for much of my childhood and teenage years.

My hope is that oral super-biotics -- basically fecal transplants in a pill -- will resolve all of this. They will be available in the not-too-distant future.

Anyone else have problems with high-fiber foods?

Drew

 

[Misfit Toy]

I do well with salads, but for whatever reason, eating super high fiber foods stops me up. If I eat high fiber diets or lets says have tons of juices with pulp from nutribullet, I will be bloated and unable to go to the bathroom. Whenever someone suggests adding Fiber to my diet, I gasp and walk away. No thanks. Veggies, yes, but ultimately, I need magnesium and an aloe vera pill to clean out my colon and maybe some flax seeds but not too many!

 

[justy]

I started juicing vegetables to try and improve my health and just ended up with severe left sided stomach pain (lower abdomen). I can eat vegetables, but I cant juice and I now find that eating whole grains such as brown bread and rice makes it worse. My doctor told me I had an unusual stool test result which showed an inability to digest fibre well - and I have spent my life trying to eat more fibre and feeling worse for it!

Since cutting out wholemeal bread (I occasionally eat some white) and cutting out eggs (only intolerance on food panel test) I find my ibs pain improved, but heartburn and reflux still problems. I also had a lot of abx as a child, but am also on long term abx now for chronic bacterial infections so who knows what will happen now?

 

[minkeygirl]

People who don't have IBS-C don't understand that for us, eating foods high in fiber, has the opposite effect for those without.

When I eat things with high fiber, which I still need, I have horrible cramping, bloat and constipation. Before I eat fiber I eat protein or some low residue stuff to get my stomach used to it.

 

[JAM]

I have to be very careful with insoluble fiber, it causes severe pain (like an icepick in my descending colon), but need lots of soluble.

 

[Misfit Toy]

@justy -have you ever tried D-Limonene for reflux and GI stuff? That worked miracles for me. It's like an oil from the skin of an orange. At first that scared me because I'm allergic to oranges. But I am not allergic to it's skin and it has something in it that helped my reflux and bacterial problem.

It's over the counter and at health food stores or on the net. It saved my gut. It also wiped out bad bacteria and I had no fungal infection.

Just a thought!

 

[BadBadBear]

I had trouble with high fiber foods since childhood. As MinkeyGirl says, my IBS-C symptoms were wretchedly worse with any type of fiber. In the last however-many months that I've been on RS protocol, I am finally getting to where I can eat fiber like psyllium and it has a beneficial effect (I am using it to feed my gut bacteria). I am also tolerating inulin type fibers, which I never could before.

The FT idea is appealing, but I figure I get a daily dose of every type of probiotic anyway because I live on a farm. And that never really helped on it's own, until I finally found a gut feeding routine that works for me.

After starting RS, it did take a few months for my system to really settle. I'd guess it was the good bacteria building up and taking over... Anyway, now it's so much better, but pretty much each meal is aimed at feeding/healing my gut.