First, constipation is not being stopped up. When you think of constipation you may get the idea that it's the inability to poop but what it really is is spraying water out your butt and having to use the bathroom multiple times a day. Constipation is running to the bathroom after every meal. Most Americans eat a very low fiber diet and therefore are probably constipated.
At a certain point in life you realize that how things feel going through your digestion and coming out matters just as much as how it tastes. This essay is for everyone who struggles with heartburn, constipation, bloating, or whatever. It's about reducing your symptoms. I make no claim to cure anything or to cause weight loss no either of these might be a side effect.
The dietary guidelines basically say that you should eat a comically large amount of fiber. To get the recommended daily allowance of fiber you would have to eat something like three heads of iceberg lettuce per day. Iceberg lettuce is mostly water and actually a terrible source of fiber. Like constipation, fiber isn't what you think it is. It's not lettuce. A person can eat a salad everyday and still have a low fiber and diet and still suffer from diarrhea. Diarrhea also isn't what you normally think it is. It's not necessarily pooping your pants. That's called fecal incontinence. Diarrhea is when you have to urgently run to the bathroom. Diarrhea and constipation are kind of the same thing.
The source of fiber also matters a lot. Beans have a lot of fiber but also cause gas and bloating. Gas is not just farting but also the sensation of being uncomfortably full or even having gas pain. Not all forms of fiber cause a lot of gas. Some forms, like apple fiber powder, edamame fiber, and allulose cause little or no gas for my most people. Some forms of fiber are like eating sand: bran and psyllium can feel like sand coming out of you, so the digestive comfort of the fiber matters a lot.
Low carb diets can be high fiber diets in disguise, and that's probably why they work. When you are on a keto diet total carbs minus fiber equals net carbs. Pushing the net carbs down can wind up pushing the fiber up. This causes you to take a "smooth poop" where you poop less but when you do poop it comes out as a smooth log. This also causes you to feel more full which decreases your hunger. The decrease in hunger then allows you to lose weight. I don't know if people are losing weight on a keto diet because they are burning ketones or eating high fiber. One suspects that it might be both.
Basically if you want digestive comfort you should either eat an absurdly large amount of fiber (it will feel absurd because it's 38 g per day for a male and 25 g for females) or you should eat nothing but meat. The easiest form of meat to digest is fish. When I went carnivore for about 2 weeks I wound up eating nothing but fish and I felt absolutely amazing. Probably because of the extremely high levels of Omega-3. I basically didn't poop hardly at all but it didn't matter because all the meat I ate felt like it was getting absorbed. An all-fish carnivore diet is one way to have digestive comfort. The other is to eat and "absurdly large" amount of fiber, which doesn't have to actually be absurd if you're getting your sources intelligently instead of devouring lettuce.
First let's go over sources of fiber per 100 g. We'll start by just listing them and then we will narrow down the list excluding sources that cause too much gas.
HIGH FIBER FOODS LIST (per 100g)
=================================
Fiber content (g) | Gas Level (1-5) | Food
--------------------------------------------------
34.4g | 1 - Very low | Chia seeds
27.3g | 1 - Very low | Flaxseeds
24.0g | 2 - Low | Carbe Diem pasta [brand]
22.2g | 4 - High | Split peas (raw)
14.5g | 2 - Low | Air-popped popcorn
10.7g | 5 - Very high | Black beans (canned)
10.7g | 2 - Low | Mission Carb Balance tortilla [brand]
10.1g | 2 - Low | Rolled oats (dry)
10.0g | 3 - Medium | Only Bean black bean pasta [brand]
9.0g | 1 - Very low | Flackers (flax crackers) [brand]
7.9g | 4 - High | Lentils (boiled)
7.6g | 5 - Very high | Chickpeas (boiled)
7.4g | 5 - Very high | Kidney beans (boiled)
6.7g | 1 - Very low | Avocado
6.0g | 3 - Medium | ZENB yellow pea pasta [brand]
5.8g | 3 - Medium | Whole grain rye bread
5.2g | 3 - Medium | Edamame (shelled, boiled)
5.1g | 3 - Medium | Barilla red lentil pasta [brand]
3.8g | 4 - High | Brussels sprouts (boiled)
3.8g | 2 - Low | Barley (pearled, cooked)
3.3g | 4 - High | Broccoli (boiled)
3.3g | 2 - Low | Sweet potato (baked)
3.1g | 3 - Medium | Pear (with skin)
3.0g | 2 - Low | Mary's Gone Crackers [brand]
2.8g | 2 - Low | Quinoa (cooked)
--------------------------------------------------
Gas scale: 1=Very low, 2=Low, 3=Medium, 4=High, 5=Very high
Fiber values from USDA FoodData Central.
Gas levels based on FODMAP content and fermentable fiber type.
[brand] = specific branded product
HIGH FIBER FOODS LIST - SORTED BY GAS LEVEL (per 100g)
=======================================================
Gas Level | Fiber (g) | Food
--------------------------------------------------
1 - Very low | 34.4g | Chia seeds
1 - Very low | 27.3g | Flaxseeds
1 - Very low | 9.0g | Flackers (flax crackers) [brand]
1 - Very low | 6.7g | Avocado
2 - Low | 24.0g | Carbe Diem pasta [brand]
2 - Low | 10.7g | Mission Carb Balance tortilla [brand]
2 - Low | 10.1g | Rolled oats (dry)
2 - Low | 14.5g | Air-popped popcorn
2 - Low | 3.8g | Barley (pearled, cooked)
2 - Low | 3.3g | Sweet potato (baked)
2 - Low | 3.0g | Mary's Gone Crackers [brand]
2 - Low | 2.8g | Quinoa (cooked)
3 - Medium | 10.0g | Only Bean black bean pasta [brand]
3 - Medium | 6.0g | ZENB yellow pea pasta [brand]
3 - Medium | 5.8g | Whole grain rye bread
3 - Medium | 5.2g | Edamame (shelled, boiled)
3 - Medium | 5.1g | Barilla red lentil pasta [brand]
3 - Medium | 3.1g | Pear (with skin)
4 - High | 22.2g | Split peas (raw)
4 - High | 7.9g | Lentils (boiled)
4 - High | 3.8g | Brussels sprouts (boiled)
4 - High | 3.3g | Broccoli (boiled)
5 - Very high | 10.7g | Black beans (canned)
5 - Very high | 7.6g | Chickpeas (boiled)
5 - Very high | 7.4g | Kidney beans (boiled)
--------------------------------------------------
Gas scale: 1=Very low, 2=Low, 3=Medium, 4=High, 5=Very high
Fiber values from USDA FoodData Central.
Gas levels based on FODMAP content and fermentable fiber type.
[brand] = specific branded product
Looking at this list do you realize that you need to hunt for specific products that cause little gas and have high or medium levels of fiber. Unfortunately some of the best products for meeting this criteria are made from soy. Should avoid fiber products from Walmart as they all contain things like artificial sugars and other poisons. Your best bet is probably a health food store. The strategy here is to eat the correct amount and to space that amount over each meal. Eating too much will make you feel stuffed up. You may feel a little sick as your body adjusts over several days.
A diet that is slightly below the recommended daily amount can be really comfortable in my experience. If you get it all from sources that don't cause gas it can be just right. Your goal is to space the RDA out into 3 meals per day. So 38 grams / 3 is about 12 grams rounding down. A single mission carb balance burrito sized tortilla contains your entire RDA allowance. That's a bad idea because it is important not to overdo it. A lot of these products go to the opposite extreme which is also unhelpful. Either they are giving you no fiber (like regular tortillas and bread) or too much. The keto tortillas have almost just the right amount. For this to work properly you're going to have to be careful about the amount of fiber you eat. Too much can be just as awful as too little, you just trade diarrhea for feeling stuffed and gassy. You have to do it right in order for it to work. That means not overdoing it and getting your fiber from sources that are not going to cause gas. It's also important that the sources not be boring. Oatmeal and apples is probably not the way to go. A better option is something like pasta made from cauliflower and peas. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich made with one keto tortilla (not the carb balance) could meet about 1/3 of your needs. You can also get powdered apple fiber and mix it into things like tomato sauce. It feels like nothing going down and has virtually no taste. That's probably the easiest way to do it. Keep some Beano on hand and eat it before anything containing beans. Eating the RDA for fiber can suppress your hunger by making your stomach feel full.
When I started doing this I had the weird sensation of being simultaneously completely stuffed and also like my brain was confused and couldn't figure out if I should be hungry or not. When I came down off of the stuffed feeling I became ravenously hungry, but then I continued with the diet and my body started to adapt and that ravenous feeling went away. On my previous non-diet (almost zero fiber) I would feel very hungry when I woke up and get hangry in-between meals. I wound up snacking constantly. I would also feel dizzy when standing up after sitting for a long time. I get a lot less of that now that I diet for digestive comfort. Can't really say that I have lost much weight but I feel much better. That's the point of all this advice, not to lose weight but to feel good inside your body. If weight loss happens it happens. I'm not so concerned about that.
So far the following I've experience the following positive effects;
Poops like a big smooth log
Absence of the "vacuum hunger" sensation
Absence of water out the ass
Not hangry in-between meals
Not waking up hungry
Not running to the bathroom urgently after eating
No orthostatic hypotension
Less heartburn
Downsides;
Feeling overly stuffed
Occasional queasiness
Inability to eat large meals
Poop only once per day
Gas when I eat beans
A keto diet might alleviate some of the downsides by adding fat to smooth everything out. But if there is not enough fiber hunger would return. This may explain why I always wound up hungry on a keto diet after several months. Maybe the perfect diet is a kind of keto plus high fiber thing, where you eat a lot of fat, some protein, and a lot of fiber with almost no carbs.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please keep it civil