Posted by Alex on May 21, 2015 at 12:44am in Main Chat
Okay so I have been hclf 801010 for 4 months now and I still only have one bowel movement a day if that which of course leaves me with a poofy belly. I drink at least 4 1400 ml of water everyday and plenty of exercise but elimination is still something I struggle with.
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I had a similar issue. Eating tons of fiber and drinking lots of water but passing semi-hard stools. Did some reading and it turns out chlorine was the culprit. I was drinking tons of water but its was almost all tap which contains lots of chlorine. Chlorine has been shown to kill the beneficial bacteria in your colon.
The beneficial bacteria helps with gas and bowel movements. As a matter fact most of your poop about 70% is bacteria from your gut.
Ok, so I started drinking filtered chlorine free water from a glass bottle (PBA) free and took 30 - 50 billion daily probiotic pill ((to replace the beneficial bacteria lost to chlorine purchased from vitamin shop.)
Within a week my bloating went down and back to smooth bowel movements.
Almost forgot started eating saurkaraut and kimichi about 3 times a week.
Awesome Brian! Thanks for sharing! I am on well water and it didn't even occur to me to think about chlorine! Typically if you run tap water and let it sit the chlorine comes out fairly quickly. I remember when we were on city water and I was keeping an aquarium, they recommended letting the water sit for a day for the chlorine to volatilize, I believe the actual time required was quite a bit shorter, but just to be sure...
Hi Alex, I saw this in the raw till 4 Forum, is that what you are doing, Raw till 4?
I'll leave this here for now, but in any case, what are you eating?
If you read 80 10 10 you'll see that he really is big on getting greens every day. If you are having any issues with BMs if you eat a lot of greens and drink a lot of water that shouldn't really be an issue.
A few years ago when I was eating lots (Like all day, so delicious!) of watermelon, I was also eating lots of seeds with it. It may have been coincidental but I developed Diverticulitis. The doctors assured me I had diveticulosis for a long time (pouches in the intestine, from too little fiber, too much "American Diet") and for whatever reason things had been lodged in one of them and become infected/inflamed. They suspected the watermelon seeds.
It started out as very little BM, lots of gas and bloating. Then I went juices/water only for a few days and felt a lot better. Then the next few days regular meals, including seeded watermelon and BAM! More intestinal pain than I had ever had before. That's when I went to the doctor and had them tell me what I mentioned. I ended up doing what I was told, eating crap: saltines, broth etc. very low fiber food, medications and gradually introduced more and more fiber until I was normal again. I think it took me a month or two to really get over it.
You may not have any diverticulae at all, and I don't want to scare you or anyone, but if you are eating fruits and greens and getting lots of water and still having issues there may be something else going on. Also, be careful if you go on any sort of prolonged juice fast/binge or other eating(drinking) modality where you cut way down on solid food intake, because if you jump right back in with solid foods, you can overdo it.
Also, I personally have never really had any trouble with bananas, but some people have reported that they have harder BMs from a lot of bananas. Again, if you are also eating the head or two of lettuce/greens a day that really shouldn't be a problem.
Thank you Chris! Well let me explain I had come from a 4 year eating disorder when I started last July I strayed off and didn't follow the diet completely ( still without animal products and fat but loads of prosesed sodium) till about feburary when I did raw till 4 then in March I went fully raw and liked the feeling but it still left my stomach full and pouchy every day and morning even after elimination I have never eliminated more than once per day even on these diets and it leaves an uncomfortable feeling just recently I started raw till 4 again and it left me not as bloated as being raw! This lasted for two days then I became pouchy again and still little elimination. Also I would like to add that I do not enjoy meal time because it leaves me bloated after and does not go away like freelees does after she has digested it.
A sudden shift in sodium could be a factor. It could well ease over time, but you could try eating things like celery, carrots, mammy apples, passion fruit, spinach and other produce rich in sodium. Also, you might log a few days worth of food from memory, in cronometer and then compare sodium levels then to what you are eating now and you may notice a large difference.
In general, people eat way too much salt and it affects the water balance in the body and the body "gets used" to a given set of conditions, for good or ill, over time.
It will be interesting to see if anyone else has had issues with bloating and/or constipation when they have a big shift in sodium levels downward. How long did it take them to get back into balance, etc.
For me I had a large shift but I also was so under-hydrated and eating so little fiber before going raw vegan that I suspect any sodium shifts were made up for me by the sudden inclusion of lots of fiber and suddenly being hydrated.
I have also had some symptoms going suddenly in the other direction. So I'd be strictly raw vegan 80/10/10 for a while, low sodium, high water and then have an "off-plan" meal like prepared Chinese food, etc and for the next couple days feel quite bloated (although not constipated that I remember). Typically drinking lots of water would pretty quickly bring this under control.
Replies
I had a similar issue. Eating tons of fiber and drinking lots of water but passing semi-hard stools. Did some reading and it turns out chlorine was the culprit. I was drinking tons of water but its was almost all tap which contains lots of chlorine. Chlorine has been shown to kill the beneficial bacteria in your colon.
The beneficial bacteria helps with gas and bowel movements. As a matter fact most of your poop about 70% is bacteria from your gut.
Ok, so I started drinking filtered chlorine free water from a glass bottle (PBA) free and took 30 - 50 billion daily probiotic pill ((to replace the beneficial bacteria lost to chlorine purchased from vitamin shop.)
Within a week my bloating went down and back to smooth bowel movements.
Almost forgot started eating saurkaraut and kimichi about 3 times a week.
Both foods are loaded with good bacteria.
Hope this helps
Yes, more than once a day. ;)
Awesome Brian! Thanks for sharing! I am on well water and it didn't even occur to me to think about chlorine! Typically if you run tap water and let it sit the chlorine comes out fairly quickly. I remember when we were on city water and I was keeping an aquarium, they recommended letting the water sit for a day for the chlorine to volatilize, I believe the actual time required was quite a bit shorter, but just to be sure...
Hi Alex, I saw this in the raw till 4 Forum, is that what you are doing, Raw till 4?
I'll leave this here for now, but in any case, what are you eating?
If you read 80 10 10 you'll see that he really is big on getting greens every day. If you are having any issues with BMs if you eat a lot of greens and drink a lot of water that shouldn't really be an issue.
A few years ago when I was eating lots (Like all day, so delicious!) of watermelon, I was also eating lots of seeds with it. It may have been coincidental but I developed Diverticulitis. The doctors assured me I had diveticulosis for a long time (pouches in the intestine, from too little fiber, too much "American Diet") and for whatever reason things had been lodged in one of them and become infected/inflamed. They suspected the watermelon seeds.
It started out as very little BM, lots of gas and bloating. Then I went juices/water only for a few days and felt a lot better. Then the next few days regular meals, including seeded watermelon and BAM! More intestinal pain than I had ever had before. That's when I went to the doctor and had them tell me what I mentioned. I ended up doing what I was told, eating crap: saltines, broth etc. very low fiber food, medications and gradually introduced more and more fiber until I was normal again. I think it took me a month or two to really get over it.
You may not have any diverticulae at all, and I don't want to scare you or anyone, but if you are eating fruits and greens and getting lots of water and still having issues there may be something else going on. Also, be careful if you go on any sort of prolonged juice fast/binge or other eating(drinking) modality where you cut way down on solid food intake, because if you jump right back in with solid foods, you can overdo it.
Also, I personally have never really had any trouble with bananas, but some people have reported that they have harder BMs from a lot of bananas. Again, if you are also eating the head or two of lettuce/greens a day that really shouldn't be a problem.
Hi Alex,
Sure! :)
A sudden shift in sodium could be a factor. It could well ease over time, but you could try eating things like celery, carrots, mammy apples, passion fruit, spinach and other produce rich in sodium. Also, you might log a few days worth of food from memory, in cronometer and then compare sodium levels then to what you are eating now and you may notice a large difference.
In general, people eat way too much salt and it affects the water balance in the body and the body "gets used" to a given set of conditions, for good or ill, over time.
It will be interesting to see if anyone else has had issues with bloating and/or constipation when they have a big shift in sodium levels downward. How long did it take them to get back into balance, etc.
For me I had a large shift but I also was so under-hydrated and eating so little fiber before going raw vegan that I suspect any sodium shifts were made up for me by the sudden inclusion of lots of fiber and suddenly being hydrated.
I have also had some symptoms going suddenly in the other direction. So I'd be strictly raw vegan 80/10/10 for a while, low sodium, high water and then have an "off-plan" meal like prepared Chinese food, etc and for the next couple days feel quite bloated (although not constipated that I remember). Typically drinking lots of water would pretty quickly bring this under control.