Hidey ho!! as Mr. Hankey would say.
Who is Mr. Hankey? Well if I have to answer that then you might have been living in a cave :D
Anywho....
It occurred to me today as I was chomping my way through my pile of veggies I call a lunch salad, could I be getting too much fiber?
Did I go from no fiber to good fiber levels too fast?
Why am I asking these questions?
Well, I had some bloating my first week out of the gate, but remember I went from minimal vegges to a solid vegetable lunch, mostly veggie dinner and veggie snacks.
So, either be ready for the bloating and gas or enter into the fiber gradually, the living bacteria in your intestine will balance themselves out to digest the food properly soon enough.
Then I had a good four months stretch where I had minimal gas and was like, cool this is great, eating all this good stuff and no gas. Then boom, back to the bloating.
Could be from the few MS dinners we slipped in there, had breaded eggplant parm last night. Could just be the way my intestines are going to function.
So anyways, too much fiber, is it possible? Yes, yes it is.
You can end up constipated, or malnourished.
The constipation will come in if you are not taking in enough water.
You NEED WATER, not soda, not milk, WATER!
The insoluble fiber will soak up and store the water in your stomach, it carries it to your intestine where it is used to provide water to the bacteria.
In fact, without enough water you could actually get an intestinal blockage which will required medical intervention most likely.
I can get malnourished? Well, not really, too much fiber and it will bind to the vitamins and minerals you want to absorb, but it will not prevent it, and the impact is minimal.
So how much fiber is too much?
It is recommended that you take less than 40g of fiber, and should get 30 g for a healthy lifestyle.
It is recommended that you take less than 40g of fiber, and should get 30 g for a healthy lifestyle.
What kinds of fiber? your best best is to mix it up, vegetables, fruit, supplements, quinoa is a great grain fiber, or amaranth. Both cereal grains are alkaline, buckwheat and millet are excellent sources, but they are acid forming, so it depends on if you are trying to maintain an alkaline system. Studies have shown cancer lives in a more acidic balance.
So the end result for me?
I think I am going to try just flax and chia seeds and skip the psyllium husks for a while and see what happens. Make sure I drink enough after I eat.