# can't eat salads



## sharanne

I love salad, but it certainly does not love me. The lettuce seems to be the worst offender - is it the cellulose.....not sure, but it goes through me literally undigested. I crave fresh vegetables, but pay the price after eating them - esp salad. I know that an oily dressing also is an offender. Am very frustrated with my somewhat limited diet. I seem to cycle in and out of flareups, but lately have had D almost daily - esp in the morning. I worry that I will continue to get worse and that this will never end. I have been taking probiotics, but not much success as yet. Will continue to do so for a while before starting again with Metamucil if I dont improve. In any case, any suggestions re fresh vegetables - does anyone else find that they have to forgo salads as well, and if so what raw veggies do they tolerate?


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## BQ

Raw veggies can be a problem for many of us IBS D'ers. They are insoluble fiber. What I have found does help is putting a salad at the end of a meal instead of at the start of a meal. Also if the salad itself is your meal... shredding the lettuce well and using just basic Iceberg lettuce is a bit easier on me. The softer leaf lettuces... I find the "baby" ones are easier.. like small baby spinach leaves etc. (I do have bite problems with my teeth.. meaning not many teeth meet when I bite down so this could be just me ya know?)I seem to do ok with peeled cucumbers (sometimes I use them instead of celery cuz that is rougher on me than the cucumbers), shredded carrots, sliced mushrooms.. etc. I love broccoli.. but.. I just can only eat a teeny amount raw without trouble. So I am better off flash boiling it at the least & letting it cool in the fridge before adding it to a salad and cooking it well at the most and then letting it cool to add to a salad. (This would work for other veggies too like green beans etc) I also find I do better if I don't eat a salad EVERYday. I do better just a few times a week with them.. like maybe up to 4 times a week.And I always use no dressing or very lite and low fat dressings.. my standby is simply a few sprinkles of oil & vinegar etc.. Any cream based dressing is hard on my gut. So I use those extremely sparingly & rarely.During severe flares.. I just skip salads til my gut calms down. I love salads too but sometimes I have found that if I skip them for a bit during a flare... I can get back to being _able_ to eat them a few times a week... quicker. All the bestBQ


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## Kathleen M.

Raw veggies tend to go through undigested in all humans.What we don't grind up in the mouth with our teeth tends to come out the way it went down. With loose stools that is common in IBS it is a lot more noticeable than in more fully formed stools.If you see big chunks of food in the stool you may want to chew things more before swallowing (most people probably could stand to chew more). The tough fiberous part of raw veggies is not easy to break down and needs to be ground up and we only do that with our teeth.That being said, a lot of people seem to have problems with raw veggies. If you will eat steamed veggies that can help get almost as much nutrition and they still have that fresh taste (and ups the bioavailability of a few things) and may be easier on the system.A lot of people find they can eat a small salad at the end of a meal (which is how the French typically eat raw veggie salads). So that can be one way of getting them in.Mornings tend to be the bad time as that is when the colon is most active anyway. Have you tried Calcium Carbonate?


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## Dixie_Girl82

I too cannot eat salads and I love them. Most vegetables raw or cooked will send me straight to the bathroom. I have to be very careful on my choice of veggies. Salads and broccoli are my worst enemies and I just cant handle them. I will eat stuff like that in moderation on the weekends to curve the cravings but only on the weekends when I can stay home and in the comfort of my own bathroom.


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## crstar

i have said it b 4 & i will say it again.........no one ever seems yo allow that fiber may not b the best thing for people with ibs...........indigestible fiber can damage the intestinal walls..........if u have been bombarding ur intestines for yrs with it & u have ibs, everytime u consume it, u may b causing more damage...........this damage can take along time to heal, but if u go back to consuming it, as supplements or in those "ROUGHAGE" vegetables, then it will never heal.........this can lead to malnutrition &cancer, both killers..........i don't want to go there, so i read everything i can on the subject, i try many things & i pay attention to how my body feels at all times...........taking drugs is not the answer, they only treat symptoms & u become addicted to that drug.......the definition of addiction is: something un-natural that u have to take forever in order to maintain * control those symptoms..........some get addicted to opium & other because they like the way they feel & they can't handle life sober...........drugs that r not a nutrient natural to ur body, is still not the way..........no one ever got ibs from a deficiency of fiber or pharmaceutical drugs..........READ: FIBER MENACE...........it's quite an eye opener.............i use to take, when i was desperate for some peace or cause i had to leave the house, many Rx & OTC drugs..........but they can boomerang back at u.........causing the very thing u want to get rid of..........it's like nasal spray, if u use it once in a blue moon, there is no problem, but if u use it all the time because u have sinus problems, it causes ur nose to clog up, so u become addicted to it, it's the only way u can breathe...........but it becomes the reason for the clogged nose & other sinus issues..........if u've used fiber or those drugs that slow down intestinal contractions, on a continuous basis, then u can b causing the very thing u want to leave ur life.............& everytime u take those things, u r erasing anytime u have spent trying to heal & put u ur self back to square one...........i know this, cause i've done it myself............i know that with this thing, u can get to the point where u'll take ANYTHING to stop the nightmare............it's a very sad & awful place to b & if it's gone on for yrs, then it's even harder to heal & u get more desperate.........the drug & fiber companies bank on that desperation & DO NOT WANT U TO HEAL..........their livelihoods depend on it..........i've always hated that part of taking pharmaceuticals & it really pisses me off...........go to the net & put in fiber menace or gut sense..........read what he has to say...........i was very interested, so i bought the book........even tho it's geared to ibs-c, it covers D..........ibs-c or d r 2 sides of the same coin.........it's all about intestinal health...........i know that i have been better & feel better since i applied what he wrote about...........here's a little piece of info about indigestible fiber..........think about this.........indigestible is exactly what it says.........ur body can't break it down........have u ever felt that fiber that is out there for supplements?........food that is digested by the stomach for passage into the intestines, is suppose to b a smooth, liquid slurry..........nothing rough, nothing recognizable as any kind of food........if u consume this kind of roughage & ur intestines r already inflamed, u r only perpetuating the problem..........& if the fiber u do take, helps o stop the d, then it is only cause it has soaked up water & made it more solid......it has not "CURED" the ibs & may just b causing more damage.........it becomes a catch 22.........with the water it soaks up & takes out of ur body, it also takes the very nutrients that help ur body heal itself............if ur intestines r not taking the water & nutrients out, then that should b addressed.........fiber will not "CURE" the D.........it just keeps these thing going on further..........so u may have a hand in causing the D..........lovely thought, HUH?........been there, done that...........a little bit of potassium can help & some sodium, they r both important for alot of reasons........u have to find the balance that works for u............iron is amazing..........stomach acid is vital............there r alot of things that go into intestinal health...........well, i hope someone, somewhere at least gives it a try.............it seems to me that so many here r on a merry go round..........& not a fun one............


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## BQ

Crstar


> with the water it soaks up & takes out of ur body, it also takes the very nutrients that help ur body heal itself


This isn't wholly accurate statement IMHO.Nutrients are absorbed in the _small_ intestine, not the colon.And FWIW most of us here are looking to manage symptoms not "cure" our IBS. Plus.. salads taste good and poor Sharanne was looking for possible ways to still be able to enjoy them.BQ


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## overitnow

I once used a fiber supplement regularly--a combo of soluble/insoluble--for maybe 6 months to a year and found it very helpful in giving my stools more and firmer texture; but that was in conjunction with other supplements that were doing the heavy lifting in addressing whatever was causing my D. I have, for the past 10 years, been able to eat salads and raw vegetables without incident, which is a real indicator of restored health, to me. If what you are taking does not allow that, then perhaps you need to search further than Metamucil and probiotics for a treatment.Mark


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## Kathleen M.

Fiber is a fairly individual thing.I do not believe it is typically extremely damaging and must be avoided at all costs. After all many of the healthiest diets in the world are high in fiber and people get all the nutrition they need from their food even without having the heavily supplemented food you find in industrialized nations that is uncommon in places where they mostly eat real food that is locally grown.Many of the foods that have fiber are also the foods with all the nutrients so you really can't have both nutrition and a fiber free diet.That being said. Many IBSers find certain fiber loads distressing and that may be at a lower dose than usually overloads the system. It is not true for anything that more and more is always better and better. There is usually a range that is good and anything too high or too low is less than ideal.For the average healthy person the discomfort tends to occur in the more than 50 grams a day range. Most people have to work really hard to reach that as the foods are bulky and most of us have access to plenty of low fiber foods to fill up on first.On the whole people in industrialized countries normal diet is already very low in fiber, so I don't know how you can blame all disease on a high fiber diet that we aren't eating no matter how many doctors tell us to eat fiber. As I said, IBSers may have a different tolerance range. But to say never eat another vegetable or fruit or whole grain in your life because of fear that a few molecules of fiber will damage the colon isn't really fair.Everything with fiber has a mix of soluble and insoluble fiber, so even if you say only one fiber is bad you still limit your diet to nothing but dairy, meat, and highly processed grains. Well maybe with a few well strained pulp free juices.Anyway there often is a way to enjoy food you love even with IBS. With salads it really does come down to limiting the size and eating them at the end of a meal. Even if you would love a meal of nothing but salad at least a small salad with a few veggies you find you tolerate can make life worth living.Now I do agree the people pushing fiber as a cure all aren't right either. However a diet high in foods that tend to have some fiber in them tends to also have the nutrients you need to heal as well as lots of interesting chemicals you only get by eating plants and can't get from a pill.


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## 2korkids

I to am unable to eat any raw vegetables and most raw fruits. I am able to eat them steamed. It is very frustrating especially when you like them so much. You are not alone.


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## JustJen

I can't eat salads either. Haven't been able to since I had my Gallbladder taken out. Something about the body not being able to digest it well.if I do have it. Its definatly an "at home" food


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## 23470

I can't eat salad's either...it's pretty sad, as a good Caesar was always my favorite. However, I have found that I can eat spinach for some reason. I think it may have to do with a couple of factors; primarily that it contains a lot of iron, which can stop diarrhea, and the fact that it is a very soft and supple leaf to eat....UNLIKE lettuce. That's about all I can figure....


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## Glenda

I can eat all salad's of any kind.Just NOT the Packaged stuff. I think it is the freshness preservatives that are used , that makes me nauseated. I thorw it up in less then 10 minutes.


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## TVgirl

I have been on nexium for 3 weeks and dicetel for about 5 days. No diarrhea on the dicetel except for this morning and I had a large salad late last night. We were out at a meeting and didn't get home until 10pm and so we stopped at wendys. I didn't want to get burger and fries so I got a taco salad...big salad, little bit of cheese, topped with taco chips and chilli and small hunk of sour cream. That was my dinner and this morning....cramps and weird bowel movement....it looked like shredded roast beef or something. I didn't think a salad could move through me so quickly. Yesterday was my eat out day, for lunch I had a 6" tuna sandwich with also lettuce, pickles, cucumber and a big bottle of water. I was also bad and had a cupcake. So I am thinking maybe too much lettuce yesterday ??? I guess I will have to avoid.


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## Kathleen M.

Fast food taco salads can have as much fat from the beef in the chili, chips, and the sour cream and all of that as a burger has.It isn't always the low fat light option that "salad" would suggest.A lot of tuna sandwiches have a lot of mayonnaise and again that can be more fat than some IBSers can have at one time.That being said, raw veggies, while low in fat, can be a problem for a lot of people.


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## BQ

If I ate what you ate for dinner last night I would have had MAJOR problems today and maybe for a couple days. LOL So I am not surprised you had trouble this morning.I doubt it would be the lettuce causing the problem for me.. It more than likely would have been the fat content of the meal.Lettuce actually isn't all that tremendously high in fiber. Raw carrots and apples tend to have higher fiber mgs. counts.Perhaps getting something in the house that's quick & lite.... that you can heat up in a hurry on a night when you have to work so late would be helpful. Maybe on the weekend bake up a bunch of chicken tenders or fish fillets and freeze them individually. Then all you have to do is pop one and some frozen veggies on a plate and nuke!Hope you feel better.BQ


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## TVgirl

LOL yeah probably. I haven't been eating much protein lately so I figured the chilli would of been good for me. The taco chips I thought were fine because they are corn. the sour cream I know was bad but it wasn't that much so I thought the meal would of been fine. oh well, I guess I know now. I know what you mean about the mayonaise even though. then of course I had a cupcake so I guess too much fat yesterday. Usually I am pretty good though !! LOL, but the stool looked like shredded beef which I why I thought it was the lettuce, it was weird. I don't recall having stool look like that before.


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## tummyrumbles

This is a real mystery to me. My best foods are animal protein and raw salad. If I stick to this there's no IBS symptoms the next day and I get complete evacuation. So the best carbs for my IBS is raw insoluble fibre - usually tomato, carrot, cucumber - all fairly watery veges. I seem OK with olives too - but these would have more fibre. But if I cook up too much silverbeet or FODMAP veges I get very loose motions and symptoms the next day. I do well on steamed carrots, string beans and zucchini, so I'm guessing these have a high percentage of water as well. It could be that a vegetable like silverbeet has concentrated fibre, especially once you boil it up whereas salad vegetables are relatively low in fibre and quite watery. This is why I would question what else people are eating with the salads. We were meant to eat raw salad foods that you just pick up off the ground so I can't understand why nature would punish us for doing this. One reason that could explain why raw salads are good for me is that they contain their own food enzymes, but this is a contentious topic. The experts all disagree on whether food enzymes in salads actually digest anything - this is the job of pancreatic digestive enzymes. If this is the case, why do so many do well on raw salads? I know insoluble fibre doesn't feed bacteria - another plus - but cooked insoluble fibre doesn't seem to have the same effect. It could be that we're all sensitive to too much fibre, which raises the question - were we meant to eat cooked vegetables at all? Could it be that some of us are genetically unable to digest too much fibre from cooked vegetables? I want to make it clear I'm not on a raw food diet - I would never eat raw cabbage or any other raw vege that isn't a watery, salad vegetable designed to be eaten raw.

So I think the anti-fibre stance for IBS is too simplistic and might just add to the confusion. if you don't actually try a Paleo autoimmune diet which bans grains, legumes, nuts etc you will blame the salads for your symptoms, not the antinutrients that are actually causing the harm. If it's true that food enzymes in salad don't actually do any digesting, then the only thing that makes sense is that the veges I eat are all low in fibre, due to the water content.


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## LemaLema

Salad...specifically Lettuce was on my no list. I could do okay and chance itwith a vinegarette, but it was hit and miss. Now with a prescription for olestyr I have been able to add it back onto my food list and eat with no problem as long as I take the olestyr just before.


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