You're Killing Me, Fiber!

In these past 9 weeks, I have seen a lot of positive changes. I’ve gotten stronger. My stamina has increased. With each workout I find myself pushing harder, jumping higher and reaching lower. My appetite is great, I don’t crave junk like I used to. I feel happier, and for the most part, more awake and active. Even though I was a pretty happy, optimistic person before, the endorphin highs have been a really nice addition to my daily life.

Along with the good, I have experience a few smaller negative things. One is my sleep. This isn’t because of exercising or dieting, it’s just lately I’ve been in a funk and have had trouble falling asleep at a decent hour. That is getting better though, as I experiment with my caffeine intake (which, let’s face it, I shouldn’t be consuming much of anyways), when and for how low I nap, and what I do before I go to bed. It seems to be getting better.

One other thing that has been bothering me lately is a little embarrassing, but what the heck. Lately, for the past week, every day for a few hours after lunch I have been experiencing a lot of bloating and cramping in my stomach. It confused me because I have been eating healthy lunches and have decreased my calorie intake. With not a lot of rich foods, why was my stomach turning into a rock every afternoon?

Well, it didn’t take me long to figure out an answer. Apparently, when you don’t think too much about the healthy things you start to eat, you can have adverse reactions without even knowing it. So, what’s the issue? Simply put, I am eating too much fiber too fast.

The benefits of fiber are great, as most people are aware. We are bombarded by commercials and advertisements talking about the numerous health benefits of a fiber-rich diet. What they don’t usually tell you is that if you go from eating a low amount of fiber to, say, consuming tons of it every day, your body doesn’t take it too well. Actually, your stomach has a hard time digesting it.

I find it hilarious that when I researched “too much fiber” these are the food culprits they listed that might cause “discomfort”:

Carrots

Any plant in the cabbage family

Anything fermented

Whole wheat products

Granola/muesli

Apples

Legumes

Does anyone else find this hilarious?! Okay, maybe it’s just me. Hehe. Take a look at NUMBER 2 and 3. AHH. You’ve got to be kidding me! I mean, not only do I eat cabbage EVERY DAY, I eat FERMENTED cabbage! Too funny. Of course I’ve been eating cabbage every day for the past 16 months. That can’t be it. But hmm, what else have I introduced to my diet in the last two weeks? How about granola EVERY morning? And I eat carrots like a friggin rabbit, A Ziploc bag a day. Every other day or so I also eat a NutriGrain bar, which says right on the front: “Good source of fiber”.

So I guess I started this fiber rich diet too much, too fast. Of course, I wasn’t purposely trying to up my fiber intake by a lot. I knew I should be adding fiber (studies have shown it’s good for weight loss), but I wasn’t actively seeking out all of these foods because of fiber. It’s really just a coincidence.

Go figure. I try and eat relatively healthy and all I get is tons of stomach discomfort. All I can say is that I am glad I figured out the problem. No carrots for me today!

Doctors suggest slowly increasing your fiber intake over a few weeks, adding a few grams each day. They recommend 25-30 grams for women, 30-35 grams for men per day. Most people don’t get that much unless they are conscious of choosing fibrous foods.

My plan is to slowly introduce the carrots back in, only have a bite or two of kimchi, and see how I feel. I ate granola this morning so if that’s it, we’ll know come 2:00PM!