Can you look at my diet & tell me why I'm constipated? It's really getting me down.

[RubySunsett]

Typical day:

Breakfast, a whole banana chopped up with full fat Greek yoghurt, a decent sprinkling of chopped hazelnuts, pecans & chia seeds, dessicated coconut on top.

Lunch, omelette with two eggs, onions, peppers, mushrooms. Decent portion of rocket on the side and a modest piece of smoked salmon, 5 cherry tomatoes.

Dinner, a piece of plain cod with half the plate piled with cauliflower & purple broccoli

I only drink water, either hot or cold as I don't like tea or coffee. I have no snacks.

I'm fed up of being constipated. I'm beginning to think it's adding to my low mood all this old food hanging around in my gut. Any bright ideas gratefully received.

Sounds amazing diet! How much water do you drink?

It might just be the way you are made? Everyone has their own pace and everyone is different. Your diet looks fine - much better than mine! DH and I eat roughly the same food but he goes twice a day I go maybe every 2 days ish. If you are super worried of genuinely uncomfortable a laxative might sort things out temporarily, but if you need long term see a doctor.

I’m a martyr to my bowels! Dominican Republic one year, something akin to dysentery was ripping through the all inclusive and I was constipated! Usually liquid with me ie not drinking enough. Do you exercise? A run always gets things going. May be an old wives tale but they do say eating a lot of eggs makes you “egg bound”. Do bananas also have potassium that can make you constipated? I put linseed on my porridge, cheap stuff from aldi, that helps. I sympathise though it’s miserable.

It's hard to say how much water I have. I have a bottle that I move around the house with me & just keep refilling it. I probably have 6 - 8 bottles a day. My guts never used to be like this. I used to eat loads of shit but I had perfect digestive transit. I cut out all the shite two months ago & my guts have just stopped working. I forgot to mention, I also take kefir.

You might try adding a magnesium supplement, especially if you take a calcium supplement.

I have never suffered. I am beautifully regular!

And what hits me like a steam train is the lack of fruit. Incorporate one pear and one apple. Replace the yogurt with something oats (and a coffee!) - porridge or Bircher.

And ramp up that salad at lunch until it’s most of the plate

Three things to consider:
How ripe do you eat your banana? Under ripe banana can cause constipation - I cannot stand over ripe soft bananas though so I have to only have them rarely as a nice fresh under ripe banana can give me problems, certainly wouldn’t have it every day.
How much water are you drinking? You need a lot of liquid a day even if the rest of your diet is good.
And finally, how much do you move around? If you’re sedentary a lot,of the time, that’s not going to help.

There is very little fibre in your diet that I can see.

If you’re eating low carb you will naturally go much less....it’s not a problem unless you’re uncomfortable? I eat very low carb and just accept that as a convenient side effect but once in a while if I feel a bit bunged up I’ll shift it by eating a whole pizza with a bottle of wine 😂 works for me but probably not the best and most healthy option!!

Green tea gets things moving. Or kombucha. Or prunes - a few from a tin, with yoghurt, makes a nice snack.

Two eggs a day is a lot, they are quite binding.

Coffee for breakfast
Sometimes porridge sometimes no.

Huge huge salad at lunch, with either chicken breast or tuna steak. Lots of kimchi and also often sauerkraut.
A large fruit salad to follow

Coffee

Mid afternoon - an apple

Dinner
Lentil pie, veg lasagne etc. No meet. And LOADS of veggies.
Bowl of blueberries

Fruit tea

2x teaspoon of fig syrup

I'd personally say you need more fibre - whole grains, beans, pulses, fruit etc

Eggs and bananas can cause constipation.
I would also add more fibre.

You have a fab diet - I have the same breakfast. Delicious isn't it.

Apparently bananas are suppose to bung up so to speak. Try eliminating the banana and replacing with raspberry or something and see how you get on.

Oh and any change of diet can cause issues, even a change for the better.

Did you used to have a lot of soft drinks with sweetener in? That can loosen bowels so if you did and you've stopped, that could have an impact.

The eggs are probably causing it - always do it for me. I can now only eat a maximum of two a week.

Ok 2 things. Bananas and eggs can bung you up. So that might be it. Otherwise, and I had the same problem when I shifted to a healthier, low fat diet with tons of veg, pulses etc - I think my intestines need a certain amount of fat, to um grease the wheels so to speak! Could you add some olive oil, avocado etc? Or salmon is meant to be a fattier fish. Good luck, I haven't found the perfect solution myself.

Do you take any multivitamins? I had the same problem till I realised it was the vitamins. (Probably the iron in them). I cut them out and all is well again

Are you low carbing? If so, have you changed to this way of eating recently? I have always found that I get constipated for the first month or so of a low carb diet - but deal with it by adding a tablespoon of linseed/flaxseed to my morning yoghurt - it works.

If not low carbing, then try something like dal - I have a bowl of moong, chana or toor dal most days now, and it's improved my regularity in a big way! Add some asafoetida if you find it increases your - erm - flatulence levels :)

Best of luck!

@RubySunsett

It's hard to say how much water I have. I have a bottle that I move around the house with me & just keep refilling it. I probably have 6 - 8 bottles a day. My guts never used to be like this. I used to eat loads of shit but I had perfect digestive transit. I cut out all the shite two months ago & my guts have just stopped working. I forgot to mention, I also take kefir.

Ah, so was it a drastic change of diet? Did you cut out a lot of fat, for instance, that you might previously have been eating? That can potentially cause digestive issues. So, if you’ve gone low fat, low carb and low sugar all in one go you’re taking out a lot of things that would previously have been easing your food through your digestive system.

@hagsrus0

You might try adding a magnesium supplement, especially if you take a calcium supplement.

Yes. Magnesium citrate specifically.

Might be the high protein, low carb effect. My OH suffers but no matter what we've tried, nothing works for long so he uses dulcosoft which helps.

I suffer from constipation quite regularly, as soon as I have some weetabix for breakfast and up my water intake it gets things moving, literally!

Definitely have a look at trying to add some more fibre into your diet. As a PP mentioned pears and apples are good easy ways to do this

Thanks for all the suggestions. This is only a snapshot of course. Another day will be raspberries/blueberries, wholemeal rice etc. I was advised to eat 2 eggs a day by a dietitian after I had low iron from surgery.

You need to add potatoes (baked - eat the skins too) wholegrain brown rice, and pulses (lentils, various beans, etc). Also apples, cooked beetroot, walking, maybe some more water.