To not eat my vegetables

[Duskydawn]

Because they come out looking almost exactly as they went in!

Some look identical (sweetcorn), some have slightly changed in colour (peas) or size (carrots) or texture (spinach) but all are very clearly recognisable. It doesn't look like they have been digested at all, so how am I gaining any nutritional benefit?

I am on a waiting list to see a gastroenterologist, so perhaps there is a medical reason for this.

Could you chew them, do you think? Or do you swallow them whole?

Chew?

Are you a baby? Is your parent posting for you?

If it's a baby then it can do that reverse transmogrification thingie - turn raisins into grapes. BOAK.

I never thought about this until we had an issue at work with someone with, errr, stomach issues not properly flushing the loo and someone would regularly find a stray whole pea or small bit of undigested lettuce leaf in the bowl

Beyond vile!

OP I think there may be something wrong with your system, veggies rarely come through me the same as they've got in

'Dr' Gillian McKeith has this with her poo studies.

Lots of whole chunks of broccoli coming out. A lot of people just don't chew.

Do you have one of those German toilets that keeps your poo on a shelf for you to look at?

Eww queenbean! I do always flush!

But I agree there is something not right, I alsoget stomach pains frequently, hence why I am on the waiting list to see a gastro. I am making a conscious effort to eat more slowly and chew my food more (sounds funny, but I have always been a fast eater) but it hasn't seemed to have made any difference.

I know!! So sorry to lower the tone! I wasn't pointing the finger at you, just explaining that I'd never considered prior to the poo-gate scandal

OP I also get this. Not all veg, just specific ones - lettuce, peppers, tomatoes. And I do chew my food! No stomach pains etc though. Would be interested to know how you get on...

Grapes.

Could you maybe find something interesting on the telly to watch, instead of staring at your faeces ? Just continue eating veg, chewing properly and wait for the gastro wizard to sort out your tum.

What might be useful to check in the meantime is if any particular food seems to bring on the pains, or if it is worse with alcohol / spicy foods / acidic food ... That would be useful info for the wizard.

Don't try cutting out foods yourself, just do a food diary, noting what and when you ate, with any symptoms and when they occurred.

Sweet corn does come out oddly anyway doesn't it? FIL has a colostomy bag and isn't supposed to eat it.

However if you are chewing your carrots up, actually turning them to mush in your mouth and they are reappearing fully formed at the bottom end...that is quite impressive!

Sweet corn always makes it through unscathed... No matter how much it is chewed.

Sweetcorn is notorious for being entirely unbothered by the digestive system and thus exiting the process quite unchanged from how it entered. Peas need watching too since they can be a tad intransigent - DH has a colostomy and was warned about peas and invited to avoid sweetcorn entirely.

I'm a little baffled about how carrots are not being digested though as they tend to be unchallenging.

I'd also advise keeping a food diary and, if you'll pardon the expression, a Time & Motion diary too. So you record what goes in and when it comes out again. Only a gastroenterologist will find this quite helpful.

puree your vegetables.

Sweetcorn looks the same when it comes out but I reckon its usually the outer husk bit rather than the entire piece of corn. I've never been brave enough to find out by hooking it out of the loo and investigating more closely.

If everything else is coming out intact then either you need to chew more or you have superglue in your digestive tract sticking everything back together as it passes through.

See a doctor. This isn't normal and you won't be getting enough nutrients.

You aren't chewing or peas/carrots etc would be mushed up. You mouth is the starting point of digestion. You have to use your teeth.

I have Crohn's and find this happens fairly regularly. Peas are a little like sweetcorn, the outer skin goes through unchanged and makes it look like it's a whole pea. Anything with skins (eg peppers, tomato) there will be recognisable pieces the other end. Other veg like carrots I can't really see whole chunks (because I do chew!) but there might be orange or green streaks in my poo. I find it helps if veg is peeled, overcooked and mushy. I second (third/fourth?) the motion to keep a food diary, with details of symptoms and bowel movements (colour, texture, recognisable things in it).

Ok, I will start keeping a food/poop/pain journal. Hopefully this will help me spot some triggers, and will give me something to discuss with the gastro doc.

I don't think it is just not enough chewing, as I ate sweet potato mash (orange mush) a few days ago, which doesn't really need chewing, and the following day it came out just the same (orange mush).

I've had blood tests come back negative for Crohn's, ulcerative colitis, coeliac disease etc, although I have heard that sometimes these tests are inaccurate or not sensitive enough, and the only way to be certain about what's going on inside would be an endoscopy/ colonoscopy.

What blood test was it? As there isn't actually a blood test for the types of diseases you say- there are blood tests that can indicate if there is inflammation in the body or indicate if you have an autoimmune disease, but they're not specifically for Crohn's etc.

Have you had a stool sample tested? There is a test that can show if there is inflammation somewhere in your gut (faecal calprotectin). Or any scans of the abdomen- my Crohn's was first spotted on an ultrasound and ct scan before they did a colonoscopy. Good job too, as most of my affected area is in the small intestine and not visible on a scope.