Bloated and gassy after eating vegan

[PlinkPlankPlunk]

I was staying with some friends at the weekend who are vegan, so ate totally vegan for three days. I’m vegetarian anyway so don’t miss meat, and the food was lovely and very varied, but OMG I am so bloated and windy it is is unbelievable.

My diet is normally pretty high fibre and obviously I eat loads of vegetables so I don’t think it’s just the fibre, but maybe the protein substitutes, which I am not used to.

What can I do to make it better? I’ve been guzzling water all day and peppermint tea; I can’t lie on my left side (which I think is recommended) as I have a dodgy hip. It’s not helped by the fact that I’ve been sat at my desk all day, although I did a short run at lunchtime to see if it would help; it actually hurt my stomach.

Any ideas please? I’ve been back home for 24 hours but it is not getting any better. My stomach looks like I’m carrying twins and is continually rumbling very loudly!

@hamstersarse

Your body is telling you something.....vegan food is generally bad for you

Utter codswallop. I'm vegan, I manage perfectly well despite being intolerant to soy & wheat. Not all vegans rely on packaged food you know, some of us eat mostly fruit & veg, rice, potatoes, pulses etc. I don't (can't) really eat most meat substitutes, nor a lot of packaged foods at all TBH. I switched from a standard omnivorous diet a few months ago & a chronic health condition I've had for many years has virtually disappeared.

Where do you get sufficient protein, zinc, B12, iron and Omega-3 fatty acids from @AnotherMansCause?

I eat a lot of pulses so protein is easy - lentils, peas, beans etc (just not really soy products) combined with whole grain rice, barley, quinoa, & spelt, which is a type of wheat but I can tolerate it in small amounts, I’m actually intolerant to the fructans in wheat, not the gluten. There are a couple of other random foods that I also can’t digest because they’re high in fructans.
B12 - marmite, nutritional yeast, fortified milks, & I take a supplement just in case.
Iron - leafy green vegetables. Especially the dark ones. Spinach, kale, cabbage, also lentils, chickpeas, linseed, dried apricots, quinoa, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds.
Zinc - various pulses & beans, linseeds, chia, quinoa, pumpkin seeds.
Omega 3 - I really love seaweed - pretty much all kinds - one of the best sources of omega 3s is wakame seaweed which of course has no micro plastics in it (like most fish do). Other seaweeds are also beneficial although not as high in omega 3. Chia & flax seed are also good sources of omega 3 as well. Fish get their omega 3 from the seaweed!

I make my own bread because it’s impossible to find organic whole meal spelt bread in the shops. And I don’t eat convenience food because they generally have very inconvenient after effects on me. So I suspect my omega 3:6 ratio is pretty good despite my not eating oily fish.

This!:)