Raw and NO elimination?? *caution - possible TMI*

[RebeccaI]

Okay I have been high raw for 3 months and 100% raw for three days and throughout all this time I have struggled with "going". I tend toward constipation anyway - on a SAD diet I only went about once a week unless I took daily fiber pills which would sometimes get me to once a day but I kind of assumed that all this raw food would take care of that issue for me - not so :( I am up to about twice a week now which is not nearly enough i don't think :eek:

any advice would be sure appreciated...

[glcoop60]

Are you drinking plenty of water? Fiber requires a lot of fluid. I find that if I include more watery fruits (melons, citrus etc.) it seems to help.

[Mango]

Give it some time and stay 100% raw. I have always had a hard time going. I thought normal was 2-3 times a week. I am now going 2-3 times a day. It took about a month of 100% raw. I find that if I eat too much fat that it causes me to get backed up a bit too. Hang in there!

[fairygirl]

Its partly emotional.
Being able to "let go"...ive had this problem for years and now im working on some emotional healing which has helped big time. The constipation is the "holding on"... sounds weird, but i know many women who deal with this same issue.

Another thing i have used is a product by Dr. Schultze who creates all natural bowel cleansing formulas. Ive tried all kinds and has always worked for me. now its expensive for me to order from canada, but its worth it when ive been in need.

[luckitri]

Slippery elm bark powder. I tried the doc's recommendation of fiber a couple of years ago - something popular to buy in the supermarket and poison myself with - oh did that make me sick.
Try to get things as natural as you can. They say that those vitamins and gelcaps jam up in your intestine. I take the slippery elm bark powder - a tsp or a tblsp in a cup of hot water. If you don't mind the gelatinous mucoid texture do a tblsp. If you are sensitive to texture do a tsp and make it like a tea. The flavor is very mild but still some people have difficulty with it because it is a natural flavor that they are not used to. If this is you add a dash of cinnamon and a tsp of raw honey. Slippery elm bark powder is very gentle and the folks I learned it from said you cannot overdo it ever. It also cleanse mucous out of your lungs.

There are lots of natural things that will get you going. Years ago I tried flax and it really really works - too well! It was the dark brown flax and since I could not control the effect I stopped doing it. Now I am seeing people supplementing their diet with golden flax seed and those raw flax crackers you can make in your dehydrator are delish! These products have not caused me the same problem as the dark brown flax. Also chia seeds are supposed to help. Juice some apples. Some people get bound up by them but most people get loose with the fresh juice.

You do have to move that stuff out of you and I thought raw would do it too. But I found that often with raw my body will not release food until after I have put more in it. Also I think that raw is a shock to the body so it decides to keep everything until it is sure that this is OK. The older you are and the longer you have been eating SAD - well the longer it will take to retrain your bod. I think that longterm with raw it will even out and you (and I) will go well and forget that this problem was ever ours.

P.S. glcoop is right. Drink alot of water. When you are hungry try to satiate your hunger with water. I keep hearing that we think we are hungry when actually we are thirsty.

[mongomango]

I know people who have found a lot of help in this situation with this product:

http://www.drnatura.com

They have a whole program where you buy 3 items, fiber, a laxative tea that you take in the evening, and a pill that is basically for ridding the body of parasites. The whole program is very expensive. The tea works, it is made from senna I believe, and that is a natural laxative. The parasite pill...who knows? Many people have parasites today and aren't aware, many do not. Personally I believe that most diseases stem from parasites or an imbalance of microbes in the body due to living conditions. The fiber is excellent. I have tried it myself and it is quite effective. The drawback is that if you don't drink a lot of water throughout the day with the fiber you will have worse troubles than you do now.

You can buy just the fiber, and I believe it is one of the best, if not THE best on the market, for much less than the whole program. I have tried it, and it's very, very effective. I put it in smoothies when I was taking it, and it is amazing how the size of my bm's tripled! It's still expensive though. Just click the product link...although it is good to read the website even though it's entirely too gross...but it gives people an idea of what their insides might be like.

I don't think that raw foodists really need to be on fiber much, but for those who are in the early days of it and especially older people, it can give a real boost in that department and help clean you out quicker to take it for a couple months or so....and this one can be taken like that, it's all natural, vegetarian ingredients. Even the pills are veggie caps instead of using gelatin. Heh heh, commercial just about over! I was just pretty impressed with it and how it helped others I know with similar problems.

[Sharon in Colorado]

If you were taking some type of supplementation to irritate your colon to go, then it will just take some time to re-adjust and work normally. Try not to over do the fiber and just eat your fresh fruits and veggies. Sooner or later your colon will normalize, it just takes a little time, is all.

[eatyourbroccoli]

the ONLY thing..only only only..thing that worked for me personally .. that straight up cured my inability to go (a battle i fought for over a year and a half and i now "go" 2-4 times a day)..was 2 weeks of 1-2 cups of plain whole-fat kefir a day. i didnt take the vegan route..but ive read you can MAKE vegan kefir..im assuming with soy, though.

not sure where you are in raw, or even if youd consider something like this medicinally, but it worked for me. all that good bacteria, im assuming. either way, im cured (i know thats a strong word, but its true), and im happy.

hope you find relief soon

[RebeccaI]

I am so blessed by the amount of info and insight here! I am going to try the water thing first. I really struggle with drinking enough. My goal is at leaset 64 oz a day but usually it is hard to get even 32 unless I really really focus on it. Especially if it's "just" water - now if were soda, or good ol' Ocean spray no problem!! LOL

Do smoothies count toward the liquid for the day? I could easily drink 32 oz of a green smoothie every day. Maybe that might help too....

Again, thanks so much everyone.

[Booboo]

Here's my theory...and it's only just that. I'd love to hear others comment on my thoughts here...I too had the same problem once I got to 100% raw. When I was working my way towards 100% raw, I had no problem pooping. (Can I say that? ) But then once I became 100%, I'd have days where I didn't go at all. I too thought this was very strange. So I think possibly what was happening was that my body was absorbing and utilizing all the nutrition from the food and there was very little left to eliminate. Also, because my colon was so out of shape from so many years of SAD eating, the waste that should have gotten eliminated was getting lost in the newly cleaned out pockets of my colon. Does that make sense? One thing I learned about going raw is that your colon improves its efficiency once it is freed up of years of hardened waste matter. When I first started raw, my colon began to eliminate years of waste that has been sitting there in the folds and pockets of my colon. Then when I introduced ALL raw, my colon hadn't been conditioned enough yet to push it out. And because there is a lot less bulk from eating fruits and vegetables than solid cooked foods, the waste simply got lost in the new clean pockets of my colon. With more time on 100% raw, I think my colon will improve and work more efficiently and eliminate waster faster. That's my theory. Maybe that's what happened to you too. What do you think?

[meinleben]

these are a few things that have worked extremely well for me:

mono eating
proper food combining
low fat
exercise/yoga
Dr Schultze formula 1 (when things get backed up)

i also struggled with going.....but now with the implementing of the above, things are going great in that area..

[Bobbie]

Until I became vegan at 12 I only "went" once in three days, so I assume my colon must be very clogged so I've done lots of colon cleansing programmes, including drnatura and none of them has had any affect. I pass the cleanser itself, by itself. If I'm fasting with the cleanse, I pass nothing else. If I'm not, I pass whatever I've eaten. But nothing else at all. One cleanser called colonblow was supposed to be like dynamite - no affect on me whatsoever. The testimonials on their website were hysterically funny, so I was really disappointed. I was expecting to pass metres of mucoid plaque but nothing at all.
I've tried countless different laxatives, and they do nothing for me.
I even bought a colema board but gave up trying to use it because either the water wouldn't go up in the first place (!??) or if it did, it came back empty handed.

Only two things have ever made me go -
green smoothies and the water cure. They don't cleanse the old waste but at least they do act as a laxative.
The green smoothies I have are 200g kale with 4 bananas and water. I do drink 4 glasses at a time, so maybe thats why it has an affect.
The water cure, is, when you first wake up, drink 2l (8 glasses) water all in one go. If you do this, it goes out the back way instead of the usual way, cleaning your colon as it goes - so it's sort of like a colonic from above instead of below. Plus it cleanses your small intestine as well which colonics don't. The bad side is it will clean out nutrients from your small intestine, but people who do it every day say its miraculous.
I don't do it because I forget, but I keep meaning to. I haven't managed to stick to it for more than a week. At first it was impossible to drink 8 glasses at once, and it took me about an hour to get them all down, but after a few days it became easy. And it definately exited from my colon. It was a very weird feeling at first, but I got used to it.

[Bobbie]

What fairygirl said about emotions is so true too.
People who have colonics ofter feel a huge emotional release.
Here's a quote from a colonic website http://www.sheilashea.com/aftercolonic.html

"Will the colonic affect my emotions in any way?

Many old emotional patterns are stuffed deep in our bowels or deep in our unconscious. According the Institute for Biodynamic Psychology in UK, the gut is the seat of the unconscious. That’s where we store those parts of ourselves we don’t like. Maybe that’s why it is so difficult to talk about and deal with intestinal health. It’s brings up our taboos, the unknown, the secrets, the skeletons, our shadow or dark side we don’t want anyone to know about least of all ourselves. You might see your life in review, old feelings may come up, former physical or sexual abuse issues may surface, repressed and hidden feelings may arise and memories of old injuries return. Better to have it surface and deal with it than to continue repression. The colonic does assist this awakening in some people. Doing therapy while taking colonics is helpful for these individuals."


And of course, colonic irrigation might help you.

[rgoldsmith16]

I find that when I eat nuts, it almost constipates me! try staying away from them 4 a few days

[Gwena]

I have the same issues as Rgoldsmith16. Too much nuts backs me up.

Also, you may want to consider what Sharon of Colorado shared. When you use a product to help you poo for considerable amounts of time, your body gets addicted to it and it takes time to ween yourself off.

From my own experience my suggestion would be to stop the fiber supplements, continue eating raw with lots of fiberous veggies, drink loads of high alkaline water, up the good fats in your diet like hemp seed oil, and have an occasional raw cacao smoothie using nibs instead of powder with a tablespoon of flaxseed or hemp seed oil added. Raw cacao nibs are like liquid plummer in the system and have me going shortly after ingestion.

Wish you the best!

[rawrobert]

You are ahead of me but I'm experiencing the same thing. I thought for certain I would "go" two to three times per day once starting raw (I"m about 95%). My bloaty feeling is gone that I used to have daily on my "sad" diet, but I just dont feel as "cleansed". If you hear anything, please share.

Rawrobert :mad:

[chilove]

Hello,

As others have mentioned in this thread, many people find nuts and seeds to be very constipating. You might want to want to try eliminating them along with dehydrated foods and increasing your consumption of water filled fruits and veggies.

All the best,

Audrey
www.rawhealing.com

[Guydiane]

Water is so important. You should take your weight and half it. Say for instance a person weights 200 pounds then half it thats 100 that person should be drinking 100 ounces of water a day.

[christiahall]

I had the same issue, and decided to go 100% raw for 30 days. That was one of the first things I noticed, but it took over a week to start reaping the benefits of 100% raw when it comes to not being constipated anymore. I read somewhere that if you go less than every day, you are technically constipated. I'd stay stick with 100% for awhile, then if you do go back to some SAD, reintroduce foods one at a time to find out what's plugging you up.

[christiahall]

Bobbi - I found your reply about your colon problem interesting. First of all, there is no "back way" for water to go if you drink a bunch really fast. It all goes the same place: to the stomach, the small intestine, then the big intestine or colon. Secondly, you tried a million differernt colon cleansing programs that didn't work, but what made you decide your colon was backed up? You started being a vegan at age 12, so chances are you probably havve the healthiest colon out there, and that is why you aren't getting any results. Just some thoughts. I'm sure your green drink advice will be helpful however.

[1GirlTwinBoys]

I think flaxseeds (ground not whole) work really well along with 1-2 T's of flaxoil in fresh juice daily. It's important to grind the flaxseeds up otherwise your body just passes the seeds whole again mostly. :)

[RowanC]

Just as we have been conditioned to eat 3 times a day, we've been conditioned to believe that we have to poop every day.

When you're on a SAD diet I think it is true.

But when eating RAW, your body is processing so much more of the food that if you're not eating a LOT, you may not NEED to go every single day!

If you're feeling better, if you're not bloated and stuffed feeling, if you're eating 100% raw, then I'd say just hang in there and let nature take its course. Your body needs time to adjust and heal. It knows what it is doing. You don't need to interfere - part of it could be your anxiety. The Subconcious brain takes suggestions.. ANY suggestions.. it does NOT sort them out to see if they're right or wrong. If you keep saying "I'm constipated" then you will be.....Instead, visualize yourself having smooth, easy BM's... do it in the morning once, and in the evening ONCE. See it, feel it and even smell it. THEN FORGET IT. Don't obsess. What goes in will come out, AFTER your body uses it.

Patience....

[RawVee]

I definitely notice the effect nuts have on my system, and soaking them makes them much more digestible. I've also recently gotten into the Nutiva Hemp Seeds. They're raw, full of protein and Omega 3s, and act as a very gentle and natural "make ya go" food.

[PammieTaj]

I didn't see this mentioned, but it really helps our bodies if we move. Exercise helps. It helps your body build bones and muscle and it helps your lymphatic system do it's job. I've also read that it helps our digestive system do it's job. If you sit on your tushi a lot you might want to get a couple of walks in a day, 10 or 15 minutes here in there works just as well as an hour all at once. Breath. Sometimes folks forget, and hold thier breath. (c:

blessings and peace, Pam

[2inlovewithraw]

When I was eating SAD healthy, I introduced ground flax seeds (or flax seed meal) into my diet. That definately made me regular!

If you are really worried about being backed up, maybe Alissa Cohen's Green Food Powder (http://www.alissacohen.com/shop/product.php?productid=20&cat=4&page=1) might help? In the suggested use section:

**If you experience temporary beneficial cleansing reactions that you find undesirable (such as loose bowels), reduce amount used to 1 teaspoon or less, and then increase over several days or weeks to 2 (or more) heaping tablespoons.**Mr. 2

[Amberly]

When I went raw my digestion was better, but not as good as I hear most people who are raw talk about. I was raw for 2 months then. This time when I went 100% I began eating a lot of soaked grains I found on RawBakery and I have the most fabulous digestion now. The first bag I had was the Ambrosia Muesli. I had the plain this morning and they are both good. Alissa has raw oats on her website, they may do the trick too. I would try both.