I never fulled understood the meaning of that quote until these past few weeks. You see, I'm a vegan (a pretty darn healthy one, at that) studying dietetics, to become a Registered Dietitian. My entire lifestyle motto has been: "eat as many veggies and fruits and whole grains a day, the more fiber the better!" I also live by this motto. I usually eat 2-3 salads a day, mostly consisting of kale and other raw green veggies. In addition, my diet usually consists of nuts, seeds, including flax seeds and hemp seeds, on a daily basis.
It wasn't until 2 weeks ago that I really noticed how this "too much can be bad" non-sense was really affecting me. I was OVERDOSING on fiber! I was experiencing horrible, mind-numbing stomach pain on a daily basis, that no gas medication or pain pill could ameliorate.
Being the little curious scientists I am, I started to research. I came upon something called "Gastroparesis" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastroparesis) which I noticed I shared many common symptoms with. Excessive abdominal bloating, abdominal pain, nausea, etc., which are mainly caused by delayed gastric (stomach) emptying. I'm not new to experiencing new diets/trends so I quickly jumped on, in addition to the fact that I would do ANYTHING to stop the pain. It said that I needed to maintain a low-fiber/low-residue diet until I noticed my GI tract returning back to normal, whereby I could reintroduce some fiber-filled foods, little by little. Although a fiber-free, mainly starch-filled, vegetable and fruit free diet sounded absolutely absurd to me, I felt I had no other choice but to give it a shot.
My breakfasts consist of highly-processed rice cereal, highly-processed white-bread, vegan soy-yogurt, vegan Daiya cheese, avocado, soy milk, almond milk, and scrambled tofu.
My lunch is usually a vegan cheese pizza on white bread, white pasta with very little tomato sauce, white rice with boiled carrots and mushrooms, and boiled potatoes with no skin.
Dinner is pretty much the same as lunch: steamed white rice with Asian tofu stir-fry, white bread vegan pizza, white pasta, chow mien noodles w/o veggies, veggie sushi roll, tomato soup with white rice, etc.
To my amazement, I noticed I was better even after the first day! Listen- so I know this diet goes against almost everything I stand for, nutritionally, but when your body is calling out to you, YOU NEED TO LISTEN. Plus, this is only TEMPORARY. Once this passes, I will start reintroducing fiber into my diet and hopefully within a short period of time, I'll be back to my raw, health vegan self :)
Anyhoot - I thought this could help some of you out there. It's apparently a very common syndrome/disorder that many vegetarians/vegans experience in their lives. So, don't fret, THERE IS AN ANSWER!
