Philosophical Vegan Forum

I've only been a vegan for close to 4 weeks now, so my failure does not come to a huge surprise to me. I have tried to understand nutrition better via educational videos, and feel like I have gained fundamental knowledge that I lacked prior. Even with this knowledge, however, I have run into a problem.

I don't know what is the root of the issue, but I am having reoccurring stomach pains, and I have been for a little over a week now. I have tried to do research to better understand the problem, but have come to no specific conclusion.

I have been tracking my daily nutrition via cronometer.com, and have found no obvious deficiencies. I don't think my problem is linked to a lack of fiber (especially since cronometer says so).

What could my problem be?
What advice could you give me to solve this issue?
Is Cron-O-Meter a good base to judge my daily nutrition on?

Thank you for reading.

The problem is from too much fiber, most likely.

Not too much in an absolute sense, but too much too soon.
We have to adjust to dietary changes, and any change will usually be associated with some discomfort. It shouldn't last more than a couple weeks.

You could try probiotics, but those are of questionable efficacy.

Can you tell me what you're eating, and go into more detail about the problems? There are some options which may be easier on your stomach, and help you ease into healthier high fiber food.

brimstoneSalad wrote: Can you tell me what you're eating, and go into more detail about the problems? There are some options which may be easier on your stomach, and help you ease into healthier high fiber food.

Since I have school and am not a morning person, for breakfast I usually have a cliff bar (oatmeal rasin) and a banana. Occasionally I'll eat oatmeal and Cereal.

Usually for lunch I'll have some combination of Tofurkey, chips, salsa, hummus, and Daiya chese, along with a bread of some kind (mostly flatbread), along with a fruit of some kinds.

For dinner I'll usually have a lot of vegetables (like broccoli or Brussels sprouts, along with a combination of a lot of little stuff, which ends up feeling more like a snack than a meal, but the quantity ends up being enough. Although I say it's snack stuff, it's more nutrient dense than calorie dense.

The spend the other night with my girlfriend cooking foods that all happened to have a good amount of flour. I didn't feel bad at first, but the the longer the day went on, the worse my stomach felt. I couldnt fall asleep because of it, so I ended up making myself vomit it all up. It took a bit, but I did start feeling better. I was thinking the flour was the cause for the pain, although I have had similar pains on days where a large flour intake hasn't happened, so I remain unsure.

Brode_Lee wrote:

brimstoneSalad wrote: Can you tell me what you're eating, and go into more detail about the problems? There are some options which may be easier on your stomach, and help you ease into healthier high fiber food.

Since I have school and am not a morning person, for breakfast I usually have a cliff bar (oatmeal rasin) and a banana. Occasionally I'll eat oatmeal and Cereal.

Cliff bars are pretty delicious, but unfortunately I think most of them contain palm oil; you might want to avoid them where possible and opt for real oatmeal instead (much healthier, cheaper, and sustainable).

Brode_Lee wrote:Usually for lunch I'll have some combination of Tofurkey, chips, salsa, hummus, and Daiya chese, along with a bread of some kind (mostly flatbread), along with a fruit of some kinds.

That's pretty low fiber, so it's probably not hurting your stomach? If it is, it might be something other than fiber. Gluten is a possibility, since Tofurkey is high in that; you might have undiagnosed celiac.

Brode_Lee wrote:For dinner I'll usually have a lot of vegetables (like broccoli or Brussels sprouts, along with a combination of a lot of little stuff, which ends up feeling more like a snack than a meal, but the quantity ends up being enough. Although I say it's snack stuff, it's more nutrient dense than calorie dense.

Is your stomach usually just hurting after dinner?

The best thing you could do is keep a food diary, and make note of whenever you have stomach upset. Then you can start correlating it with certain foods.

Brode_Lee wrote:The spend the other night with my girlfriend cooking foods that all happened to have a good amount of flour. I didn't feel bad at first, but the the longer the day went on, the worse my stomach felt. [...] I was thinking the flour was the cause for the pain, although I have had similar pains on days where a large flour intake hasn't happened, so I remain unsure.

It could be gluten. Starch is almost never an irritant. It's an uncommon condition, though, so it's less likely to be that.
Keep a food journal, and if your stomach pains seem correlated with gluten, you can go to the doctor to get tested for celiac.

brimstoneSalad wrote: Cliff bars are pretty delicious, but unfortunately I think most of them contain palm oil; you might want to avoid them where possible and opt for real oatmeal instead (much healthier, cheaper, and sustainable).

From reading the ingredient list, it doesn't appear to contain palm oil, and they otherwise seem pretty healthy, besides all the sugar.

brimstoneSalad wrote: That's pretty low fiber, so it's probably not hurting your stomach? If it is, it might be something other than fiber. Gluten is a possibility, since Tofurkey is high in that; you might have undiagnosed celiac.

Gluten has never seemed to affect me before I went vegan (at least I don't think so). Could symptoms spring up like this?

brimstoneSalad wrote: Is your stomach usually just hurting after dinner?

No, there doesn't seem to be much of a pattern relative to time. It happens in the morning, it happens at night before bed, and anywhere in between.

brimstoneSalad wrote: The best thing you could do is keep a food diary, and make note of whenever you have stomach upset. Then you can start correlating it with certain foods.

Will do. Thanks for the advice!

Brode_Lee wrote: Gluten has never seemed to affect me before I went vegan (at least I don't think so). Could symptoms spring up like this?

No, probably not. So, it's probably something else in the food, or just that your stomach needs to adjust to these things. That's something that takes a couple weeks.

Brode_Lee wrote: No, there doesn't seem to be much of a pattern relative to time. It happens in the morning, it happens at night before bed, and anywhere in between.

It could also just be a stomach bug.