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Can Eating Too Much Fiber Make You Constipated?

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The concept of adding fiber to your diet has always been proven as a beneficial move for your metabolism. Along with reducing the risk of heart disease or balancing cholesterol levels in the body, fibers alleviate sugar and glucose levels, ensuring everything is in the right proportion. Including whole wheat products, fibrous fruits and green leafy vegetables in your diet is always a boon and will help you lead a healthy lifestyle.

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What Happens If You Eat Too Much Fiber?
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Can Eating Too Much Fiber Make You Constipated?

Food rich in fiber is a good source of energy. The foods guarantee smooth passage of stool and help increase metabolism. Lean and weight loss diet plans suggest that the body get its regular intake of fibrous vegetables and fruits during the first two meals of a day. Besides being low in fat and high in vitamins and minerals, which are necessary for a fit lifestyle, people maintaining a daily dosage of fibrous foods can avoid falling prey to cardiac disease.

However, anything consumed in excess is always considered bad for your health. Regardless of the myth asking you to eat plenty of fibrous food on a daily basis, an excess of fiber in your diet can result in indigestion and constipation.

What Happens If You Eat Too Much Fiber?

Here are few answers to the questions that occur each time you’re a victim to excess fiber in your body:

Excessive Passing of Gas and Abdominal Bloating Caused Due to Eating too Much Fiber

A lot of diet charts suggest including beans, broccoli and vegetables as a part of your daily food chart; however, an excess of it can cause the body to face issues while digesting them. Although the foods mentioned earlier are high in fiber, each has their their pros and cons. For example, beans are known to produce gas regardless of them containing a good proportion of fiber, the same goes for broccoli, which when consumed in excess, blocks the passage and makes it difficult to pass stool.

Passing gas is a sign of a good bowel system. However, frequent trips to the toilet could be the result of an excess amount of a particular food item. Overcompensation of such foods with high fiber content can create swelling in the abdominal area, making it difficult to pass stool which would then lead to acute stomach ache and constipation.

Eating Too Much Fiber Can Result in Hardened Stool Causing Discomfort and Constipation

Fiber and passing good stool are part of the same digestive cycle. The fibrous food normally passes easily along with the water remains in the body, ensuring a healthy motion. However, an excess amount of fiber in the body can just ruin your metabolism and dry up the water level. This could slow down the bowel movement. Not only does it cause abdominal uneasiness and pain, also becomes a nuisance to deal with whenever you eat.

Fiber Diarrhea Caused as a Result of Excess Fiber Intake

Fiber normally tends to use the water in the body to soften and pass stool easily, however, excess intake of insoluble fiber like oats, whole grains and lentils can increase the digestion level to such an extent that the excess water used to soften the food will result in diarrhea. While diarrhea is not pleasant, fibrous diarrhea is ruthless and can cause dehydration, leading to a serious medical issue.

How Excess of Fiber-rich Food Impact Your Weight?

While other issues are understandable, an excess of foods rich in fiber can have an impact on your weight. Even though a temporary issue, regular exercise doesn’t really help as your abdomen area will witness major blockage and water retention. Highly unpleasant, even slight changes in your weight must get your to check your diet chart immediately before you are forced to seek medical attention.

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How Does It All Begin?

Self proclaimed dieticians and half-baked information can lead a person suffering with excess intake of fiber in their diet resulting in constipation. Settling on remedies of over-consuming fiber due to a cheat meal or a day of sinful indulgence is not only unhealthy but disturbs the cycle your body is accustomed to. Even though a vacation may tamper with your diet, excess fiber intake will not make up for the days you did not take them. In fact, you should restart the diet program with a reduced intake of fiber so that your body once again gets used to the exercise of digestion. You may just become a victim to constipation if you increase the fiber intake from the set proportion. Hence, following remedies blindly where fiber is concerned, it is best to consult with a certified physician or dietician so that the right proportion is decided upon.

How to Deal With Constipation Due to Excess Fiber?

While the symptoms of a person suffering with excess fiber and constipation are clear, the remedy is as simple as it can get. First, visiting a physician is a must. Try and reduce your intake of fiber based on your conversation with the physician and increase your water intake to boost metabolism and soften stool. Balance your diet with at least 8 glasses of water in a day and include a good proportion of soluble fibers and bananas for a healthy gut.

Cardio vascular exercises like jogging, running, walking, climbing stairs cause friction in your bowels and breakdown hardness in the stools as your water intake increases along with the continuous movement of your body. Avoiding vegetables like cabbage, broccoli, beans and cauliflower for a while and eat insoluble fibers like oats, whole wheat in fewer proportions. This will build your metabolism solving the water-retention issue and helping you pass healthy stool.

Although fiber is good, the principle of excess of anything being a hazard is very much visible here. While fiber constipation is something that can be easily taken care off; undergoing pain due to a bad digestive system is definitely something no one wishes for. You are always advised to eat healthy; however, eating in proportion and ensuring your plate has everything from proteins to carbs with a good helping of fiber is a good way to maintain balance.

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Team PainAssist
Team PainAssist
Written, Edited or Reviewed By: Team PainAssist, Pain Assist Inc. This article does not provide medical advice. See disclaimer
Last Modified On:January 28, 2019

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