For a while now, nearly every time I consume a green leafy salad (spinach, romaine, etc.) or anything with a higher amount of greens in it (pita, wrap, etc.) I get slight-moderate abdominal pain (which I believe is indigestion), slight gas, and very loose stool with visible flakes of the greens left over. I also have moderate acne on my jawline/chin that has never ceased since it started no matter what I try.

I know this is digestively related and I've tried putting lemon juice on the salad or drinking some with it and even tried Omegazyme digestive enzymes & Primal Defense probiotics but no matter what I get the loose stool and awful feeling in my gut. Any ideas? I don't have a family doctor so I've got to go to a walk-in but the line-ups are ridiculous and I haven't got the time really with schoolwork and all. Any suggestions are appreciated. I'm also going for a colonic soon which will hopefully help.

Silly question, but do you wash the greens thoroughly before you make them into a salad if they are loose greens? Salads can and do have remnants of all sorts of interesting things on them. Put the greens into a huge bowl and rinse them; then put the greens into a collander and run many cupfuls of cold water over them. They should be safe, then.

If they are bagged and pre-washed I have read that one is not supposed to wash them again as that just makes them degrade/wilt faster.

Please do remember to wash your own hands religiously (but not compulsively!). The kitchen can be one of the dirtiest places in a house if people are not careful with cutting their meats/veggies/greens properly. It's better to have a designated cutting board for meats and one for veggies/greens.

You might also have a reaction to the type of dressing used. Some people react unpleasantly to creamier dressings; or those that have sour cream, cheese, other dairy products.

Yes, they are pre-washed. What's more is my roomate and I split on containers of spinach and he gets no indigestion or diarrhea from eating it . The dressing I use is actually golden italian (source of omega-3s ) but it is not creamy or contain cheese/dairy. I must have something wrong digestively, I saw a naturopath a while ago but she believed it was just my GI tract adjusting to more of a herbivore diet and pretty much dismissed it. I'm hoping to see another one more knowledgeable in the field soon and hopefully fix it.

The ancient greeks used raw lettuce as a laxative.

Simply stop eating them.

Ooooo, greens are great for use as a laxative. I suggest adding a source of fat to the salad, ie avocado, oil, flaxseed. This wil make the digestion process easier and stop the bloating, wind, loose stools etc

I used to get something like that. If you have undigested particles of food in your stool, it means you have low gastric (stomach) acid.

What helped me a lot was avoiding grains and dairy and fixing my sleep schedule helped a lot too (wake up at sunrise, get 8 hrs. of sleep) probably because your circadian rhythm is very important for good digestion.

I had the same problem initially, but one of the things that really helped me was adding zinc and probiotics (like l. reuteri) to my diet. My digestion is actually better with zinc than without it. Also adding salt is a good idea too since salt is needed for your gastric acid to help denature proteins.

I have the same problem. I thought lettuce had a lot of fiber in it. Anyway, anytime I have loose stool, my skin gets mad. I'm sure the digestion issues are causing the skin issues, mine are on the jawline, too. A chiropractor told me a subluxation in my neck bones was causing nerve issues involving my digestion. I'm inclined to believe him since I haven't been in months and the acne is coming back again. I try not to eat dairy or carbs, since they make it worse, but now lettuce?

are you taking fish oil pills?

if you take too many, you get diarrhea...at least me

I used to have this problem when eating spinach salads. At first i thought it was the dressing i used. I changed the dressing up and I still felt the same.
This happens to some people because leafy greens are some of the hardest things for humans to digest. this is due to the cellulose. The cell walls of spinach & etc are very tough to digest.
Easiest way to prevent this is to "predigest" the greens by blending them! Green Smoothies are the best way to consume your greens! They'll already be "prechewed" and they'll taste great because you blend it with fruit. And because they're blended you will be getting more nutrients out of the greens since it blending them will break them up way better than chewing them ever will.
As for eating them as salads...chew them thoroughly, and take digestive enzymes with the meal.
And find ways to increase your stomach acid. Some people take HCL with food.
Good luck.

Heh, forgot about this post; it's good to take a look back though and see what, if anything, has changed for you over the course of time .

On a positive note; I eat a nice green salad for lunch every day now with no problems so long as my diet's been good (more on that below).

A few things I figured out:

1) The problem was linked both to stomach acid and intestinal flora.
I had an imbalance of intestinal flora (likely from the combination of a poor diet and antibiotics taken in the past for acne and a few other health issues) which hampered my ability to maintain proper stomach/intestinal pH. By following the SCD and consuming SCD-legal yogurt containing L. Acidophilus, I've been able to "re-acidify" my stomach and can even handle meat in higher quantities than I've ever been able to in the past. I think it's also crucial to do at least a moderate or lower-carb diet in order to avoid providing excess fuel for bad gut bacteria; I notice if I overdo sugar (even fruits) I can set myself back.

2) Quality salad dressing makes a world of difference.
I was using store-bought dressings for a while, full of preservatives and other chemical garbage. I even tried more natural ones like Newman's Own, but regardless, none can come close to making your own from a quality oil (I use EVOO) and organic apple cider vinegar (I use Bragg's, but any unfiltered, unpasteurized ACV should do). You could also add in some herbs, lemon juice, egg yolks, whatever you like. This has made a huge difference for me; I use anywhere from a 2-4:1 ratio of oil:vinegar depending on what else I've got in the salad (I usually have a handful of nuts so I keep the ratio at about 3:1 which seems to work best for me).

3) Part of it was linked to an allergy.
I'm not sure what it is about spinach but I still get some mild reactions from it (usually just these little red dots on my hands), I now either get green mixes with little to no spinach in them or just plain lettuces or arugula (my personal fave ).

Hopefully this helps some of you experiencing the same symptoms. Feel free to PM me or reply in this thread with any questions/comments, I'm more than happy to help.

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That's good to know. I have IBS and I can't eat any raw veg/fruit, or even a lot of cooked ones. I just can't tolerate much insoluble fiber at all. The past few days I've really been considering doing the SCD again (I was on it before, but that was long before I had any major digestive problems), hoping that it will allow me to eat more fruits and veg eventually. I know my IBS is from mercury toxicity, but hopefully diet will still help because chelation takes a really long time.

How long were you on the diet before you were able to eat salads again?

It took a while before I followed it 100% and I never really followed the strict intro diet. Initially, I was all SCD-legal except for commercial yogurt & kefir (none of which had bifidum strains in them though) and that still gave me amazing results. The next day after I'd started it, I decided to do salads at lunch and only ever had (and occasionally still have) problems if I eat too many fruits or too much sugar. It seems like that's my trigger unfortunately.

I never stop eating salads though, even when I know I ate something I shouldn't have, because I believe they're very healthy and they serve as a great measure of how well my digestion is doing.

The best tip I can give you is to do SCD somewhat low-carb; it's a bit misleading reading the science behind the diet and the book itself which both tend to put natural sugars (honey, 100% juice, fruits) in a positive light. The best results I've experienced so far have been when I limit my fruit to ripe bananas and blueberries (only used in green smoothies) and only have 2 almond flour banana muffins per day. Hope that helps .

Edit: just realized I already gave that advice, oh well.

Yeah, last time I did the SCD, I think I went overboard with the honey and fruits. I know better than that now.

If I do this, my diet is going to be ridiculously limited at first... I will just be eating squash, carrots, apples and pears (because those are the only SCD-legal vegetables and fruits I can tolerate right now), and meats and olive oil. But hopefully soon after, I'd be able add a lot more veggies and fruits. I'm allergic to eggs, all nuts and seeds, and all dairy products, so it's gonna be tough...

That's usually where I make mistakes too. I'll get overconfident or just think that my digestion is rock solid and overdo SCD-legal or illegal carb sources which typically sets me back a few steps (illegal ones like bread set me back further than legal ones), but I see it as trial & error and now I finally understand what can hinder my progress and how.

Have you tried ripe bananas? They've been integral in helping me progress along the SCD; they've got great GI health benefits as well as being very easily digested. Just make sure they're solid yellow with brown spots. Green beans are also usually very well-tolerated on the SCD and they're a personal fave .

Another thing too that I've picked up on is to avoid or at least limit GI irritants, especially in the early stages of SCD. Off the top of my head this includes spicy foods, fat (in excess/beyond your capacity to digest it), animal skin (chicken skin for example), red meat (in moderation it's usually fine, but it is a little harder to digest than say, chicken), too much insoluble fibre (it's one of the major reasons why coconut is usually saved for later on the SCD), eating beyond satiety, alcohol, nuts & seeds (more so seeds), dried fruit, salt in excess, and caffeine-containing foods/beverages like coffee & chocolate.

I'm allergic to them now.

I'm hoping SCD will heal my leaky gut, and I'm also taking adrenal cortex extract now which seems to be helping my adrenals... Hopefully between those two, some of my food allergies will go away.

Actually, I'm gonna be doing the GAPS diet, which is really similar to the SCD, but emphasizes homemade bone broths, and probiotics, for intestinal healing.



Thanks for the tips!

You're welcome. It's interesting that I also had adrenal issues for a while; I think there's definitely a connection. Leaky gut = undigested food particles in the body = immune response = chronic inflammation = chronic stress = burnt out adrenals (just my educated guess ).

Thanks for letting me know about the GAPS diet too, I'll have to look into that.

Omg, I never wash my salad and ALWAYS have abdominal pain. At least once/twice a week and it seriously hurts. Could this really be why?

All produce can have E. Coli and other bacteria on it; it's usually a good idea to wash your produce thoroughly. I usually buy the pre-washed green mixes though; a little more expensive, but saves the time, effort and risk of not doing it properly/enough.