Loss of appetite from too much fibre after 11 years of being vegetarian.

I have been vegetarian since I was 11 (now 23). I ate pretty well at home but the usual teenager diet of chips, crisps and cakes probably prevented any fibre overdoses! Since moving out I’ve been largely left to my own devices with cooking, which meant lots of vegetables, whole grains, nuts, oats, salads, beans and lentils… basically, a fibre bomb.Then last year I started having days where I just couldn’t eat anything. I felt full all day. Usually it would sort itself out and I carried on as normal. In February this year it got really bad, some days I was eating maybe half to a quarter of what I would normally eat, occasionally I would be fine and have a normal appetite. I was doing a pretty physical job at the time so was feeling tired a lot, and generally felt fed up as I love food and felt an important part of my life was missing. I could not for the life of me figure out what was wrong. I went to the doctor who tested me for all sorts, all came back negative for anything serious, although I had a slight B12 deficiency which was very unlikely to be causing that symptom. The doctor suggested gluten intolerance, so I ate lots of oats and quinoa (fibre bombs, you can see where this is going) which seemed to make little difference.Eventually one day in maybe August (so I had been experiencing this for 6 months maybe and had lost a few kg) I was talking to my mum (having come back home during lockdown) and was having a low appetite day, and she pointed out how much fibre I was often eating… brown toast with peanut butter, banana and seeds for breakfast. Big bowl of fruit and yoghurt followed by dried fruit and nuts for lunch. Brown rice and lentil and veggie curry for dinner. I googled “too much fibre”.One of the symptoms? Loss of appetite. Although it cited constipation, diarrhoea, bloating and pain as more frequently experienced symptoms (which I didn’t really have), I felt like something had clicked. I reduced my fibre intake as much as possible for about a week. Guess what? Hungry all the time! I was so relieved. I spoke to the doctor who referred me to a nutritionist who confirmed my theory.She told me that everyone has a different fibre tolerance, and that this can change over the course of your life. Vegans and vegetarians are especially susceptible to negative effects of too much fibre, but anyone who eats a lot of whole foods or raw foods might be affected. There are things you can do to reduce fibre such as cook vegetables thoroughly, peel fruits and have white grains (difficult at first for a lifelong brown breader!). I’m still adapting and figuring it out, but since learning how to nourish myself with less fibre my appetite had returned.We are told all our lives we should eat MORE fibre, not less. It’s really difficult to find information on it on the internet and the doctors did not mention it even after a few months of me going back with the same problem. Even here I looked it up and most advice tends towards “you just upped your intake too quickly, your body will adapt”. Or they have different symptoms, haven’t seen anyone mention persistent loss of appetite as the stand alone issue. Well, here I am, a veggie who’s been having fibre for years who’s body just got fed up.I wanted to write about it in case anyone else is struggling with this. I wish I had found this post when I was googling everything I could think of, trying gluten free, trying to cut FODMAPs, testing negative for everything and still not getting anywhere. Hope this helps somebody 😊 via /r/vegetarian https://ift.tt/382LsKb