Quote:
Is it due to too much fiber or too little fiber?
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The answer is simple: both, or neither.
In seriousness, though, I feel for you. I've been lucky in the C department: the time I struggled with it, it was caused by wonky hormones. That was before I was a LCer.
From all the DCTs (dreaded constipation threads
) over the years, it seems like everyone falls on a different part of the spectrum. Some peoples' happy zone is lots of LC veggies, some almost none. And on the topic of fiber, I was curious as to just how much of that constitutes our feces... and I found very little information. I finally found a study that said it was about 8% on average. The rest is other undigestable parts of foods (various proteins, non-fiber carbs, fats), certain eliminated body products like bilirubin (dead read blood cells; that gives it the brown colour) and water. We've sort of been sold a myth when we assume fiber intake is the be-all/end-all of how you do your number two.
Overall gut health is probably the most important factor: good microbiome + little or no damaging foods that you're intolerant to, like gluten in my case.
I can go almost zero carb and be fine. I can eat fiber and be fine. I only seem to be bothered if there's a drastic increase in fiber, especially if it's "junk" fiber like my occasional rare off-plan meal from one of the local pizza places (Pizzaville or Pizza Pizza here in Ontario) that do very good gluten-free crusts, but they're bowel bombs loaded with fiber. Even then, it's more the bloating that causes annoyance, I don't really get constipated per se.
I don't have to be too careful with my usual coconut flour/psyllium recipes because they're pretty self-limiting and not that high in fiber per serving.
HTH.