No salad is complete without the addition of some lettuce leaves! But does this make you poop? I’ve done some research and here’s what I discovered.
According to MedlinePlus, lettuce is a great way to add fiber to your diet and promote regular bowel movements. That said, lettuce is a raw cruciferous vegetable, meaning that it can be difficult to digest if you have an unhealthy gastrointestinal tract or food sensitivities. In this case, it may be better to opt for alternative vegetable varieties.
Keep reading to learn which other vegetables will help you poop right away, as well as why lettuce may cause stomach problems for certain people.
5 Best Vegetables To Help You Poop Right Away
According to Healthline, there are a certain variety of vegetables that are especially good at helping you poop (even better than lettuce) that you should definitely try out! They are also packed with nutrients and more fiber than lettuce, making them the better choice for constipation relief. Here they are below:
1. Spinach
Only one cup of cooked spinach contains an impressive 4.3 grams of fiber, or 17% of your total recommended daily intake which is definitely beneficial for promoting regularity!
Spinach is also packed with vitamin C, K and folate. This helps to add bulk and weight to your stools, allowing for them to pass easier through the gut and out the body.
To incorporate more spinach into your diet you can add it into a quiche, soup, or pie. baby spinach or tender greens can be added raw to sandwiches or salads for a boost in fiber.
2. Brussel Sprouts
While they aren’t the tastiest food on the planet, brussel sprouts certainly make up for it when it comes to health benefits! Only 5 sprouts contain 10% of your daily fiber requirements with only 36 calories. They can be steamed, boiled, roasted, or grilled and taste good cold or hot!
3. Broccoli
Broccoli contains 3.6 grams of fiber per one stalk (150 g). This equates to 16% of your recommended daily fiber intake. Broccoli can be cooked and tossed into stews or soups, or you can even eat it raw in salads or as a quick, healthy snack!
4. Rhubarb
Rhubarb is a leafy vegetable that is well-known for its ability to get things moving in the bowels! It contains a compound known as sennoside A, which is a commonly utilized herbal laxative, making rhubarb excellent for softening stools and promoting regular bowel movements
One cup of rhubarb contains 2.2 grams of dietary fiber, which is 9% of your daily recommended intake of fiber.
While you cannot eat the leaves of the rhubarb plant, you can use the stalks by slicing them up and boiling them. Rhubarb has a tart flavor and is typically sweetened and combined with tarts, crumbles, and pies. For a healthier alternative, you can add it to oats or muesli for an added fiber boost!
5. Sweet Potato
Sweet potatoes usually contain a decent amount of fiber to help relive constipation. One medium-sized potato (115 grams) contains 3.8 grams of fiber, which equates to 15% of your RDI.
Sweet potatoes contain mostly insoluble fiber in the form of cellulose and lignin. They also contain pectin, a type of soluble fiber. Insoluble fiber aids bowel movements by adding weight and bulk to the stools.
In fact, one study examined the effects of consuming sweet potato on individuals undergoing chemotherapy. After only 4 days of eating 200 grams of sweet potato daily, the participants experienced improved symptoms of constipation and less discomfort and straining compared to the control group.
Sweet potatoes can be steamed, boiled, or mashed. They can be used in almost any recipe to add some nutrition and flavor!
If you’re still stuck on the lettuce, then keep reading to find out more about its surprising effects on your digestion!
Why Do You Poop Out Lettuce?
According to MayoClinic, it is not uncommon to see undigested fragments of food in your stool. This is typically high-fiber vegetable matter, which is not broken down and absorbed in your digestive tract. This is because the enzymes in your body are not able to fully break them down leaving your food partially digested.
Undigested food in the stool isn’t an issue unless you are also experiencing diarrhea, weight loss, or other changes in your bathroom habits. This could be a sign of certain viral gastrointestinal infections which speed up stool transit time and result in diarrhea or the presence of undigested food.
It may also be a sign of your body not absorbing nutrients correctly when may be a sign of Crohn’s disease or other related gastrointestinal problems. If you do experience any uncommon symptoms that are prolonged, consult your doctor for a professional opinion.
What Can Be Done About It?
Eating more slowly and chewing each bite carefully and thoroughly is a good start. Secondly, making sure that you are drinking plenty of water and foods rich in probiotics is also important. This will help your stools to appear more “normal” in appearance and will keep your GI tract working smoothly.
Why Does Lettuce Upset The Stomach?
According to Livestrong, lettuce is usually pretty simple to digest for most, but every individual is different, meaning some may find lettuce problematic for their stomach.
That being said, you’re probably wondering if, or why, lettuce has caused stomach upset for you in the past. Certain GI conditions such as IBS or obstruction may cause issues, making the consumption of lettuce uncomfortable.
While it is uncommon, it is not impossible to have an allergy or intolerance to lettuce. This could be due to a case of lipid transfer protein syndrome, which is a condition that makes people extremely sensitive to a certain group of proteins found in plants, such as lettuce.
Other than medical conditions, there may be other reasons as to why you experience an upset stomach after eating lettuce. If you ate the lettuce as part of a salad (as most do) then it may not have been the lettuce causing problems but rather another ingredient. Lastly, lettuce may have been contaminated.
Alternatively, you may simply be consuming too much fiber. This is especially true if you are eating a lot of roughage and fiber, as this can upset the stomach. That said, it is highly unlikely that the cause of this is from the lettuce alone.
While getting too much fiber can cause discomfort, most people do not get a high enough percentage of fiber from lettuce only, as there us only 1 gram of fiber per cup of romaine lettuce.
“Because lettuce is usually considered to be easy on the gut, booking an appointment with your doctor is important to make sure we find out what is causing this difficulty.”
Kris Sollid, RD, senior director of nutrition communications at the International Food Information Council in Washington, D.C.
Related Questions
Does pooping a lot mean you’re losing weight?
While you may feel lighter subsequent to pooping, you’re not really losing a lot of weight. In addition, when you “weigh less” after pooping, you’re not losing the weight that truly matters. To lose disease-causing body fat, you have to burn more calories than you consume. The only way you can effectively do this is by exercising more and eating fewer calories.
