Veggies make me gassy

[jahjahwarrior]

A few months ago, I learned that my cholesterol levels are slightly on the unhealthy side. So I've decided to start eating healthier. I decided to cut down on chips, cookies and pastries and take in more fruits and veggies. When I prepare lunches and snacks to bring to work, I often cut up some cucumbers and celery and put them in a gladware container with some baby carrots. I've noticed lately that everytime I eat carrots and cucumbers, I start farting like crazy and often stink up a room. Is it normal for veggies to make me gassy? Does it mean that my body is cleaning the junk out of my system? Or is it that my body is just not used to this sudden dose of healthier eating? Does anyone else experience this?

 

[tim-from-pa]

Let me guess. You had some "unhealthy" physical reports so now you are told what to eat to be healthier which includes low fat, low sodium and low cholesterol diet while struggling thru that bowl of oatmeal in the morning (instead of a juicy, tasty steak with eggs) and raw vegetables --- heaven forbid if you put a pat of butter on heated vegetables, right?

Yeah, do that and nothing will happen to the cholesterol. As a matter of fact, it may even go up, then you'll "need" cholesterol pills which ..... depletes your vitamin D your CoQ10 levels and other nutrition so that you are more prone to a heart attack. Oh, wait! Aren't the cholesterol pills suppose to stop that? Silly me! I digress.

The only thing you have right so far it laying off the processed foods --- go natural. Is butter natural? An egg? meat? vegetables? some fruit? vs. a can of soup? a box of cereal? a bag of cookies, chips or candy?

You get the idea. I hope. Then.... forget about the cholesterol levels. Get out in the sun and it will take care of it for you giving you freebie vitamin D.

One final thing..... don't worry about the gas. Let 'er rip. Just not around anything flammable. That will probably decrease if you eat better. Excessive gas and smelly at that usually implies a diet high in carbs and sugar fermenting in there like that (causing bacterial imbalance as well). My father used to be that way --- the cookies, cakes, ice cream, etc and he did have heart trouble which is why. Then the doctors made him feel guilty over a juicy burger at times. I said to him he never ate that way all his life. They tell him to stay away from stuff he never ate to begin with, and then tell him to eat stuff he always did (carbs) that gave him the heart attack. Go figure.

 

[Kathi]

Raw vegetables that bother me the most are cauliflower and broccoli.

 

[jahjahwarrior]

I don't mind the farting (though my wife does lol). It doesn't bother me. I'm just curious of why veggies make me fart. And Tim, yes I did have one of those "unhealthy reports". Every year my work has an annual health assessment which our health insurance company requires to keep us on their "enhanced plan". Without this assessment, we get bumped to the "standard plan" which includes higher out of pocket costs and co-pays (as if taking $130 out of my paycheck every week isn't enough *argh!*). The health assessment includes one of those finger prick blood tests, which mine determined that my good and bad cholesterol are not too far off from where they should be, but just a hair past the borderline of healthy. And I figure at my age it will only worsen if I keep going crazy on the pizza and burgers. So, I'm just trying to eat a little better. Also, I plan to do lots of bike riding once the weather gets nicer.

 

[tim-from-pa]

I don't mind the farting (though my wife does lol). It doesn't bother me. I'm just curious of why veggies make me fart. And Tim, yes I did have one of those "unhealthy reports". Every year my work has an annual health assessment which our health insurance company requires to keep us on their "enhanced plan". Without this assessment, we get bumped to the "standard plan" which includes higher out of pocket costs and co-pays (as if taking $130 out of my paycheck every week isn't enough *argh!*). The health assessment includes one of those finger prick blood tests, which mine determined that my good and bad cholesterol are not too far off from where they should be, but just a hair past the borderline of healthy. And I figure at my age it will only worsen if I keep going crazy on the pizza and burgers. So, I'm just trying to eat a little better. Also, I plan to do lots of bike riding once the weather gets nicer.

The reason I asked is because we all know not to eat unhealthy foods, and indeed your cholesterol readings may have something to do with that. But the upper limit of 200 (now they want to lower it to 160) is insane. 300 or lower total is OK, and they've been dummying down the numbers the past few decades, yet heart attacks are higher than ever.

There's some people (Mr. Health) who do "everything right" and still their cholesterol numbers are "too high". The problem I have with these insurance companies (probably in line with the government) invading your privacy, er, I mean keeping us healthy is that they want to judge health by the numbers. So even "Mr. Health" would be highly pressured to go on medications to "stay healthy" despite there's no stitch of evidence that those drugs, BP drugs and other "number lowering drugs" make one healthier or extend life one cubit (Matthew 6:27). Truth is, where one "saves" money in insurance is probably more than quadrupled by paying (even if it's just a copay) for medications one does not need, but in effect are "forced" to go on if one wants the discount. See what I mean? The goal now is to have double the people on cholesterol medicines in a few short years. That's why they redefined cholesterol criteria lately if you noticed.

 

[Kathi]

I think heart problems and a high cholesterol is a genetic thing.You have you grandma and grandpa who live on the farm and eat a pound of butter and three eggs every morning and their cholesterol is low.Then you have your health fanatic who does every thing perfect.Eats a very healthy diet everyday exercises and they are the one who ends up having open heart surgery.

 

[tim-from-pa]

I think heart problems and a high cholesterol is a genetic thing.You have you grandma and grandpa who live on the farm and eat a pound of butter and three eggs every morning and their cholesterol is low.Then you have your health fanatic who does every thing perfect.Eats a very healthy diet everyday exercises and they are the one who ends up having open heart surgery.

True, to a degree. But then again we have to ask ourselves why so many genetic issues these days? It's almost as if the foods we eat alter our genetics and then we produce weak offspring, i.e. "born that way". And then the government, the medical world, the insurance companies, etc dump on the common guy the blame for something they did to the foods. Grant it, we have choices, but even the quality of natural foods, although far better, is degrading.

An example of this genetic stuff is the high incidence of kids allergic to peanuts. When I was a kid, I never remember anyone allergic to peanuts or peanut butter to the extremes that today they can't even serve that on planes. Why all of a sudden? Bad genes don't just pool up in one generation. I think that the mothers, when carrying the kids either passed on some altered DNA, or again maybe it's something they are doing to the peanuts themselves that caused this.

I don't want to go too much further as someone here don't want to hear it. I might as well hang out more in Godlike Productions with my fellow companions. But just as a thought, we can't really even trust the "healthy" eating advice they give any longer. Frankly, I think it's killing us.