When people transition to a whole-foods plant-based diet, they often experience digestive issues because the fiber content of naturally vegan foods can be significantly greater than animal-based foods. Animal foods contain no fiber, not even a single gram. I’ll discuss the benefits of fiber in another post, but for now know that adults need at least 25-38 grams per day. New vegans often become discouraged when they swap an animal product with zero grams of fiber for something like a bean dish that can have upwards of 10 grams per serving, and then feel uncomfortable. The beans are much healthier but it can take some time to get used to them, so go slow. Here are 6 tips for increasing your ability to digest fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds.
Start with lower fiber plant foods and work your way up to higher fiber plant foods. Fiber content varies greatly even among similar fruits and vegetables. For example, a cup of raspberries has 8 grams of fiber, whereas a cup of strawberries has 3 grams. See this chart for a sample of the fiber content of foods.
Choose more cooked foods. Heating foods helps break down the cell wall. It’s much easier to eat stir-fried broccoli florets compared to a dense stalk of raw broccoli.
Beans are some of the most nutritious foods but they contain a complex sugar that we don’t have an enzyme to digest (alpha-galactosidase).
Start with ¼ cup at first and slowly work your way up.
Choose smaller beans like lentils, mung beans, or adzuki beans.
Soak dried beans (though not lentils) overnight for 12-24 hours, rinse, and discard the soaking water prior to cooking. Add a strip of seaweed (kombu) or a bay leaf to the cooking water as these can help break down the indigestible sugars.
Certain brands of canned beans like Eden Foods already add seaweed to help with digestibility.
Sprouting and fermenting: these techniques break down certain components such as phytic acid that typically make foods harder to digest. I haven’t tried to sprout anything in my kitchen because I can’t even keep air plants alive, but if you’d like to try sprouting at home here’s a guide. Otherwise you can look into buying products like Truroots (sprouted lentil blend, organic quinoa), sprouted grain English muffins, and sprouted pumpkin seeds.
Blend foods: there is no shame in blending up smoothies or soups! No fiber is lost, it’s just broken down so your system doesn’t have to do as much work. Here’s an example of how to build a smoothie from No Meat Athlete (though I wouldn’t put in as much fruit, maybe choose 1).
Chew! Please chew. This isn’t just for physically breaking down your foods. Chewing also triggers the release of digestive enzymes in the mouth (for carbohydrates and fat) and signals the release of other hormones in the GI tract that influence digestion.
Bottom line: The above are a few tips to start making fibrous foods easier to digest and absorb -- so don’t give up just yet if you can’t handle large leafy green salads or vats of bean chili!