Maybe a vegan can help with this?

elsa11170

I am mostly on a plant based diet. Occasionally eat fish and eggs but would eventually like to be vegan. I have high cholesterol (220) and too much fiber is causing constipation. Any tips on a plant based low fiber diet that doesn’t make my cholesterol worse?

AnnPT77

I'm vegetarian (50 years so far) not vegan. It's going to be tough, I think, to find a pre-defined diet that ticks all those boxes. I'd bet you can get there, though, to the extent high cholesterol can be improved via diet. (If you have familial hypercholesterolemia, diet adjustments may not be sufficient.)

Also, I'm curious what's behind your "high cholesterol"? LDL cholesterol is more of a concern; if your HDL cholesterol is high, that may not be a worry. (HDL can increase on plant-based diets, though details matter.) Have you discussed the issue with your doctor, and have you also talked with him/her about the constipation problem?

Are you logging food? If so, and you want to reduce fiber, take a look at your diary, find the high fiber foods, and reduce or eliminate those, replacing them with other foods you enjoy that fill out your nutrition (if that's important to you) and that have less fiber.

However, another option would be to try other dietary interventions for the constipation, especially if your fiber intake is not hugely in excess of the recommended amounts (25-35g daily, depending on some demographic factors).

In the past, I had problems with constipation, but changing fiber intake wasn't the solution, for me. I know people vary individually in tolerance, but now I'm often getting 40g+ daily and doing fine.

If you increased fiber very quickly by a large amount, that in itself may be a problem. It can take the body time to adjust, and a gradual increase in fiber is often a better idea. Balance of soluble vs. insoluble fiber may also have different results.

Besides that, other factors you could consider:

* Increasing hydration. If your urine is pale yellow, hydration may already be OK. But if it's kind of dark, try drinking more or eating fluid-containing foods.
* Increasing fats. Some people, especially when trying to lose weight, cut fats to too-low levels for best health. I'd suggest at least 0.35-0.45g of fats daily per pound of body weight (perhaps goal weight if very overweight).
* Increasing high-magnesium foods or adding a supplement.
* Adding exercise, especially exercise that moves your middle, if you aren't already active.
* Being tested for hypothyroidism or other relevant health conditions, if your doctor considers it appropriate in context of your health history.

Some people also benefit from adding probiotic foods like live culture yogurt/kefir, unpasteurized raw sauerkraut/kim chi, kombucha, raw vinegar, miso, etc., or a probiotic supplement.

I know that recurrent constipation is very unpleasant. I hope you're able to find a solution!

neanderthin

Moving to France might be an option. Despite the prevalence of high cholesterol in France, in the 240 range, they have the lowest heart disease occurrence of pretty much any country. For example and according to the WHO data France has an occurrence rate of about 30 per 100,000 and the USA has about 220 per 100,000.

If your worried about your heart health you can always ask your Dr. for a Coronary Artery Calcium Score (CAC)

0: No calcium detected, very low risk of heart disease.
1-99: Small amount of calcium, low risk of heart disease.
100-299: Moderate amount of calcium, moderate risk of heart disease.
300 and above: Large amount of calcium, high risk of heart disease.

Food for thought. Better than worrying every day of your life whether that egg is going to kill you, right?

Also keep in mind in order for LDL cholesterol to have any effect whatsoever there must be existing damage (inflammation) to the arterial walls of specific arteries where the damage is always found, otherwise heart disease can't progress, hence the CAC score. Personally I have almost 0 calcium (6) and I've been on a ketogenic diet for over a dozen years and I eat lots of critters, just getting that out there, so it's a little more nuanced then oh gawd should I eat that egg, will I have a heart attack.

If a CAC is something you may not want to do then have your inflammatory markers checked with a simple blood panel by your Dr. and the main one is called C-reactive protein (CRP) which always corelates to your existing triglyceride level in the body and when these are elevated this indicates that calcium will be a factor

VegjoyP

I would say start with drinking enough water. Then maybe have foods like sweet potatoes, bananas, prunes and figs. What foods are causing constipation?