You don't win friends with salad!

June 21, 2018 1:24 PM

Every time I eat more than a few bites of salad (containing lettuce and other raw veggies) I have horrible diarrhea within an hour. The obvious short-term solution is to stop eating salad but I'd love to better understand why this is happening and whether I can ever retrain my body to tolerate salad again. I am 99% sure that I am not eating contaminated salad greens every single time and that this is instead something wrong in my body. More details inside.

This has been going on for a few years now. If I eat a side salad or entree sized salad I am in extreme distress within an hour and have to run to a toilet. I'm always surprised because I assumed it would take longer than an hour for my body to digest/process all of that roughage but it feels as though my body is instantly saying OH HELL NO and dumping it asap.

Could this be a sign of IBS or some other bodily issue? Should I bring it up with my doctor or just abandon salad altogether and get on with my life? Would taking probiotics help?

Some additional points:

- I have tried different types of lettuces and veggies and haven't noticed a difference. Further, I have tried oil-based dressings, creamy dressings, fat-free dressings, no dressing (worst of all) and it still always happens.

- I eat a high fiber diet and my body is fine with cooked vegetables, beans, whole grains (though I do try to limit my carbs/starches).

- It doesn't matter whether I make the salad at home, buy it at Whole Foods, eat it at an upscale restaurant, or assemble at my work salad bar.

- I know there have been lettuce recalls lately but as I said, this has been going on for a while and I can't really imagine that I am getting hit with bad lettuce every single time.

posted by joan_holloway to Health & Fitness (28 answers total)

I have that reaction to uncooked bell peppers every single time. Uncooked peppers are super-common in salads. I don't have any other digestive issues (other than a gluten intolerance that doesn't actually have digestive symptoms) and I have heard of this in other people, too. It's possible you just have an intolerance to something common! (If you eat a sandwich with lettuce on it, does it happen then?)
posted by restless_nomad at 1:29 PM on June 21, 2018 [3 favorites]

Have you experimented with individual ingredients for a reaction? In isolation (not part of a salad)?
posted by acidnova at 1:31 PM on June 21, 2018 [7 favorites]

I'm actually allergic to lettuce. I don't have the symptom you have, but one of my chronic conditions gets worse when I eat lettuce. You said that you've tried different lettuces, but have you tried greens that aren't lettuce? Things like spinach, swiss chard, etc.
posted by OrangeDisk at 1:34 PM on June 21, 2018 [2 favorites]

Problems digesting lettuce are fairly common. Have you tried just spinach? It's hard to tell from your question. It could be an IBS issue, but if you don't have the same reaction from other raw veggies, I'd be inclined to think that you have a problem with lettuce. And a salad is a big job for your digestive tract - lots of fiber and other difficult to digest things being thrown in there all at once. My digestive tract is a godawful nightmare, and I haven't had a salad in years. Sometimes I miss it so bad! But I don't think you're anywhere near that bad. I think even if lettuce does turn out to be your problem, you can find work-arounds - grain salads, squash, veggie noodles, etc., could all give you that salad feel while avoiding lettuce.
posted by backwards compatible at 1:38 PM on June 21, 2018 [1 favorite]

My mom has IBS and any kind of raw greens gives her this reaction.
posted by galvanized unicorn at 1:38 PM on June 21, 2018 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks for the replies so far! To answer some questions: I don't like raw spinach or chard so I never put them in salad, and I definitely have a problem with raw kale (actually kale in general) so I don't put that in salad either. I strictly stick with baby greens, microgreens, romaine, iceberg, butter, and leaf lettuce.

I haven't had issues when I've snacked on raw radishes, baby carrots, tomatoes (common salad ingredients for me) but then again, I am not eating a Salad Size quantity of them in one sitting either.

I don't ever eat raw peppers because, like spinach, I just don't like 'em. Cooked are fine.
posted by joan_holloway at 1:41 PM on June 21, 2018

well, i don't have an answer, but i have the same problem, so you're not alone. even if it's just a lettuce salad sometimes!
posted by misanthropicsarah at 1:42 PM on June 21, 2018 [2 favorites]

No medical advice, but there are plenty of nice lettuce-free salads - diced cucumbers, grated beets, etc. If it's a vegetable and you can eat it raw or chilled, you can turn it into a salad.
posted by toastedcheese at 1:57 PM on June 21, 2018 [4 favorites]

Following this thread because this happens to me as well. Only within the last few years (since I turned 50).
posted by terrapin at 1:58 PM on June 21, 2018 [4 favorites]

Yes. I can only eat iceberg as for some reason, most other greens trigger this in me no matter how far away I eat salads from Metformin (PCOS, not diabetic). When I was tracing food sensitivities, this is A Thing.
posted by TravellingCari at 1:59 PM on June 21, 2018

This happens to me sometimes, but usually when I haven't been eating salad very often. An excoworker termed it "fiber shock" when the salad (or Odwalla Superfood) is the only thing in your gut.
posted by rhizome at 2:14 PM on June 21, 2018 [1 favorite]

I have also recently (last few years or so) been getting this from leafy greens in general, although not as badly as you're describing, and no amount of careful reintroduction to my diet makes any difference, and it is very irritating because salads are so nice in the summer. My current nonprofessional medical opinion is that it's related to my severe GERD somehow.
posted by poffin boffin at 2:20 PM on June 21, 2018

Does this happen only when you're eating salads, or does this happen if you eat a single leaf of i.e. romaine? If the former -- maybe try the single leaf and see what happens. If the latter -- yes, see your doctor, could be time for a colonoscopy. Do you remember exactly when this started?
posted by curious nu at 2:35 PM on June 21, 2018

Have you tried eating salads a few days in a row to see if it still happens? (Inconvenient test, I know.) Sometimes I get this from certain foods if I haven't had them in awhile, even if my diet is already good with fiber, etc.
posted by unannihilated at 3:48 PM on June 21, 2018

I would get gassy and bloated if I ate a large quantity of vegetables at once, especially combinations (like tomatoes and strawberries). I have found that taking a probiotic has eliminated that issue. If you don’t take a probiotic currently, you could try it. I take Trunature Advanced Digestive Probiotic (a capsule) from Costco and it works fine.
posted by Autumnheart at 4:32 PM on June 21, 2018

Does this happen when you eat a side salad along with a mostly-non-salad-ingredient-based meal? Conversely, you say it doesn't happen with cooked vegetables, but are you sure it doesn't happen with a meal entirely composed of, say, cooked salady vegetables like spinach?
posted by waffleriot at 5:12 PM on June 21, 2018

Response by poster: Side salad is enough to cause this.

Lettuce on a sandwich is NOT enough to cause this. I don't really eat a lot of sandwiches though.

Eating salad multiple days in a row results in multiple days in a row of gut emergencies.

Eating cooked salady vegetables is fine. I like to eat vegetarian and eat, for example, lots of Indian and Thai curries that contain cooked versions of vegetables that I can't eat raw.

Thanks for all of the brainstorming! It's also good to know I'm not alone in this. It just sucks because on the occasions that I diet, salad is always an otherwise easy no-fail meal option.
posted by joan_holloway at 5:22 PM on June 21, 2018

How is your gallbladder?

Do you still have your gallbladder?

Sometimes, gallbladder issues (or no gallbladder at all) can cause wacky symptoms like this.
posted by spinifex23 at 5:44 PM on June 21, 2018 [1 favorite]

Does it happen when the salad is preceded by a lot of nice bland carbs?
posted by the_blizz at 6:38 PM on June 21, 2018 [1 favorite]

I'm always surprised because I assumed it would take longer than an hour for my body to digest/process all of that roughage but it feels as though my body is instantly saying OH HELL NO and dumping it asap.

Exactly what happens to me as well, not with salad, but with some other foods. I assume there's some kind of link between both ends of the digestive tract that can get triggered when the body assumes you've ingested something poisonous... a doctor disbelieved me when I brought it saying it was "impossible" but there you have it...

I know that probiotics has a bit of a "woo" aura about it but I'm fairly certain in saying that the role that gut flora plays in our health is still an area we don't know much about and trying a few types can't hurt... I have heard anecdotes from people saying certain kinds of probiotics have helped with these gut irritation issues.
posted by xdvesper at 7:23 PM on June 21, 2018

I'm always surprised because I assumed it would take longer than an hour for my body to digest/process all of that roughage but it feels as though my body is instantly saying OH HELL NO and dumping it asap.

Exactly what happens to me as well, not with salad, but with some other foods. I assume there's some kind of link between both ends of the digestive tract that can get triggered when the body assumes you've ingested something poisonous... a doctor disbelieved me when I brought it saying it was "impossible" but there you have it...


So, I have IBS, although not with salads, and I don't think that literally your body is dumping the salad you just ate within an hour, but rather your stomach/digestive tract gets the salad in it, decides it doesn't like it, and then sends the panic signal out. So any previous meals that are still hanging out in your intestines get the flush. Your guts are working faster, but not THAT fast.

It sounds like an allergy or an IBS trigger to me, but you should probably ask your gastroenterologist. A colonoscopy wouldn't go amiss.
posted by chainsofreedom at 7:50 PM on June 21, 2018 [2 favorites]

Ok, I have another data point to throw in here - are you washing the greens before eating them at home? This happens to me, but with less consistency than you - and one of my coworkers mentioned that she's unable to process the preservative that bagged lettuces are treated with before packaged. (It came up because she's always asked to wash the work cafeteria lettuce, to some odd looks.) So when we wash the greens at home, I'm usually good to go, but any time I have a salad out, it's roulette.
posted by librarianamy at 4:27 AM on June 22, 2018 [1 favorite]

Nthing the possibility of IBS. That happened to a family member with IBS when they ate salad (and some other cold food also.)
posted by thegreatfleecircus at 6:19 AM on June 22, 2018

I don't think that literally your body is dumping the salad you just ate within an hour

TMI: that lettuce in my poop came from somewhere, and it wasn't something I ate yesterday...

This happens to me occasionally but not always, and is usually more like 3hrs and mild indigestion, but I can imagine what you're going through!
posted by aimedwander at 7:50 AM on June 22, 2018

could be that your body just isn't huge on cold, raw foods? like the vata type in ayurvedic medicine. iceberg lettuce etc. aren't remarkably nutritious anyway, so it's not a huge loss - I'd be more worried about stressing out your guts like that on a regular basis. do you take probiotics?
posted by speakeasy at 12:49 AM on June 23, 2018

Do you have trouble with other high salicylate foods?
posted by egk at 11:28 AM on June 23, 2018

Just came to mention that since I can't eat raw spinach (same reaction you have) and don't like other lettucy type things, I now make my salads with cooked brocolli instead. Works great, if you like brocolli you might try it.
posted by bluesky78987 at 3:52 PM on June 23, 2018

I also cannot eat cooked or raw greens of any kind without severe gastrointestinal discomfort and an instant trip to the bathroom. It sucks because I love salads and turnip greens and collards and spinach. I mainly avoid. I also cannot eat broccoli. I had a colonoscopy about 10 years ago and was told that I probably have IBS. However, based on discussions with people who have gallbladder issues and some of my other...digestive habits...I now wonder if it is a gallbladder issue. Other foods such as meats, root veggies, and fruits pose no problems, except for tomatoes. I love tomatoes and sauce and salsa, but my body instantly rejects them.

Good luck determining what it is.
posted by sara is disenchanted at 5:59 PM on June 23, 2018