Negating carrot squits - nutritional help required

I've known for some time that carrots help my brain be happy, but easily got bored of having them regularly. I've now discovered my blender, and can blend a carrot every day with fruit and veg for a healthy smoothie! A slogan even popped into my head - "a carrot a day keeps the madness away"! :D The only downside with adding a carrot every day to this, is that it seems it's too much of a particular type of veg, which means everything gets shoved through my system far too quickly. :o

I remember reading before about too much veg squits (after a tooth problem restricted me to soups for a few weeks), but never found a solution.

Is anyone able to offer a advice as to what I could eat/drink to healthily balance out the squits caused by the carrots?

I really don't want to give them up, as it really helps my anxiety/SAD.
:)

Comments

  • Have you considered that your increased bowel movement/looseness might be what is improving your anxiety? Therefore anything which loosens you a bit might have a similar effect.

    How much carrot are you eating? Just 1 pd?

    The effect your getting could be caused by the types of bacteria in your colon. They could also be affecting your anxiety because there is a connection between the bacteria in the digestive system and a persons mental state.

    Tannins can have a constipating effect or cause things to move towards that direction. There are many such things, even medication but none will be much use if the improved BM is what is giving the benefit rather than anything specific in a carrot.
  • jenniewb
    jenniewb Posts: 12,842 Forumite
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    edited 17 January 2015 at 12:55PM
    I've never heard of carrots being good for anxiety- I have heard though about eating too many carrots and turning your skin a yellow/orange! It's not just carrots though, all coloured fruit and vegetables will do this if you eat them in excess.
    I know this because it happened to me and took/is taking many years to fade away! I kept having people asking if I had liver problems or commenting on my "odd" skin tone!! OP I think your right to worry about eating too much of the same thing: moderation is important.

    I don't know anything about carrot squits, is that a product in itself or something you are making? If you make it yourself I'm sure you know to weigh the vegetables before they go into the blender rather than after.
    I was wondering if you could ask about the active ingredient in them which is helping you (vitamin A? vitamin C? carotene?...) I am not sure what carrots have that other vegetables don't have though, and then switch to pills for a few days a week so your not consuming the same thing all the time. Holland and Barratt normally have things like that in.
  • theoretica
    theoretica Posts: 12,690 Forumite
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    Oatmeal porridge is what my granny recommended.

    Also I find my insides can take a while to get used to a change of diet, but even out by themselves after a few months.
    But a banker, engaged at enormous expense,
    Had the whole of their cash in his care.
    Lewis Carroll
  • Pinzy
    Pinzy Posts: 630 Forumite
    Thank you all for your help.

    I don't know why they work, but I noticed a few years ago that if I'd had raw carrot (only one required) one day, I'd be happier and more inclined to do things (and less fearful of doing them wrong). I am quite sensitive to food anyway (likely part of hypermobility syndrome = weak stomach muscles), so I figure with many things I'm sensitive in a bad way, but with some things I'm sensitive in a good way.

    The origin of the anxiety is seems is likely also be part of my Hypermobility Syndrome (70% of JHS sufferers also suffer from anxiety).

    Since having a fruit/veg smoothie, my *whispers "bowel movements"* have been pretty good. When adding a carrot every though, they go from good to fast and furious.
    :)
  • You could eliminate the problem by using a centrifugal juicer. These work by seperating the juice and the pulp (pulp gets left behind). As the fiber is in the pulp, you are eliminating the fibre and you can ingest more the vitamins etc without the problems you describe.
  • jenniewb
    jenniewb Posts: 12,842 Forumite
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    Pinzy wrote: »
    Thank you all for your help.

    I don't know why they work, but I noticed a few years ago that if I'd had raw carrot (only one required) one day, I'd be happier and more inclined to do things (and less fearful of doing them wrong). I am quite sensitive to food anyway (likely part of hypermobility syndrome = weak stomach muscles), so I figure with many things I'm sensitive in a bad way, but with some things I'm sensitive in a good way.

    The origin of the anxiety is seems is likely also be part of my Hypermobility Syndrome (70% of JHS sufferers also suffer from anxiety).

    Since having a fruit/veg smoothie, my *whispers "bowel movements"* have been pretty good. When adding a carrot every though, they go from good to fast and furious.


    I have HMS too ;) I was diagnosed only a few years ago, just tend to think I am a bit more bendy than the majority but nothing more. I do struggle with anxiety but I also consume a lot (I used to eat much much more) of fresh fruit and vegetables just out of choice but don't notice any difference on my anxiety levels so maybe it doesn't work for me.


    OP with the vegetables you eat, it's the fiber which speeds your digestion....(for want of a better term!) up rather than it being a particular form or a particular veg. You will find that any fibrous food will do this.#
    Our bodies cannot digest cellulose fiber (from vegetables) so it takes out the sugars it can utilise and then discards the rest, most of the bulk of the vegetables in most cases. It's not carrots but any vegetables and to be as healthy as you can with this; I'd opt to eat your 5 (or 9?) portions a day rather than having them in a condensed liquid form.
  • teddysmum
    teddysmum Posts: 9,517 Forumite
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    I remember , some years ago ,reading a doctor's version of James Herriot books and in one he wrote about a lady who went mad about eating carrots, to the extent that she planted her whole garden with them.


    The result was that she turned orange.
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