Chefs ensure their stock is rich and flavorful and this is the reason why many home-cooked dishes don’t taste as good as restaurant ones. A mix of slow-roasted and raw meat and/or poultry bones make the best stock, along with fresh vegetables or scraps (onions, carrots, celery), seasoning and a couple of bay leaves, and lots of water. Bring to a boil in a large pan then simmer on a low heat for a few hours – four or more isn’t unusual. If you're vegetarian, don't despair: homemade vegetarian stocks can lift your dishes just as well (try this recipe).
Start blanching
Blanching involves cooking vegetables in boiling water for a few minutes (depending on the variety) before plunging them into an ice bath. This method stops the vegetables overcooking, they’ll retain their crispy texture and colour, and it removes bitterness from certain varieties. Blanching also seals in flavour and vitamins. The blanched vegetables can then be cooked more or warmed later, if necessary, and even frozen.
Test cooked vegetables
A quick way to test whether vegetables are cooked through is to use a metal skewer that you’d use to see if a cake is baked. If it goes through with ease the vegetables are done
Take your mash to the next level
Homemade mash doesn’t live up to restaurant mash? Yours probably has half the calories but tastes half as good. Chefs have differing methods but generally agree that potatoes should be brought up to heat for even cooking (don’t add them to boiling water); liberal amounts of butter or cream (or both) are necessary; and mash should be hand-whisked (don’t overdo it). Don’t forget to season as you go.
Get your chopsticks at the ready
Master chopstick skills to look like a pro when making Asian food. Chopsticks are used in many Asian restaurant kitchens to turn or move around stir-fried foods during cooking. (They can also be used to pick out eggshell pieces that have dropped into the mix.
Cut mango with ease
Mangoes can be a pesky fruit to prep but professionals know how to do it without fuss or waste. Cut the mango in half (on each side of the stone), slice grids into each half then invert the fruit. Mango cubes pop up – these can then be sliced off.
Master an omelette
Master one omelette recipe and you can use it as the base for endless variations. Jamie Oliver’s perfect omelette method starts with a 7-inch non-stick pan on a medium heat, with enough olive oil and butter to coat the bottom. Then whisk three eggs, season and add to the pan. For the first 20 seconds or so fold in the mixture from the sides. Move the liquid around so the bottom of the pan is covered then leave to cook on a low heat for no more than a minute. Shake the pan gently to dislodge the omelette, fold each side in with a spatula, and put on a plate.
Don't forget that practice makes perfect
Chefs don’t become professional overnight. They practice and practice, making mistakes along the way. Most of all they’re prepared, use the right ingredients and utensils, and don’t change or add to a recipe until they’ve perfected it first.
When rustling up tomato sauce or salsa, chefs know to discard tough tomato skins. Here’s how: score an X at the stem of each tomato, drop in boiling water for 15–20 seconds, remove and put straight into iced water until cool enough to work with, then pull the skin away in strips
Learn how to make a decent roux
Roux serves as a thickening base for gravy, stews and sauces such as béchamel (white sauce). It's made in a pan with equal amounts of melted butter and plain flour mixed vigorously together before liquid is added. Chefs will work on perfecting this method as it comes up time and again in the kitchen.
Make the most of produce
Kitchens work to tight margins and won’t throw away produce that can be used in some way. For example, fresh tomatoes on the turn will be cut widthways, seasoned and splashed with oil and slow roasted in the oven at about 200°C (390°F) for a couple of hours. These can then be used for pasta or pizza dishes or in salads.
Season as you go
If a dish tastes bland salt will enhance flavour. Professional cooks don’t just add salt and pepper at the end of cooking, they add it throughout, tasting as they go.
Balance salt and sweet
It may seem counter-intuitive to add sugar to savoury dishes but it acts as a seasoning, like salt, to balance out the sharpness of acidic ingredients such as vinegar or tomatoes. Alternatively, a dish that’s a little sweet or bland will benefit from acidity from citrus juice, vinegar or Worcester sauce.
Save dishes that you've over-seasoned
A common trick in kitchens when a dish has been over-salted is to add a raw, peeled potato during cooking. It's said to absorb excess seasoning, and according to Raymond Blanc, it really does work.
Great chefs agree that steaks benefit from being cooked in a smoking-hot, thick pan, preferably cast iron. Oil and season the steaks (not the pan) then cook – the amount depends on how you like yours but it’s usually between 1½–4½ minutes each side for a 3.5cm thick steak, less for a thinner steak. Always rest the meat for 5–10 minutes, covered loosely in foil, before serving. We've compiled more top tips for cooking steak right every time here.
Deglaze your pan
If you like a light but flavorful sauce or jus with your meat then do as the pros do and use the juices and food particles in the pan that are left over from your cooking, in a technique known as deglazing. Heat the pan, add some wine (or stock if you prefer) and warm until the liquid is bubbling nicely, stirring and scraping to incorporate sticky bits into the sauce. Cook for around five minutes, seasoning and tasting as you do. You can also whisk in some butter or olive oil for a richer result.
Crisp your fish skin
Mario Batali’s Twitter feed is full of useful tips, including this one for restaurant-style fish with crispy skin. First, use a non-stick ovenproof pan and start on a low heat with the skin down. Then increase the temperature and cook until the fish is 80% done. At this point, flip the fish and toss in a 500°F [260°C] oven for 1–2 mins.
Don’t overcrowd a pan
Whether you’re cooking meat, fish or vegetables, overcrowding a pan is a big no-no – doing so lowers the heat and generates moisture. Browning doesn’t occur and the food cooks unevenly
Use hot liquid
Adding cold water or stock while making soups, stews, risottos and the like slows the cooking process and can affect the result. Use warm or hot liquid – chefs know this, and now you do too.
Remember herbs are a must
Dried herbs enhance flavour and fresh herbs lighten a dish. Adding tarragon to chicken, basil to tomato sauce, sage to pork, or rosemary to lamb can make a big difference, while many Asian dishes aren't complete without the likes of fresh mint, coriander (cilantro) and Thai (sweet) basil. These are the herbs and spices that should always be in your kitchen.
Keep your herbs dry
Wash and dry your herbs before chopping or they'll turn to mush. Soft herbs such as mint and basil can be torn by hand or rolled up and sliced to make thin ribbons, while coriander (cilantro) and parsley can be chopped with their thinner stems intact as they're full of flavour. For hardier herbs such as thyme and rosemary, strip the leaves from the stems (discard the woody stems) and chop the leaves finely.
This is such a simple, even obvious, hack but you’ll be amazed at how many of us don’t do it. Invest in a quality set of knives and sharpen before each use. It makes cooking easier and safer and only takes a minute
Chop onions the easy way
To cut onions quickly and efficiently cut the top off then cut in half and peel, leaving the root intact. Take half and place on its flat side, press down gently and cut horizontally in 1cm sections, up to the root. Then slice vertically lengthways towards the root, holding the onion to secure it. Finally, slice again vertically widthways to create little squares. Discard the root end. Repeat with the other half.
Use ingredients at the right temperature
This is a brilliantly easy hack – and one of loveFOOD readers' top baking tips. When baking, take any ingredients that are being stored in the fridge and let them come up to room temperature before using. It means that the food will cook evenly, and at the temperature and time stated in the recipe
Allow time to marinade
It’s not unusual for chefs to marinade meat up to two days in advance. A marinade acts as a tenderiser resulting in wonderfully soft and juicy meat. Not sure where to start? We've compiled a list of the best marinades for every type of meat and fish.
Sort out your mise en place
Mise en place is French for 'everything in its place'. No decent chef cooks surrounded by mess. Organisation, preparation and cleanliness are essential: have your ingredients and cooking utensils at the ready and a bowl for waste. It saves time (no more regular trips to the bin) and simplifies the cooking process.
Score your meat
Any chef worth their salt knows that scoring meat and fish allows marinades to be better absorbed and speeds up the cooking process. If you're cooking a duck breast (pictured) it also prevents the skin from shrinking and pulling away from the meat
Skip fiddly garlic peeling
There are numerous ways to peel cloves of garlic but Gordon Ramsay’s is one of the best, if not the most energetic. To peel a whole bulb, separate the cloves, press down quickly on each one with a large knife then place in a bowl with a lip. Place another bowl on top so the cloves can't escape and shake the bowls vigorously for 10 seconds to remove the skin
We are told that vegetables are powerful and virtuous—that they fight off cancer, sweep our digestive systems clean, and strengthen our immune system —that they can leap tall buildings in a single bound. Yet vegetables have a dark side. They don’t want to be eaten any more than animals do, and use sophisticated chemical weapons to defend themselves…
We think of them as virtuous, vital components of a healthy diet, yet vegetables are cunning and manipulative.
Deep down they don’t care about us. Our health is not their top priority; their top priority is their own survival. Plants have been on earth for hundreds of millions of years and they have learned a thing or two about survival.
Pretend you are a plant.
You can’t run away from animals that stop to dine on you. You can’t growl to scare predators away. You can’t wander around to meet other plants and reproduce. You can’t brush off caterpillars that are nibbling on you. You can’t swat away the insects that stop to bite you.
How do you protect yourself?
Well, you might have thorns or other special structures to help deter some invaders, but mostly you use chemical weapons…and very sophisticated ones, at that. Plants have been on this planet a lot longer than we have and they’ve got our number. They know what we like and don’t like. They know how our cells work. They know our strengths and weaknesses.
They have gone out of their way to make some vegetable parts taste bitter, so that we are less likely to want to eat them. In fact, the produce industry has had to work hard to breed bitterness out of vegetables so that we will be more likely to buy them. These bitter substances not only taste bad, they also function as highly specialized pesticides that are designed to kill insects, larvae, worms, bacteria, and fungi. These include things like:
Specialized immune system molecules that recognize invaders, attach to them, and mark them for the kill.
Poisons that kill cells and mitochondria by bursting their membranes open.
Enzyme inhibitors that interfere with vital metabolic reactions.
Oxidative toxins that break DNA strands
Because we believe that vegetables are good for us, we spend lots of time, energy, and money trying to prove how these bitter pesticides might be beneficial to human health. Because many of these same chemicals function as “anti-oxidants” in the laboratory, scientists enjoy studying how they might be used to fight cancer and other diseases.
Fair enough, but wouldn’t it make sense to also wonder whether these chemicals might be harmful to us?
What are vegetables?
Vegetables are any plant parts that are not fruits, seeds, or flowers. Vegetable parts include roots, tubers, bulbs, stems, and leaves. Plants want animals to eat their fruits (and interact with their flowers and seeds), but plants need to protect other body parts–their vegetable parts— from predators, so they can survive. I would argue that plants do not want their vegetable parts to be eaten.
Roots and Tubers
Examples of roots: carrots and beets Examples of tubers: potatoes and yams
Roots and tubers are carbohydrate storage organs, so they are mostly made of starch. Starch is what plants use for energy (animals prefer to use fat). Starch is very heavy, so it’s easiest for the plant to store it on the ground or underground, in roots and tubers, instead of up top in branches or leaves.
Bulbs
Examples of bulbs: onions, garlic
Bulbs are immature plants that contain lots of starch to nourish the baby into adulthood.
Stems
Examples of stems: broccoli, asparagus, celery
The job of the stem is to hold the plant upright and deliver nutrients from its roots to its tips, so it has to be strong. This is why stems are very high in insoluble fiber, or cellulose. This is a very tough, stringy, woody type of plant carbohydrate that humans cannot digest.
Leaves
Examples of leaves: spinach, lettuce, kale
The leaf is the plant’s solar panel, catching the sun’s rays and turning them into energy through photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the magical process that plants use to turn carbon dioxide and water into sugar and oxygen, using sunlight.
Do we need vegetables in our diet?
As outrageous as this may sound, I find no scientific evidence that vegetables are essential components of the human diet, because I am not aware of a single study that compares a diet containing vegetables to a diet without vegetables.
Thankfully, scientific laboratories are not our only sources of valuable information about the world. There’s real life evidence we can turn to that can answer our question.
We happen to know that a number of populations throughout history have eaten diets containing extremely few or even no vegetables, and historical reports tell us that these people were very healthy. Eskimo populations at the turn of the 20th Century are the clearest examples of this phenomenon. Nothing grows up there, so these frozen folks had no choice but to eat an essentially all-animal diet. Physician explorers of the time (before trade routes exposed traditional peoples to outside foods) observed that cancer was virtually nonexistent in Eskimo villages. Even if the historical record doesn’t prompt you to wonder whether vegetables are really necessary in the fight against cancer, it should at least convince you that vegetables are not required in the human diet for daily bodily function. That these people were somehow able to get all of their essential vitamins and minerals entirely from animal foods I find to be fascinating and important information. These were not short-term studies lasting weeks or months or a couple of years. These were real people living entire lifetimes, being physically active, reproducing, etc., with little to no vegetable matter in their diet (and therefore virtually no carbohydrate). No biased researchers, no study subjects guessing about what they ate or cheating on their diets. I would argue that this kind of evidence is far more convincing than any scientific study.
Are vegetables good for us?
Okay, so they don’t seem to be necessary, but how do we know that Eskimos wouldn’t have been even healthier if they had added vegetables to their all-meat diet? We don’t know. So let’s look at the scientific research to see what it tells us about vegetables and health.
The reason why we are led to believe that vegetables are good for us is that there are thousands of epidemiological studies comparing high-vegetable diets to low-vegetable diets, and often (but not always), the people eating high-vegetable diets seem healthier. So why isn’t that convincing? Because when epidemiologists compare two different diets, there are usually LOTS of differences between those two diets, not just the amount of vegetable consumed.
For example, because people believe vegetables are healthy, people who eat more vegetables tend to be more health-conscious in general. However, health-conscious people also tend to do lots of other things differently from the average person—they may eat less processed food, drink less alcohol, smoke less, eat less sugar, count calories, exercise more, etc. These other differences are very hard to account for in studies. The only way to really figure out if vegetables are healthy is to compare a diet with vegetables to a diet without vegetables. I know of no scientific study that has done this.
So, epidemiological studies suggest that people who eat more vegetables might be healthier. In order to prove this hypothesis, we need to do experiments. What do actual clinical experiments tell us?
I compiled the following information for a recent presentation I gave at the Ancestral Health Symposium:
As of this writing (August 2012), there are 762 clinical studies listed in PubMed (a scientific search engine) having to do with vegetables and human health. Most of these are studies of how to get people to eat more vegetables; there are very few clinical trials attempting to show that vegetables are healthy. There were only 38 clinical studies designed to evaluate specific health effects of actual vegetables (as opposed to special concentrated vegetable extracts or isolated vegetable nutrients), and the vast majority of these (31 of the 38), unfortunately, used fruits and vegetables, instead of just vegetables. Fruits are so different from vegetables that it’s like comparing apples and oranges…except that it’s even worse, because at least apples and oranges are both fruits! However, let’s try to ignore these major design flaws and see what researchers found.
Eighteen of these 38 clinical studies were “negative”, meaning the researchers did not find the health benefit they were looking for. The remaining 20 studies were “positive”, meaning researchers found a health benefit when they compared groups of people who ate more (fruits and) vegetables to those who ate less of these foods.
Twenty positive studies is nothing to sneeze at, so at first glance, one might think that eating more (fruits and) vegetables might be a good idea. However, upon closer scrutiny, flaws become obvious that make it impossible, unfortunately, to know whether the results are actually due to the (fruits and) vegetables and not to some other factor.
Of the 20 “positive” studies, 10 did not take refined carbohydrate into consideration. This means that the group of people who ate more (fruits and) vegetables might have been healthier because they were eating less refined carbohydrate than the group that ate fewer vegetables.
The remaining 10 “positive” studies did not simply increase the amount of (fruits and) vegetables people ate; they also changed other aspects of lifestyle, such as fat consumption, alcohol intake, smoking, exercise, salt use, and/or refined carbohydrate intake. Therefore, we do not know whether the people who ate more (fruits and) vegetables were healthier because of the vegetables or because of some other aspect of the intervention.
Oh, and In case you’re wondering, of the 7 lonely studies that did look only at vegetables (instead of fruits and vegetables together), 6 of those 7 studies just happened to fall into the negative category, meaning that the vegetable(s) did not provide the health benefit expected. Hmmm.
So, we don’t have any clear scientific proof yet that vegetables are healthy for us. However, just because scientists have not yet conducted the kinds of studies that can tell us whether vegetables are healthy does not mean that they are not good for us; it just means that the idea that vegetables are good for us remains an unproven hypothesis.
Don’t we need to eat vegetables for fiber?
Fiber is an important enough topic that I gave it its own page on the site.
Aren’t vegetables important sources of vitamins and minerals?
Below is a copy of a PowerPoint slide I prepared for a presentation at the 2012 Ancestral Health Symposium entitled “Little Shop of Horrors: the risks and benefits of eating plants.” In this slide you can see that animal products are superior sources of most essential vitamins and minerals, including 4 that do not exist in plant foods at all:
Aren’t vegetable antioxidants important for health?
This is a very complicated topic, and I’ll be writing lots more about this over time. For starters, many vegetable antioxidants that appear to have anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties in laboratory studies also happen to be the same chemical weapons that plants use to defend themselves. Therefore, it makes sense that many of these isolated compounds not only have the power to kill cancer cells, they also have the power to kill healthy, normal cells. Like any form of chemotherapy, the most powerful vegetable antioxidants are, at best, double-edged swords.
Since antioxidants from each vegetable family are numerous, unique and complex, they will be explored in detail in the special occasional articles in my food blog. From cruciferous vegetables like broccoli to nightshades like white potato, you will discover the clever ways in which each vegetable family protects itself in the world, and how its specialized defensive chemicals affect your body.
The first veggie blog post, Is Broccoli Good for You? Meet the Crucifer Family, looks at how crucifers use sulforaphanes to protect themselves and how that might impact your health. How Deadly Are Nightshades? includes lots of interesting information about potatoes, as well as about tomatoes and eggplants (which are actually fruits masquerading as vegetables).
Bottom Line about Vegetables
There is no scientific evidence proving that vegetables are necessary, let alone good for us. However, most vegetables are naturally filling, low in carbohydrate, and low in calories, and therefore may be useful alternatives to junk food, sweets, baked goods, dairy products, and seed foods (grains, beans, nuts and seeds) when trying to control weight. Very sweet and starchy high glycemic index vegetables, such as white potatoes and beets, are exceptions to this rule.
Due to high fiber content, vegetables can be hard to digest, especially if eaten raw.
Vegetable nutrients are harder for us to absorb and use than animal food nutrients.
Vegetables contain naturally-occurring defensive chemicals that are designed to harm creatures that try to feast upon them. These chemicals are very toxic to living cells, however, the concentrations that exist in most types of whole vegetables may be relatively safe for most people to eat in moderation. Vegetable extracts and concentrates may not be as safe as whole vegetables because the “dose” of vegetable chemicals is much higher in these products. Some vegetable families contain more potent toxins than others, so watch my food blog for my “Vegetable of the Month” feature to learn which vegetables are most likely to cause trouble for sensitive people.
Some vegetables are actually fruits, because they contain seeds. Examples of fruits masquerading as vegetables include: cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplant, and squashes. Pureed preparations of these “vegetables” which include pureed seeds are probably riskier choices, as seeds contain especially harmful chemicals that are released when seeds are pureed.
Some vegetables are actually legumes. Examples include green beans, wax beans, and snow peas. The pods or beans inside of these vegetables pose special risks to our health. For more information, see the grains/beans/nuts/seeds page.
Young vegetable sprouts contain higher concentrations of potentially harmful chemicals than mature vegetables because baby plants are vulnerable and need more protection from predators.
As a general rule, toxins are more likely to be concentrated in the skins of vegetables, to protect the plant on its outer surface. Sensitive individuals may therefore want to skin vegetables before eating. Cooking can also reduce the activity of some of these chemicals.
We and most of our ancestors have been eating vegetables for as long as 2 million years, so our bodies have adapted some ways of handling their natural toxins that may reduce their risk to our health. This is probably not true of “newer” foods, such as seed foods (5,000 to 10,000 years), refined carbohydrates (100-150 years), and artificial food additives (about 70 years). Therefore, vegetables are likely to be superior choices when compared to these newer foods.
Always consult your GP if you experience a change in bowel habits outside the ‘normal’ range for you and which last more than a few weeks; there is blood in your stool; or you suffer fever, joint pains, severe mouth ulceration and skin rashes associated with diarrhoea which may be bloody.
BRAN
Doctors often advise adding a handful of bran to cereals to help with constipation (defined as going to the loo less than three times a week).
This is because bran is insoluble fibre, meaning it fills the stomach up and stimulates the bowel.
But bran can actually exacerbate some forms of constipation.
‘For constipation, there’s a belief that eating fibre such as bran always helps,’ says Dr Emmanuel.
‘But with slow transit constipation (STC) — a nerve and muscle problem that causes the slow passage of waste through the large intestine — it can cause bloating and excessive gas.’
And for five million of the 12 million people suffering IBS in this country, fibre is one of the worst things, says Peter Whorwell, professor of medicine and gastroenterology at University Hospital of South Manchester.
‘Adding a bulking agent in the form of fibre such as bran gives the bowel even more work to do,’ he says.
‘A significant number of IBS patients might be hyper-reactive to agents that stimulate or irritate the gut, particularly when it comes to bran.
‘It’s wrong to say that eating fibre is healthy when it exacerbates unpleasant symptoms for so many people with IBS.’
Once he has assessed that this is the problem, Professor Whorwell advises his patients to switch to white bread, white pasta, biscuits and cream crackers — anything made from refined white flour, as these don’t contain as much rough fibre.
For constipation, some people might find dried fruit such as apricots, figs and prunes help where bran caused problems.
More information: corecharity. org.uk; theibsnetwork.org
a wide variety of factors can cause stomach pain after eating vegetables.
Too Much Fiber
Along with their high nutrient contents, vegetables also contain a high amount of fiber. In most cases, fiber is extremely beneficial to the body. When consumed, it helps push wastes through the gastrointestinal system. By simultaneously adding bulk to the stool and making the stool softer, a high-fiber diet allows for improved bowel movements. However, eating too much fiber can cause gastrointestinal discomfort. Since most vegetables feature a high-fiber content, eating too many at one time might cause gas, bloating and indigestion.
Raw Vegetables
The Body Ecology website explains that raw vegetables are increasingly more difficult for the body to digest than cooked vegetables. In fact, the website explains that most people experience “digestive distress, like gas, bloating and abdominal pain” after consuming raw vegetables. Unlike cooked vegetables, raw vegetables contain a specific type of fiber called cellulose. However, the body is not always capable of producing the enzyme needed to break down cellulose. As a result, the gastrointestinal system goes into overdrive to digest the vegetable, which cause the stomach pain and bloating.
Preparation Problems
In some cases, the stomach pain may actually relate to the method of vegetable preparation. For example, ingesting too much salt is a common cause of stomach bloating and abdominal discomfort. Additionally, some people cannot handle heavy creams, cheeses or butters used to flavor vegetables.
Vegetable Allergy
Some people experience an allergy to specific fruits and vegetables. According to a "U.S. News and World Report" article, the condition is known as oral allergy syndrome, and the offending fruits and vegetables cause an allergic reaction when in contact with the body. Symptoms include swelling, an itchy rash, tingling, blisters and difficulty breathing or swallowing. If the offending vegetable is swallowed, it can also cause intense stomach cramping along with diarrhea or vomiting.
Solutions
Track your daily fiber intake to determine whether you are consuming too much fiber. If so, ease up on these fibrous foods for a few days. Once the abdominal discomfort subsides, slowly introduced fruits, vegetables and whole grains back into your diet. Additionally, trade in raw vegetables for cooked vegetables. Most vegetables maintain their nutritional benefits when baked, simmered, sautéed or steamed. However, avoid boiling vegetables, which depletes them of their vitamins and minerals. Keep and eye on the amount of salt and butter used to prepare vegetables. Rinse and drain canned vegetables before eating them. And if your stomach pain occurs in conjunction with typical allergy symptoms, speak to your physician regarding a possible vegetable allergy.
I am a moderately heatlhy 32 year old female. Within the last year I have noticed everytime I eat raw veggies of any type I end up with severe stomach pains. They last aprox. 3 hours and hit within 30 minutes of eating. I have ate salads and raw vegetables all my life and never had a problem. I made appt with my DR. and he seemed stumped by my problem. If anyone at all knows anything about this or has expereience it could you please post One answer Over the years I have found that I suffer more and more with stomach pains and these have got worse as the years have passed by, I found that eating certain foods made me feel really ill if even now if I eat more than a couple of biscuits (usually Digestive biscuits with a cup of tea.) within one hour I feel very nauseous, weak and my stomach feels raw and inflamed, this can be quite painful and I just want to sit and do nothing until it's over, visits to the Doctors didn't seem to help. A couple of years ago when I had felt really bad for several weeks I decided in desperation and feeling it was a food thing to try a detox, I found a 30 day one that I thought suited me, to start with (and the book did warn me) I had headache for a couple of days but that then passed, within a week the stomach pain had gone, at the end of 2 weeks i could feel my energy starting to return, I was eating almost non stop fruit, salads, nuts, home made stir fry meals, fish, rice, vegetables, 2 litres of a day water and even better I was losing weight, ok life did seem to rotate around eating and reading labels in supermarkets but before the end of the course I felt like never before as if I had been subdued/poisoned for most of my life by the very food I had been eating, my wife was amazed no longer was I coming home from work and slumping onto the sofa totally drained after a days work (and my job isn't a strenuous one.) I was now looking around for things to do around the house all those jobs that had been waiting for so long for me to do were getting done. after the detox I started to introduce the foods I had given up on for those 30 days, after a week I felt myself slipping back to how I was and the raw stomach pain, nausea and tiredness returned, I have now modified my diet in order to avoid the foods that where poisoning my system, and although not perfect as with the detox I am doing better. I now do a detox twice a year, it's hard going to start with for the first time especially when everyone around you is eating all your favourite foods, but once you get into it it gets easier as your energy rises. my advice is to stick with it get past the first week and you will be amazed. Now read the rest!
When they switch to Paleo, some people effortlessly dive right in to overflowing heaps of salad greens, massive piles of roast broccoli, and endless bowls of coleslaw. But not everyone finds it quite that easy, particularly if they’re coming from a low-vegetable diet, or if they’re trying to heal from pre-existing digestive problems like IBS. Feeling bloated or overstuffed is fairly common if you suddenly add a huge amount of roughage to your diet; some people also get gassy and constipated, or just feel “off” all the time.
If it’s still the first few weeks of Paleo for you, the first thing to try is very simple: cut back your vegetable intake to a comfortable level, and then slowly work your way back up (this should take 1-2 weeks, depending on how far back you had to cut in the first place). For the vast majority of people who don’t have serious gastrointestinal issues and just need to adjust, this will solve the problem without further ado.
If you’ve already tried that and it doesn’t help (or if it helped some, but didn’t get you all the way there), it’s probably a sign that there’s something more serious going on than “I’m not used to eating this many vegetables.” So here’s a guide to choosing and preparing vegetables to make them easier on the stomach.
Why can Vegetables be Hard on your Stomach?
In a word: fiber. Fiber is any kind of carbohydrate that you can’t break down and use for energy (although sometimes your gut flora can). And yes, even though it’s famously healthy in the abstract, it can still cause problems for certain people. This study goes over an exhaustive review of fiber and digestion, but here’s the short version:
Soluble Fiber
Soluble fiber is fiber that your gut flora can ferment. For most people, that’s perfectly fine and even very healthy: their gut flora get a tasty brunch and everything else keeps humming along as normal. The fermentation does produce some gas, but it’s not enough to cause any noticeable symptoms.
Some people are very sensitive to the effects of these fermentable carbohydrates, though, to the point that the gas produced causes bloating and other general discomfort. The most famous culprits for this are the short-chain carbohydrates called FODMAPs. FODMAPs carbohydrates can be the culprits behind almost anything from diarrhea to constipation to extreme bloating – some gastroenterologists even think that “Irritable Bowel Syndrome” is really just a FODMAPs sensitivity.
Insoluble Fiber
Insoluble fiber is not fermentable: you can’t use it, and neither can your gut flora. It just goes in your mouth and out the other end. The most famous result is an increase in stool bulk – this is one of the reasons why why insoluble fiber is often used as a laxative (e.g. in psyllium husk).
Insoluble fiber isn’t quite as infamous for causing digestive problems as soluble fiber, but there’s still at least some evidence that it’s not all good. For one thing, it works as a laxative by literally irritating the lining of the gut so much that the gut wall produces more mucus as a lubricant and increases peristalsis (movement of feces through the digestive tract) just to get the irritating fiber out of there.
How to Make Vegetables Easier on your Stomach
Choose the Right Ones
Choosing fruits and vegetables low in FODMAPs can go a long way towards improving your “gut reaction.” Onions and garlic are two vegetables very high in FODMAPs; some people get relief just by eliminating those two. Cruciferous vegetables (like broccoli, cabbage, and Brussels sprouts) are also common problem foods. Other people find it helpful to get even more involved: here’s a list of Paleo low-FODMAP foods if you want more.
Some good safe choices are:
Carrots
Zucchini and other summer squash
Butternut, acorn, and other winter squash
Lettuce, spinach, and other salad greens
Eggplant
Cucumbers
Bananas
Cook them
Cooking vegetables helps break down the fibers they contain, which makes them easier on the digestive system because they’re already partly broken down. You don’t have to boil the life out of everything you eat; it’s fine to steam, sauté, or roast them so long as they’re well-done at the end.
Mashed vegetables (potatoes – or carrots, sweet potatoes, or cauliflower) can also be a little easier to manage because they’re almost pre-digested by the mashing before they get to your plate.
If it’s really bad, you could also try eating vegetables only in soups, cooked so long that they’re almost falling apart. Normally, cooking vegetables in water for so long would be an issue because of nutrient loss, but in a soup, you’re eating the water as well: even though nutrients leach out into the broth, they still end up in your body anyway.
Eat Smaller Portions
Paleo is famous for the huge plates of vegetables: after all, why would bother getting out a separate bowl and taking only half the spinach when you could just dump your toppings into the clamshell and call it lunch? But if vegetables are causing you digestive trouble, this really isn’t the way to go.
Instead, try starting with small servings and working up gradually. Instead of digging into a massive pile of cabbage, start with a small plate of something gentler (like squash) and gradually work your way up. It may take a while to re-introduce, and some foods might never be “safe” in anything more than small amounts, but you might also find that after some gut healing time, you can digest a lot more than you thought you could.
Heal your Gut
Nobody wants to be on an elimination diet forever. It’s pretty monotonous – and in many cases, it shouldn’t even be necessary. The point of cutting out vegetables that irritate your gut isn’t to live without them forever; it’s to give everything a chance to heal so that ultimately you’ll be able to eat those foods again without fear.
Specific gut-healing protocols vary from person to person, but bone broth, probiotic foods (or supplements), plenty of sleep, and good stress management are always safe places to start.
Summing it Up
Vegetables are pretty wonderful foods, and most people feel great eating as many as they want. But if you keep finding that vegetables irritate your stomach, there is hope!
It might just be the transition – if you’re still in the first few weeks, just cut back and ramp it up again slowly.
Alternately, it might be a sensitivity to certain types of fibers – try reducing FODMAPs, cooking everything well, and paying special attention to healing the gut.
In rare cases, it might be a vegetable allergy (yes, those exist!) or a different kind of vegetable trouble.
Often, vegetable sensitivities aren’t forever, or at least they get a lot better over time. And they certainly shouldn’t ever stand between you and Paleo.
