Why does eating salad make me sick to my stomach?

It could be that one of the ingredients in the salad is not agreeing with you. I would start with the basic greens and salad dressing. If that does not make you sick, add another ingredient and so on.

If it is only greens that you are eating now, try a simple romaine lettuce and see if that works. If you are still sick after experimenting, it might be that the roughage in the salad is just too much for you and you might have to give salads up.

There could be several reasons. First of all (and probably not your case, but just the same) you could have gotten food poisioning. But since this is ongoing and not isolated....

1.) Do you wash the produce before you use it?

2.) Do you buy it from the grocery store or from an independent farmer who might use harmful pesticides?

3.) What kind of dressing do you use? Some people with sensitive stomachs can't use oil/vinegar dressings.

4.) Vegetables cause gas.

5.) If salad is all you're eating, this is happening because you're getting a LOT of fiber (and probably not much protein and calcium).

This is gross.... but my dad is on Atkins and he eats salad and hard boiled eggs a lot and when he goes to the bathroom... it's like an explosion. It's so gross!

Try using a different brand of salad mix or dressing. If it doesn't stop within a week or so, go see what a doctor says.

As some of the others have said, you could have an allergy to something in your salad. I'd go by the process of elimination. Try eating only Romaine lettuce at one meal, and only spinach greens at the next, only iceberg at the next. (Although I can't imagine that you'd be allergic to iceberg--it has no nutritional content.) Or it could be something else--tomatoes? Carrots? Peppers? I don't know what you put in your salad, but try to isolate the thing(s) you think it might be; that way you'll know. The other thing is, if you're buying salad "mixes" in bags, make sure you wash them first. I personally don't wash them but then they've never made me sick; maybe I just have an iron stomach. lol But you could be picking up a mild strain of e. coli or botulism from contaminated salad mixes...if you've bought them mostly from the same place, try buying them from a different store, and see if that helps any. The store you've been buying them from may be just having a run of bad salad. (Which is not good for anyone!) One other thing: if you previously did not include a lot of fiber in your diet, before you started changing your habits, your body may be taking time to get used to the extra fiber you've added. Try eating less salad (don't quit altogether; just cut back) and see if that helps. Hope ya get better--congrats on your choice to eat more healthfully; we should all do that!

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RE:

Why does eating salad make me sick to my stomach?

I'm changing my eating habits this year, trying to get on a more healthy, less-fatty diet. I've introduced lots of fruits and veggies to my diet. I really like salad mixes, the sort that have all kinds of different greens in them. But it seems that at least half the time when I eat a salad,...

Okay, don't try to overstuff yourself with veggies and fruits, that's not good, even for a vegetarian. Maybe you haven't been eating healthy for SO long that once you've switched over to a new diet, it cause your stomach to make changes to accept these food. So, eat occastioanly, and not too much, so your stomach could process it better. And if it continues, ask your doctor, because there might be a problem. Hope Id' helped!

Wash your greens well and dry it with a salad spinner. Sometimes it takes several washings to remove chemicals, especially the prepared salad mixes, where some type of preservative is added to increase shelf life. Or sometimes greens aren't pre-washed and soil particles remain.

Or E. coli. The greens aren't pre-washed, or the vegetable handlers weren't following codes when they packed your salad. E. coli was found in pre-washed spinach not too long ago because there was cross-contamination from a herd of cows that grazed near the spinach patch. Or perhaps you are using old dressing?

When you eat a ton of fiber like that, it just feeds the little bacteria in your large intestines (since salad fiber is a form of sugar that we cannot break down in the stomach/small intestines). So, when they start eating and multiplying, you end up with gas buildup (feeling nauseated), and a bunch of water buildup (complicated how it happens, but know that it leads to diarrhea). So, if it's really killing you, tone it down a bit. Just to note, this answer applies to the broad spectrum of people. You may have a syndrome that causes your symptoms via some other route.

it may be the type of letuce yor using, iceburg lettuce is not a good vegetable to eat, because it is really hard for the stomach to digest, the best would be really green and dark colored leafs....

if you ARE eating the dark colored ones, then make sure your washing them right, because i know that they can go bad REALLY quick (i use an organic lettuce mix with spinach from costco, and it lasts a week tops before going bad)

other than that, it may be an allergic reaction, or your body might just be getting use to your diet change.

i know i recently changed my diet eathing about 1/2 the ammont of meat as usual, twice the ammount of veggies, and i had dirrhea for like a week. after my body got use to my new diet, it adapted.

good luck!

your body probably isn't used to this healthy stuff like salad. It also might be your salad dressing and toppings, they might be very strong and make you sick. Are you allergic to anything? You can always try talking to your doctor or trying some other healthy foods.

You may be eating too much or you may be slightly allergic to something you are putting in the salad. Experiment with all the different ingredients. Eating them each alone and in in different quantities to see if you can pinpoint what exact veggie (or dressing) is causing the discomfort.