I used to get constipated all the time; I couldn't get moving without my morning coffee, and traveling would throw my digestion way off. Amazingly, once I went vegan, all that stopped, likely for the same reason I stopped getting bloated — cutting out dairy had improved my digestion. Many people on a healthy vegan diet experience more regular bowel movements because animal products like meat and dairy are especially constipating. A typical plant-based diet is also higher in fiber.
While people worry that a vegan diet won't give them enough protein, the truth is, 97 percent of Americans get plenty of protein. It's actually fiber that 97 percent of Americans get less than the RDA of. This is bad news for not just your BMs, but your overall health.
"Fiber helps you avoid minor health problems such as hemorrhoids or constipation while also helping to prevent major diseases like colon cancer and heart disease," Bruce Friedrich, coauthor of Clean Protein, tells POPSUGAR. In fact, one study published in the journal Stroke finds that increasing your fiber intake by seven grams a day can lower your risk of stroke, and Yale researchers find that premenopausal women who eat six or more grams of soluble fiber daily have 62 percent lower odds of breast cancer than women who eat less than four grams. Vegetables, nuts, whole grains, and fruit all have lots of fiber — while meat has none.
