I’ve been living and teaching in Taiwan off and on for the last few years. Like most on the go, I often eat at cheap local restaurants. And nearly everyday, I move my bowels in the early morning with the same result: not exactly diarrhea, but not “together” either. Put it this way: There certainly hasn’t been anything, well, countable, in a long time!
Visiting the States, after some adjustment, I quickly reconstitute myself with normal bowel movements. Despite this condition here, I feel fine, but I don’t imagine this is good for my colon, etc, in the, um, long run.
Are ALL these restaurants that bad? Or could there be other sources for this trouble, like bottled water?
I used to have the same issue. My wife, the Great Problem Solver, went the pharmacy and bought me some flora pills (sorry, not sure what they’re called in English and I’m overseas at the moment with just the pills in a baggie, no box). Got me right as rain in no time. Visit your friendly neighborhood pharmacy with a local friend who speaks English and explain your problem to the pharmacist.
We have some friends who for many months had similar, more urgent issues. Turns out they were using a water pitcher with built in filter for drinking tap water. Once they added the additional step of boiling the water prior to filtration, everything went back to normal.
My guts went back to normal after about a year living in Taiwan. I’ve no idea what happened - perhaps my stomach just got used to the change in diet. Certainly, being careful with water will help. Make sure that you don’t eat too quickly because some restaurant food here carries on cooking when it’s on the table like dumplings in soup.
My first 3 months in Taiwan was the worst. I was sick to my stomach literally. Taiwanese orange juice messed me up; the local bottle water messed me up; eating anywhere, messed me up. Funny how shabu shabu saved my life back then. Imagine eating shabu shabu for lunch and dinner for a couple months straight?
I found I was missing high-fibre cereal so have now started buying museli or similar and having for breakfast most days. My bottom is an altogether happier place now.
I think if you eat well (i.e. mostly fresh food cooked at home) a traditional Taiwanese diet is one of the healthiest available. Plenty of steamed food, fish and green vegetables and not too much red meat and deep frying. However given the overwhelming preference for white rice (rather than brown/whole grain) and noodles a lack of fibre can be a problem.
+1 to that. The typical Taiwanese diet is far too stodgy - just look at how many brands of constipation pills there are in the pharmacy. Get more fibre from muesli, nuts, unprocessed vegetables, and salads. Also try yoghurt and probiotics for your intestinal flora; the pills are also well worth trying. Just the muesli does it for me. OTOH it could simply be that your guts haven’t got used to the new diet. Like the poster above, I had all sorts of weird afflictions when I first got here, but things settled down eventually.