The Constipation Diet: Foods that Bring Regularity and Relief

Constipation can have many causes, but diet is always an important factor. Just as for many people there are certain foods that cause this condition, diet can bring relief. There are foods in an anti-constipation diet that relieve symptoms just as effectively as—although much more slowly than—fiber supplements, laxatives, and stool softeners.

What are the foods that cause this condition?

In people who have irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), the nerves in the lining of the bowel react to lectins, or identifying proteins, in certain foods. The lectins make these foods have the same effect on the bowel as a medication containing opium, such as paregoric. Common foods in IBS include wheat, dairy products, beef, pork, and lamb.

People with a sensitivity to the gliadin or gluten protein in wheat, barley, and rye can experience an alternating condition and diarrhea, along with varying degrees of intestinal inflammation, weakened immunity, and chronic headaches. These symptoms can be relatively mild but still caused by celiac disease.

When gluten sensitivity is the cause of the condition, diet is the key to recovery. The only answer is eliminating ALL gluten protein from the diet. Other foods do not aggravate condition.

What about the rest of us? For most people with this condition, dietary deficiencies are not as important as drinking enough water, getting enough exercise, not taking too many laxatives, or not avoiding trips to the bathroom. There are, however, foods that can cause—or relieve—symptoms in nearly anyone.

Some foods cause this condition if you don’t drink enough water, but relieve symptoms if you do. Foods that contain inulin (a starch not to be confused with insulin), including bananas, chicory, leeks, and onions, provide food for the helpful bacteria that live in the gut.

These bacteria form a mass that makes the stool easier to move, provided there is enough water available to soften it. When there is adequate hydration, inulin helps the lining of the colon absorb calcium. And when the colon absorbs calcium, the risk of colon cancer is reduced.

Fiber supplements to treat symptoms, incidentally, can cause this condition if you don’t drink the recommended eight glasses of water a day.

What are the foods that comprise the anti-constipation diet?

The old standby for relief of irregularity is the prune.

Prunes are dried plums. Dried prunes are approximately 6 percent fiber, but prune juice (which is made from dried prunes) contains no fiber at all.

Prunes promote regularity by providing simple sugars that draw fluid into the intestine. The additional fluid makes stool softer and easier to expel. Prunes do not cause spikes in blood sugar, because their natural sweetening agents are fructose and sorbitol rather than sucrose, better known as “white sugar.” Too much sorbitol, of course, can cause diarrhea.

Baby’s symptoms may be relieved by the four P’s of the anti-constipation diet, prunes, plums, pears, and peaches, as well as apricots. Breastfed babies seldom develop constipation, but milk fed babies often do.

In infants, constipation can become a vicious cycle. Cracks develop around the anus, so the baby withholds stool, worsening the painful cracks.

Giving baby the four P’s as food that relieve constipation, diets accompanied by adequate amounts of fluid, and making sure the child consumes a variety of foods in addition to milk slowly relieves the condition. It is also helpful to gently massage the baby’s tummy and to alternate water with milk.

Wheat bran is considered a popular food that relieves constipation in adults, but it may not be best. Many people suffer mild sensitivity to gluten that can cause alternating constipation and diarrhea. As noted above, for people with this condition, called celiac disease, wheat products aren’t the solution, they’re the problem.

Even if you aren’t sensitive to wheat, the fiber in wheat bran is only effective if you eat the bran by itself, not if you eat it with other foods. Eating any bran food by itself without adequate fluid can aggravate constipation.

Better than wheat bran are psyllium, citrus fiber, or slippery elm. For more information on these, see Herbs For Constipation