Constipation is never a pleasant thing to experience. However, certain foods can contribute to that lack of bowel movements while other choices could help rectify the situation. In this post, I will share likely foods that cause constipation as well as foods that can help bring relief.
The Worst Binding Foods for Your Gut
Low-fiber foods can definitely assist with a sluggish digestive system. After all, fiber helps the food expand in the gut for softer and easier stool passage. Without enough, the result is painful irregularity. These particular foods are ones such as meat, dairy products and refined carbohydrates.
Foods with gluten are another likely source of this problem. The reason is due to a particular protein, which is the gluten in grains such as wheat, rye, spelt, and barley for instance. Though this trouble with the bowel may not happen to everyone, it can arise from gluten intolerance or celiac disease when the immune system works against the gut after eating gluten.
In general, processed white grains are especially detrimental to digestive issues. You might want to avoid white bread, white pasta and white rice due to their lack of enough fiber. The basis to explain this is because the bran that has that important fiber and germ parts of the grain were stripped during processing.
High-FODMAP foods such as onions, garlic, beans, and pears also can be suspect when being constipated. This is because of the distinctive variety of carbohydrates those types of foods possess that have the ability to ferment in the digestive system to affect slow or fast movement of the stool to cause binding issues, gas, puffing of the stomach area to diarrhea.
The Best Foods for Constipation Relief
Foods with more fiber are beneficial. This can be obtained as insoluble fiber or roughage from leafy green vegetables, popcorn, skin and seeds of fruits and vegetables, and nuts. You can also increase your fiber intake through adding more soluble fiber like whole grains, apples, bananas, and oatmeal that will bulk up as a gel once combined with water once it hits the digestive track.
Some of the recommended foods for constipation include both types of fiber. For example, potatoes and apples have soluble fiber inside, and insoluble fiber in the outer skin.
Prune juice is another best bet for dealing with this condition. The reason is the amount of dietary fiber in pectin they contain, sugar alcohol to keep more water in the stool and polyphenols for improved gut health. According to one of the research studies, one cup of prune juice a day after seven weeks can end a battle with chronic constipation and result in regular bowel movements.
On the other hand, if you prefer eating prunes directly, then another study suggests one-half cups a day may be effective for regulating the bowels even better than psyllium such as bulk forming fiber from products like Metamucil and Benefiber just to name a few.
Apples and pears are among the top fruits to pick to benefit from. After all, apples have 200 grams of fibers whereas pears contain about 178 grams.
Citrus fruits are also good to eat more whether in the form of oranges, mandarins or grapefruits, but have slightly less fiber at 154 grams. However, you also have to be careful when it comes to grapefruit if you are on prescription meds that can interact with it such as a cholesterol-lowering drug (a statin), or a blood thinner (an anti-coagulant), calcium channel blockers among others.
The top vegetables you should include for smoother bowel movements are spinach, broccoli, sweet potatoes, and artichokes. Besides ample fiber (128 grams per medium choke), artichokes have a prebiotic effect for encouraging more friendly gut bacteria into the gut due to their specialized dietary fiber called inulin.
Irregularity is nothing to joke about. Hopefully, the information provided about foods that cause constipation and ones that will help improve how you feel through natural treatments. Regardless, this post was not intended to replace your physician, but only to serve as a knowledge gateway to clue you to what may solve this problem.
