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Constipation

Constipation

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Constipation is a condition that affects most people at one time or another, but for many people, it is a constant threat to health. Occasional constipation is not a serious problem in most cases, but chronic, or ongoing constipation is a serious condition. Fortunately, for most people, it is easily curable, but it requires a change of diet that some people may not be willing or able to make.

Food that is very compact as it moves through the digestive tract is responsible, in most cases, for constipation. Foods that are constipating are:

1. Bread

2. Cheese

3. Rice

4. Meat

5. Potatoes


It may be necessary to clarify that the message is that these food are not bad; on the contrary, except for bleached white bread, they are quite healthy, by and large. The point is that these foods are the major constipating ones, and they are the mainstay of many people's diets.

To avoid constipation fruits and vegetable must be incorporated into the diet. They provide the roughage and are higher in water content, for the most part. People who consume the above-mentioned foods without including 50% vegetables and fruits in each meal, are in most cases setting themselves up for a lifetime of constipation. Unfortunately, there are a number of health conditions which can result from chronic constipation, as mentioned below.

Hemorrhoids, high blood pressure, strokes, diverticulitis, and anemia all have a connection with constipation. Fortunately, these conditions are all preventable and curable, but the bottom line is that the diet has to be changed to incorporate vegetables and fruits; otherwise any cure will only be temporary, and constipation will again result. Your mother probably told you to eat your vegetables; well she was right.

How Much?


The big question is how much of a given meal should be made up of vegetables or fruit? The answer is 50 to 60%! That means at breakfast, for example, with the toast and eggs, or other bread-based item, add some melon, an orange, an apple, some raisins, etc., to total at least half of what you are eating. For lunch, a salad with your sandwich, or add a tomato and cucumber to the sandwich. For dinner, a large salad eaten with the meal will solve constipation problems. An excellent salad is chopped cucumbers and tomatoes, with lemon juice added on top; from fresh lemons, not the bottled lemon juice, because it contains sodium bisulfite in most cases, which is very hard on the stomach, and can cause allergic reactions and shortness of breath.

Laxatives

Many people resort to the use of laxatives to combat constipation. This is generally not a problem if it involves occasional use. However, regular use of laxatives can actually be dangerous to one's health. This may seem difficult to believe, but to find out how this can happen, please read on.

Lazy Stomach

Lazy stomach is the term used by doctors to describe what happens with regular use of laxatives. It basically involves a situation in which the body comes to depend on the laxatives in order to carry out its functions. Some of the complications that can result however from this situation of dependency are anemia, heart irregularities, and extreme weight loss, as the laxatives flush the vitamins and minerals through the body. Nutrients are thus not absorbed, and anemia is often soon to follow.That leads to extreme weakness often resulting in falls. Next, heart failure commonly occurs, which frequently spells the end of the person affected.

What to Do