If you are constipated, you can reach for a bottle of laxative to either smoothly or explosively get things moving, depending on the strength level of the medication you’ve imbibed. Or, you can stand by the tried-and-true classic bit of advice: eat more fiber.
Scientists from King’s College London conducted a study on constipation that found there are probably better things to swallow if you want to get your bowels moving again, and none of them are fiber supplements.
As researchers discovered, mineral water, magnesium, and, surprisingly, kiwis are significantly better than your bowl of Raisin Bran at coaxing your bowels out of their atrophied state.
According to the guidance, two to three kiwifruits a day can work small miracles for your lackadaisical colon. That’s a lot of kiwi. You can down those two to three kiwifruits a day by mixing them up with eight to 10 prunes a day, as the research shows those are also great for blowing yourself out. Pair those two with a slice of rye bread and you’re almost guaranteed to fill that bowl to the brim in no time.
People reading this might have a skewed idea of what constipation even is. Everyone assumes that if they haven’t pooped in a couple of days, they’re constipated. That isn’t necessarily the case. By the strict definition of the word, actual, literal constipation is when you’re sitting on the toilet straining to make something come out…and nothing’s happening. On top of that, you’re bloated, and when you do poop, you can’t shake the feeling that you’re not done, but nothing else is happening. Those are likely the more common symptoms.
The diet advice is based on 75 clinical trials analyzed through a framework called the GRADE system, which stands for Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation.
Yes, the word that eventually forms the acronym is itself in the acronym.
This grade system then allowed researchers to narrow down 59 science-backed recommendations for solving the enigma of constipation. That’s where you get recommendations like mineral water and magnesium oxide supplements, which are a little bit redundant since the reason they recommend mineral water is because of its magnesium content.
So, if you want to poop, magnesium in some form or another seems to be one of the best ways to gently poke and prod your bowels back to life.
As for probiotics, the research doesn’t necessarily say they’re bad, but it also doesn’t say that they’re great at breaking up a bout of constipation. The most shocking part of the whole study is that the researchers found no strong evidence supporting high-fiber diets as a cure-all for constipation.
That doesn’t mean that fiber is useless, but that the old advice of just eating more fiber when you can’t poop isn’t rooted in any kind of scientific reality.
The post Forget Prunes. Eat These 3 Things to Cure Your Constipation. appeared first on VICE.
