Foods that relieve constipation should be eaten on a regular basis by anyone that has bowel impaction or problems going to the bathroom without straining. Straining when going to the bathroom has actually caused a heart attack in many people over the years.
You do not have to be a victim if you just eat more of the foods that relieve constipation, and less of the foods that cause constipation on a daily basis. A heart attack is not the only health problem you can develop as a result from being constipated.
Chronic Constipation can lead to many other health problems:
--- Bowel Impaction
--- Re-absorption of toxins into the bloodstream
--- Headaches
--- Malnutrition
--- Indigestion
--- Hemorrhoids from straining
--- Varicose veins
--- Diverticulosis
--- Irritability
--- Bowel cancer
--- Auto immune diseases
--- Abdominal pains
--- Depression
--- Weight gain
I know I sure don't want any of the symptoms listed above. If you suffer from any of the symptoms on the list, then you would greatly benefit by eating more of the foods that are on the foods that relieve constipation list below, and avoid doing the things, and eating the foods that cause constipation that I have also listed below.
Foods that relieve constipation
--- Psyllium husks
--- Ground Flax seeds
--- Okra
--- Prunes
--- Dates
--- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
--- Potatoes
--- Lettuce
--- Onions
--- Carrots
--- Green peppers
--- Apples
--- Pears
--- Oranges
--- Grapefruits
--- Grapes
--- Strawberries
--- Beans
--- Other fruits and vegetables
Causes of constipation
--- Eating refined foods like white flour that contain no fiber.
--- Eating a lot of Cheeses
----Pasta
--- Pizza
--- Cookies
--- Drinking sodas and sugary drinks
--- Eating a lot of Meat (meat has no fiber in it)
--- Getting dehydrated
--- Overeating nuts and seeds (soaking Raw nuts overnight in water will help but they are not as tasty)
--- Drugs or Medications
--- Improper diet
--- Not going when you feel the urge and "holding it in" because you are not close to a bathroom or think you are too busy.
Over the years we have discovered that the same foods that relieve constipation, are also the same foods that are very healthy for you. The reason they are so healthy is that they contain vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, and they are high in fiber. Also if you eat them raw (except beans and potatoes) they will also contain living enzymes that aid in digestion.
Let me just go over with you a few of the worst foods to eat if you are trying to relieve constipation.
Cheese
Cheeses are very clogging to your digestive track. Every time I eat cheese, or meals containing cheese, it feels like my stomach turns into a knot, and I usually feel clogged up with stomach pains for a few days until it has worked his way back out of my system.
However I have been on a healthy diet program for a long time now, so my digestive track is used to processing and eliminating my foods without them getting clogged up in my intestines.
But, if you have been eating cheese and other clogging foods for a long time, you might be used to the feeling of having a clogged up digestive track, and most people in the United States have been eating this way their whole lives so they don't know what it feels like to not have digestive pains of some type.
White bread
Just about every sandwich, every burger on a bun, dinner roles, cakes, cookies, pies, pizza, pasta, and fast food biscuits, can cause constipation, especially if they are eaten alone without enough of the foods that relieve constipation also being eaten at the same meal.
This is because they contain very little fiber in them. Any time you eat constipating type foods, you should balance it out by eating foods that are high in fiber that I have listed above.
Pizza
Pizza is another food that usually takes a long time to move through the digestive tract. Pizza is also another food that has almost no fiber in. Cheese and white bread are two of the main foods that will clog down your digestive tract. And pizza contains both.
How to avoid constipation:
--- Stay hydrated by drinking enough pure water, raw fruit juices and raw vegetable juices.
--- Stop or cut way down on eating refined foods. (They glue us down inside)
--- Eat a lot more of the foods that relieve constipation that I have listed above.
If you are constipated, then you have food that is stuck in your intestines. This food that is stuck in your intestines starts to rot more and more the longer it is in your body.
Constipation is unhealthy for the body, especially if you are eating toxic, artificial chemical containing foods, or foods that you are intolerant to. Many people have food allergies that they might not know about that can cause many different types of symptoms.
To avoid constipation, make sure that you are not eating refined starches that have had the fiber removed like white rice, pastas, breads, tortillas, and biscuits. Also when eating any type of starch, you want the meal to have enough oil in it. Extra virgin olive or coconut oil are good clean sources of oil to use.
The more oil in the meal the less chance of constipation. But too much oil will zap your energy. Also you will want to eat enough fiber containing vegetables (but not fruits) with any starch-based meal.
If you eat more raw fruit smoothies for breakfast, then the high water content (the pulp of the orange, grapes, or Grapefruit) and the fiber in pears, apples, strawberries, raspberries, cherries, and cranberries should keep things moving and rinsed out.
Also smoothies are blended into a liquid, which also helps to avoid constipation. Another good meal to eat to relieve constipation is to make a soup with many neutral vegetables, add some okra (okra is kind of slippery in texture) and then blend it into an emulsion with some Extra Virgin Olive oil or Coconut oil. These liquid type meals rarely ever get stuck inside your digestive tract.
If you eat more of the foods that relieve constipation, and cut out the constipating ones, you will have better chances of not developing bowel impaction. If you already have bowel impaction, you might be able to slowly reverse it by eating more of the foods that relieve constipation.
What exactly is bowel impaction?
Bowel impaction is where a mass of food gets stuck inside your intestines and turns into a hard lump that doesn't come out. This lump of hard fecal matter then starts to rot. Then other foods that you eat later still has to be eliminated eventually, so they just have to go around the hard mass to get out. Your body might then develop chronic diarrhea to try and deal with the situation.
Bowel impaction can lead to the bowels becoming enlarged, which can then put too much pressure on the veins that are near the colon that are coming from various organs and muscles in the body.
Your organs need a fresh steady blood supply to function properly. You want all of your organs to work as they should if you want to stay healthy. Also high blood pressure can be because you have too many of your veins being pinched off. This is how varicose veins are formed. This is also how hemorrhoids are formed.
Just think of a water hose, if you pinch of the end of it, the pressure builds up and makes the hose expand. If you have high blood pressure because of veins being pinched off, then your heart will have to work harder to pump the blood through them.
By eating more of the foods that relieve constipation on a daily basis, you will feel better, you will become more regular in your bowel movements, and you will not have to worry as much about developing a more serious disease in the future that is caused from being chronically constipated.
I know that eating refined foods, candy, cakes, crackers, cheese, and pizzas are very tasty, but they cause constipation in many people. It is just not worth it to destroy our health by eating an unhealthy diet on a consistent basis. Also, once you cut out all the junk, and only eat healthy foods for a period of time, your taste buds will adapt, and the healthy foods will actually start to taste good.