Constipation Nation

Our ancestors who lived without grains, sugars, and soft drinks enjoyed predictable bowel behavior. They ate some turtle, fish, clams, mushrooms, coconut, or mongongo nuts for breakfast, and out it all came that afternoon or evening—large, steamy, filled with undigested remains and prolific quantities of bacteria, no straining, laxatives, or stack of magazines required. If instead you are living a modern life and have pancakes with maple syrup for breakfast, you’ll be lucky to pass that out by tomorrow or the next day. Or perhaps you will be constipated, not passing out your pancakes and syrup for days, passing it incompletely in hard, painful bits and pieces. In constipation’s most extreme forms, the remains of pancakes can stay in your colon for weeks. Bran is not the answer. We have been given advice to consume more fiber. So we eat bran cereal/muffins, whole grain breads or drink powdered fiber supplements. Most of these grain-based foods contain insoluble cellulose (wood) fibers. This does work for some, as indigestible cellulose fibers, undigested by our own digestive apparatus as well as undigested by bowel flora, yields “bulk” that people mistake for a healthy bowel movement. Never mind that all of the other disruptions of digestion, from your mouth on down, are not addressed by loading up your diet with wood fibers. What if sluggish bowel movements prove unresponsive to such fibers? That’s when health care comes to the rescue with laxatives. Drugs...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - Category: Cardiology Authors: Tags: News & Updates bloating bowel flora bran constipation Dr. Davis fiber grain-free grains hydrate Inflammation laxatives Opiate drugs Opiods prebiotic undoctored wheat belly Wheat Belly Total Health Source Type: blogs