3 Questions to Ask Yourself If You Suffer from Constipation
Approximately 1 in 4 Canadians has symptoms of constipation, and according to the Canadian Society of Intestinal Research, chronic constipation affects 15-30% of Canadians impacting women more often than men. Although constipation is quite prevalent in Western society, another study found that only 34% of individuals with self-reported constipation sought help from their doctor.
What does this tell us? We need to create more awareness around the negative impacts of chronic constipation (that’s a topic for another post), and offer individuals solutions to get to the root cause of their symptoms, not medications to put a Band-Aid on it.
Constipation means your bowel movements are infrequent or difficult to pass. An infrequent bowel movement means less than once per day. Some sources define “abnormal frequency” as less than 3 bowel movements per week, but I want you to consider the logic behind this…
If you are eating three meals a day, you should be going to the bathroom at least once a day to eliminate waste byproducts. Anything less than this could compromise your health and leave you feeling bloated and sluggish.
In addition to the above definition, constipation can also look like:
Straining
Hard, rabbit-like pellets
Painful defecation
Not feeling like you have fully emptied
Feeling like you want to go but can’t
Just because constipation is “common” doesn’t mean that it’s “normal”. Here are 3 questions you should be asking yourself if you struggle to have a bowel movement on a regular basis.
1. Am I drinking enough water?
One survey that looked at 1,730 members of a Canadian community found that more than 90% of the participants drank less than 8 cups of water each day! Current recommendations are 9 cups of water for women and 12 cups of water for men.
Our bodies are approximately 60% water, and water is needed for nearly every single process that takes place in the human body, including digestion. It lubricates the walls of the intestine so digested food can easily move through it, making it easier to pass a bowel movement. Water is also reabsorbed from the stool as food waste passes through the large intestine. If you are dehydrated, this can leave the stool dry and difficult for your intestines to move it along (akin to pushing sand through a pipe).
These are just a few ways water is essential for preventing constipation. (If you want to learn more, you can read my blog post, “Is Dehydration Making Your IBS Worse?”)
If you’re reading this, and you are realizing that you definitely aren’t hitting the daily recommended targets for water consumption, this is the first place you’ll want to target for solving constipation.
I recommend that my clients drink 16 to 24 ounces of warm water as soon as they wake up in the morning. Drink this before you have any coffee or any food to eat. This already 2 to 3 cups of your daily total.
Additionally, when you wake up after sleeping all night, your body is already in a dehydrated state. Downing water first thing in the morning gives you a boost of hydration and flushes through your empty digestive system to wake it up.
Bonus tip: add a squeeze of lemon to your warm water to get your digestive fluids flowing and promote peristalsis (the muscular contractions of your intestines that move food through for evacuation). Lemon juice can be acidic on tooth enamel, so it’s best to drink this beverage through a reusable straw.
2. Am I eating enough fiber?
Fiber is the indigestible part of plant foods, also known as roughage. It is found in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds. Animal products do not contain any fiber.
There are two basic types: soluble and insoluble.
Soluble fiber is found in many fruits, vegetables like sweet potatoes, squash, and green beans, oats, chia seeds, and psyllium. It dissolves easily in water to form a gel-like substance which bulks up your stool making it easier to pass.
Insoluble fiber is also found in many fruits and vegetables but it is primarily found in the skins and seeds, outer husks of whole grains, and in leafy greens. Insoluble fiber does not dissolve in water. Instead, it adds bulk to your stool and speeds up transit time (the amount of time it takes for your stool to pass through your digestive tract).
Getting enough fiber in your diet is essential for regular bowel movements, and it is generally recommended you eat between 25 to 35 grams of fiber each day. (E.g., There are approximately 2-3g of fiber in an apple, 4g of fiber in half a cup of dried large flake oats, 7-8g of fiber in ½ cup cooked black beans.)
If you are not someone who typically eats a lot of fiber, it’s important to introduce it slowly and gradually – otherwise it can end up making bloating and constipation worse. And, as you increase fiber intake, it is equally as important to make sure you are drinking enough water (circle back to question 1!).
(Fiber has many more benefits, and if you’re looking for specific tips on how to bring more into your diet without making you bloated and constipated, check out my blog post on “What Is the Best Fiber for IBS?”)
3. Am I eating something that is making me constipated?
This is a big one. Some of the most common food triggers for constipation are dairy, gluten, fat, and sugar.
Dairy is one of the most prevalent food triggers in the world. This may be due, in part, to its complex composition. Lactose intolerance aside (which causes diarrhea, not constipation), milk contains more than twenty different proteins. Eight of these have been identified as common allergens. Allergic reactions, whether immediate or delayed, initiate an immune response which results in inflammation. And inflammation can result in chronic bloating and constipation.
(You can learn more about cow’s milk intolerance here.)
Milk also contains casein, a protein that is difficult to digest and is often used as a binding agent in glue. If it’s sticky enough to act as glue, imagine what it does inside your gut?! Gluten has a similar effect and is also know to contribute to inflammation.
High fat diets are also a known trigger for constipation because fat slows digestion and decreases transit time. If you are chronically constipated, you may want to consider tracking your food for a few days to see how much fat you are consuming from both healthy and unhealthy sources. (A tracking app like MyFitnessPal or Cronometer can be useful!)
Any food that causes inflammation, like sugar, may contribute to ongoing constipation. If you are unsure of what food(s) might be triggering your symptoms, you can do a food and symptom journal to help you identify the culprits. (Learn how to do that here!)
Constipation is often multifactorial and addressing the above concerns may just be exploring the tip of the iceberg, but it’s a good place to start. Symptoms can improve significantly with just a few simple changes.
Here is a list of a few other factors that could be keeping you bloated and backed up:
Not chewing your food enough
Late-night eating
Grazing instead of 3 main meals
Low stomach acid
Overburdened liver
Inflammation
Stress
Suppressed emotions
Nutrient deficiencies
Bacterial overgrowth
Dysbiosis
Candida
Sedentary lifestyle
Hypothyroid
Depression
Diabetes
Food sensitivities
Medications
Supplements
If you feel you are drinking enough water, eating enough fiber, and you have already played around with elimination diets but you are still struggling with ongoing constipation, it may be time to seek outside expertise.
A nutritionist with experience navigating gut issues can help you take a broader look at your symptoms to identify possible additional root causes that may be stemming from any of the above factors. Access to lab testing for more complex cases can also help to eliminate much of the guess work. If you’d like to learn more about how I help my clients decrease bloating, relieve constipation, and improve digestion, click here.
