Why water and fiber matter to your body

Everyone seems to be dehydrated lately, which leads me to think about a topic we all think about but prefer not to discuss: constipation. Sorry, but here we go.

Winter is a time for eating dried fruit. Even though you can still buy fresh fruit at the market, most of it isn’t as tasty as summer fruit and it’s usually a lot more expensive.

Winter is also a time for eating compotes, which are basically stewed dried fruit. 

Probably you can see now where I’m going with this. To leap ahead, I tried to find out online if it makes a difference whether you eat stewed prunes or dried prunes. There doesn’t seem to be an advantage either way, because the things that help your regularity are present in both the stewed and the dried fruit, and both have those ingredients in a higher concentration than what you find in fresh plums. 

There is a difference between dried/stewed prunes and prune juice, however.

You would have a hard time convincing me to drink prune juice, but it’s described by one website as the go-to nonchemical aid if you’re really blocked up.

The website is called www.constipation-remedies-for-all.com. I generally avoid health websites that aren’t affiliated with a larger organization, because I don’t trust them. I did find this website to be very convincing, however, despite some lapses in grammar and spelling. 

It is produced by a naturopathic doctor and clinical herbalist named Chris Bernard who has a practice in the south of France. 

First, he explains why prunes in particular (more than just regular fresh or dried fruit) work so powerfully against constipation. 

Fiber is important, of course, but I’ve never completely understood why it’s good to have something that bulks up your, um, stool (sorry, I’m not sure what the best word is here, but I’m pretty sure that it isn’t “poop”).

The answer, according to Bernard, is that the “bulkier stools exert more pressure on the stretch receptors of the colon wall, encouraging peristalsis (the forward movement that makes the stools move through the colon).”

Fiber also balances the water levels in your colon. The website explains why this is good, but basically, the water helps move your matter through to its final destination.

Prunes are particularly good in the moisture department (see, we are now back to the hydration portion of this conversation) because they also have a type of sugar in them called sorbitol, which is not absorbed by the gut, as other sugars are. 

An obvious sidebar here is that you need to drink lots of water. It’s generally beneficial to your body, and it’s specifically beneficial to your, um, stool production and elimination. I’m not sure if this is scientifically true, but it seems like the air is drier in winter, and maybe you need to drink more water in winter than in summer. 

Back to the prunes, their third powerhouse anti-constipation element are something called phenolic compounds. Bernard explains that these compounds “stimulate the enteric nerves and provoke peristalsis. The stools move faster in the colon, thus getting less dehydrated.”

OK, so that’s the 411 on what prunes offer, more than any other dried or stewed fruit, that makes them so effective in getting things moving in your colon.

As to prune juice (or dried plum juice, if that makes it sound more enticing), Bernard refers to it as the constipation cavalry. If you’re really blocked up and it’s becoming a problem, skip the stewed and dried version and go right to the juice. Why? “You are already backed up; adding more fecal bulk is not going to help,” Bernard explains. 

So with the juice, you’re subtracting the bulky fiber but you still have the ingredients that “draw water in your gut (sorbitol) and stimulate forward movement (phenolics).”

He adds a caveat: “Do not use the ‘pulp added’ type for which fibers have been added back in.”

If you’re like me, you probably want to go to the extreme with whatever home remedy you decide to try. This is not a great idea when it comes to prunes or any laxative product. Start slow, with one or two prunes a day, and work your way up. Bernard warns that if you’re eating eight prunes a day and haven’t seen any results, then the prune cure is not for you.

For prune juice, he recommends starting with a third of a cup and then waiting two hours.  If nothing has happened, have another third of a cup of juice and wait another two hours. Repeat until, he says, “you feel the urge.”