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Examining your bathroom frequency can be a quick, albeit unofficial, snapshot of intestinal health, due to the sensitivity of the gastrointestinal tract. For example, occasional deviations from your normal pooping schedule can often be traced back to things you ate (or didn’t eat), a lack of hydration oractivity, too much alcohol or increased stress within the past 24 to 72 hours. When one of these is the culprit, bathroom regularity typically returns soon after you resume your usual diet and health habits. But what if you still can’t go? Or find yourself gradually pooping less frequently? Low-grade chronicinflammationmay be contributing to constipation.
The Best Foods to Eat for Inflammation
What Is Poop’s Connection to Inflammation?
Chronic inflammationis at the root of almost every major health issue affecting Americans today, but can we really blame it for not being able to poop? I write regularly (no pun intended) on inflammation and the benefits of an anti-inflammatory diet and lifestyle, so I’m familiar with the role that inflammation plays when it comes to intestinal diseases. However, I’d never really considered the influence that inflammation may have on run-of-the mill digestive issues like constipation. Yet, it makes sense when you consider the gut-inflammation relationship and the fact thatconstipationis a common symptom of gut dysbiosis.
Experiencing constipation doesn’t necessarily mean you have inflammation or dysbiosis. Most of the time, the culprit is changes to diet, hydration or lifestyle habits, particularly if your pooping issues are occasional, sporadic and relatively quick to resolve. But if the issue continues or starts to occur more frequently, then inflammation may bean underlying cause.
When to Worry About Not Pooping (or Pooping Less Frequently)
How frequently should you go to stay regular? Answering this question is the first step in determiningifandwhento worry. From a clinical perspective,constipationis considered less than three bowel movements a week and includes having hard or dry stools that require excessive straining or abdominal distention. But this isn’t a great threshold for all since each individual tends to have their own schedule when it comes to pooping frequency. This may be once a day, twice a day or every other day, so using your own “norm” for comparison is often a better indicator.
5 Recommendations to Get Things Moving
1. Add fermented foods to your daily menu
Individuals who have issues with constipation on an ongoing basis are more likely to have lower levels ofbeneficial bacteriafrom theLactobacillusandBifidobacteriumgenus in their gut. The best food sources ofLactobacillusandBifidobacteriumstrains arefermented foodslike yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi and kombucha. Consuming some daily may be even more important if constipation is related to inflammation and gut dysbiosis.
2. Drink 2 to 4 extra cups of water daily
3. Choose higher-fiber foods over supplements
Fill at least three-fourths of your plate withhigher-fiberplant foods like vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds and whole grains. Thefiberin these foods (both soluble and insoluble forms) aids in digestion, poop formation and efficient transit through the colon. Most also contain varying amounts of prebiotic fibers, which gut microbes need for energy. While supplements can boost your overall intake, gut microbes aren’t able to ferment those fibers to create beneficial compounds like the ones in food.
5. Consider a probiotic supplement
Carolyn Williams, Ph.D., RD, a culinary nutrition expert known for her ability to simplify food and nutrition information and the author of two cookbooks,Meals That Heal: 100 Everyday Anti-Inflammatory Recipes in 30 Minutes or LessandOne-Pot Meals That Heal(June 2022). She is also co-host of the Happy Eating podcast, which explores the influence that diet and lifestyle have on mental wellness.You can follow her on Instagram@realfoodreallife_rdor oncarolynwilliamsrd.com.
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