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Fiber helps constipation: Dietary Fiber for Constipation: How Much You Need

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Dietary Fiber for Constipation: How Much You Need

Written by Debra Fulghum Bruce, PhD

Medically Reviewed by Christine Mikstas, RD, LD on February 14, 2023

  • What Is Fiber?
  • Soluble vs. Insoluble Fiber
  • High-Fiber Foods
  • Daily Fiber Intake
  • Prunes for Constipation
  • Fiber Supplements
  • When Fiber Doesn’t Work for Ending Constipation
  • More

Can food be medicine? Sometimes, yes. It’s becoming clear in recent years that what you eat can be highly effective in preventing or reversing some health problems, especially chronic constipation.

Constipation is a symptom, not a disease. There are some serious medical conditions that can cause chronic constipation. Make sure you see your doctor for a medical evaluation. If you are healthy and looking for safe and effective long-term relief for chronic constipation, you might find help on your grocer’s shelves. Hundreds of foods and plant-based fiber products are available to relieve constipation — naturally.

Dietary fiber refers to the edible parts of plants or carbohydrates that cannot be digested. Fiber is in all plant foods, including fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds, and legumes. You can also find a form of fiber called chitin in the shells of crustaceans such as crab, lobster, and shrimp.

Soluble fiber partly dissolves in water, creating a gel-like substance that helps lower cholesterol. Sources of soluble fiber include oats, barley, rye, beans, oranges, and apples.

Insoluble fiber remains more intact as it passes through the digestive system. That makes insoluble fiber especially helpful in preventing or easing constipation. Insoluble fiber may also help with weight loss by making meals seem more filling without adding calories. Sources of insoluble fiber include wheat, brown rice, celery, carrots, nuts, and seeds.

Foods can contain both soluble and insoluble fiber.

Which type of fiber is better to ease constipation? Go for whole-grain breads, cereals, and pastas. Cereal fibers generally have cell walls that resist digestion and retain water within the cellular structures. Wheat bran can be highly effective as a natural laxative.

Eat plenty of fresh fruits, vegetables, and legumes such as beans and lentils. The fiber found in citrus fruits and legumes stimulates the growth of colonic flora, which increases the stool weight and the amount of bacteria in the stool. Encouraging the growth of certain bacteria in the colon may help promote a healthy intestine.

According to the USDA’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025, more than 90% of women and 97% of men do not meet recommended intakes for dietary fiber. Women younger than 51 should aim for 25 grams of fiber daily. Men younger than 51 should aim for 38 grams of fiber daily. Women 51 and older should get 21 grams of fiber daily. Men 51 and older should get 30 grams daily. 

For adults, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025 recommends between 2 and 4 cups of vegetables and 1. 5 and 2.5 cups of fruit daily depending on the total number of calories needed in a day. Fiber-rich fruits and vegetables include apples, oranges, broccoli, berries, pears, peas, figs, carrots, and beans. Some people get stomach cramps and gas when they increase their intake of fiber. Change your diet gradually and increase fluids to reduce discomfort.

Prunes contain sorbitol, which has a natural, laxative effect in the body. Prunes (which are just dried plums) are also high in disease-fighting antioxidants and have both insoluble and soluble fiber. One cup of pitted, uncooked prunes contains 12 grams of fiber. Three dried plums have 2 grams of fiber.

It’s best to get fiber from food. But if you can’t eat enough fruits and vegetables to make a difference, try foods that contain psyllium seed husk, bran, and methylcellulose. If that’s still not working, then opt for fiber supplements. Examples include psyllium, methylcellulose, wheat dextrin, and calcium polycarbophil. With psyllium powder, mix the powder in a glass of water one to three times daily. Fiber must have water in order to sweep the colon and move the stool out of your body. Be sure to drink enough water along with this psyllium powder drink. The drink may cause you to feel bloated until you get used to the fiber.

A high-fiber diet ends chronic constipation for many people. But those who have slow transit or pelvic floor dysfunction may respond poorly to increased dietary fiber. If you have a change in frequency of bowel movements and develop acute constipation, talk to your doctor. The constipation could be caused by an underlying medical condition.

Top Picks

Dietary Fiber for Constipation: How Much You Need

Written by Debra Fulghum Bruce, PhD

Medically Reviewed by Christine Mikstas, RD, LD on February 14, 2023

  • What Is Fiber?
  • Soluble vs. Insoluble Fiber
  • High-Fiber Foods
  • Daily Fiber Intake
  • Prunes for Constipation
  • Fiber Supplements
  • When Fiber Doesn’t Work for Ending Constipation
  • More

Can food be medicine? Sometimes, yes. It’s becoming clear in recent years that what you eat can be highly effective in preventing or reversing some health problems, especially chronic constipation.

Constipation is a symptom, not a disease. There are some serious medical conditions that can cause chronic constipation. Make sure you see your doctor for a medical evaluation. If you are healthy and looking for safe and effective long-term relief for chronic constipation, you might find help on your grocer’s shelves. Hundreds of foods and plant-based fiber products are available to relieve constipation — naturally.

Dietary fiber refers to the edible parts of plants or carbohydrates that cannot be digested. Fiber is in all plant foods, including fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds, and legumes. You can also find a form of fiber called chitin in the shells of crustaceans such as crab, lobster, and shrimp.

Soluble fiber partly dissolves in water, creating a gel-like substance that helps lower cholesterol. Sources of soluble fiber include oats, barley, rye, beans, oranges, and apples.

Insoluble fiber remains more intact as it passes through the digestive system. That makes insoluble fiber especially helpful in preventing or easing constipation. Insoluble fiber may also help with weight loss by making meals seem more filling without adding calories. Sources of insoluble fiber include wheat, brown rice, celery, carrots, nuts, and seeds.

Foods can contain both soluble and insoluble fiber.

Which type of fiber is better to ease constipation? Go for whole-grain breads, cereals, and pastas. Cereal fibers generally have cell walls that resist digestion and retain water within the cellular structures. Wheat bran can be highly effective as a natural laxative.

Eat plenty of fresh fruits, vegetables, and legumes such as beans and lentils. The fiber found in citrus fruits and legumes stimulates the growth of colonic flora, which increases the stool weight and the amount of bacteria in the stool. Encouraging the growth of certain bacteria in the colon may help promote a healthy intestine.

According to the USDA’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025, more than 90% of women and 97% of men do not meet recommended intakes for dietary fiber. Women younger than 51 should aim for 25 grams of fiber daily. Men younger than 51 should aim for 38 grams of fiber daily. Women 51 and older should get 21 grams of fiber daily. Men 51 and older should get 30 grams daily. 

For adults, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025 recommends between 2 and 4 cups of vegetables and 1.5 and 2.5 cups of fruit daily depending on the total number of calories needed in a day. Fiber-rich fruits and vegetables include apples, oranges, broccoli, berries, pears, peas, figs, carrots, and beans. Some people get stomach cramps and gas when they increase their intake of fiber. Change your diet gradually and increase fluids to reduce discomfort.

Prunes contain sorbitol, which has a natural, laxative effect in the body. Prunes (which are just dried plums) are also high in disease-fighting antioxidants and have both insoluble and soluble fiber. One cup of pitted, uncooked prunes contains 12 grams of fiber. Three dried plums have 2 grams of fiber.

It’s best to get fiber from food. But if you can’t eat enough fruits and vegetables to make a difference, try foods that contain psyllium seed husk, bran, and methylcellulose. If that’s still not working, then opt for fiber supplements. Examples include psyllium, methylcellulose, wheat dextrin, and calcium polycarbophil. With psyllium powder, mix the powder in a glass of water one to three times daily. Fiber must have water in order to sweep the colon and move the stool out of your body. Be sure to drink enough water along with this psyllium powder drink. The drink may cause you to feel bloated until you get used to the fiber.

A high-fiber diet ends chronic constipation for many people. But those who have slow transit or pelvic floor dysfunction may respond poorly to increased dietary fiber. If you have a change in frequency of bowel movements and develop acute constipation, talk to your doctor. The constipation could be caused by an underlying medical condition.

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What to eat with constipation? · “Siberian fiber”

In case of constipation, the patient is recommended foods rich in fiber. This fact has been scientifically proven, moreover, many centuries ago.

Even in ancient Greece, doctors said that food can not only saturate, but also cure many diseases.

What is constipation? This is a bowel condition that is best treated with food rather than pills. Why? Because constipation is a signal that you are not eating right and that you need to urgently change your diet. Constipation is a symptom, a kind of alarm SMS from the body …

How to deal with constipation? It seems to be clear to everyone what it is … But nevertheless, let’s figure it out, what if you have already encountered constipation, but don’t even think about it? So, if your bowels are emptied less than 3 times a week, then you have constipation. And you need to get rid of it. Even if you don’t feel sick at all.

Why? Because constipation can provoke serious diseases, such as hemorrhoids, inflammation of the rectum, colitis, reflux enteritis, thrombophlebitis and others. As they say, it will not seem enough.

But, fortunately, in the case of constipation, the method of prevention works very well. If you eat well, add more foods with fiber from constipation, then you will most likely never encounter this uncomfortable condition.

What does it mean to follow a diet for constipation? This means eating differently than is customary in the modern world. This means ignoring commercials that try to sell you fast and harmful products. In supermarkets, do not run headlong to showcases with harmful sausages or sausages, and ignore fast food cafes on the streets of the city.

Constipation is a serious medical and social problem. In developed countries, 30 to 50% of the working population and 5 to 20% of children suffer from constipation to some extent. In the elderly, constipation occurs 5 times more often than in young people (from Wikipedia).

Well, well, but how then to eat with constipation? This is impossible, this is impossible … Oddly enough, you need to eat what our ancestors preferred. Yes, yes, in our age of high technology, we need to return back to nature, to natural nutrition. This is exactly what modern scientists say.

“Nutritionists believe that the Western diet, rich in saturated fats and poor in fiber and fermentable substances, is inconsistent with our traditional ancient gut microflora and our genome, which have not changed since the dawn of man.” – This is the conclusion made by the professor of the Siberian State Medical University Sergey Nikolaevich Udintsev.

That is, as it turns out, in order for the body to be healthy and the intestines to work like clockwork, you need to adhere to a diet that repeats the diet of our ancestors. And it had a huge amount of vegetable fiber.

Diet for constipation with fiber

A healthy adult who consumes approximately 2,000-2,500 kcal per day should include 25-45 g of fiber in his diet daily. And this, respectively, is 2 kg of bananas, 3 kg of oranges or 5 kg of melon. Are you able to eat that much? Well, maybe once or twice it will work out . .. However, you need to eat all these mountains of fruits and vegetables every day! Such a remedy for constipation will cost us too much ….

It is much easier to solve the problem of constipation by focusing on legumes in your diet. You need to eat 2 cups of beans, peas or lentils every day. It seems like a good option, it’s still not kilograms of vegetables … But you’ll get tired of these peas, you’ll get bored in a week, don’t go to a fortuneteller! Are there other ways to upgrade your diet?

Proper nutrition for constipation

The absolute champion in the amount of fiber is cereals, more precisely, grain shells. Well, great … And what, you order oats to chew ?! No, you don’t need to do this at all. Biologists have found a way to process grain shells, which carefully preserves all their useful properties. It turns out dry fiber in the form of powder or granules, and it is packaged in jars and bags. And it is very convenient and easy to use.

Siberian fiber is known throughout Russia, it is well known abroad. This is an interesting, innovative product that has a great future.

Anti-constipation cocktail

In total, the factory produces about 150 types of “Siberian fiber”, including a specialized anti-constipation product – SK Lax cocktail, which is designed to solve this delicate problem.

With products from Siberian Fiber, the problem of proper nutrition with constipation will be solved! It has been scientifically proven that fiber helps with constipation, and now we are not afraid of them.

Fiber for constipation | Fitomucil Norm

Fiber for constipation
Fiber for constipation | Phytomucil Norm
How fiber helps with constipation. List of foods rich in fiber. Phytomucil Norm.
Fitomucil Norm

Of all the nutritional components needed to maintain health, fiber is the most underestimated. Each of us probably knows about proteins, fats and carbohydrates, has an idea about calories, vitamins, trace elements and amino acids. But hardly anyone seriously thinks about whether we consume enough fiber per day.

Cellulose is dietary fiber. Unlike proteins, fats and carbohydrates, it does not have such nutritional value and does not give us energy, but it plays a huge role in the normal functioning of the gastrointestinal tract and not only. Fiber helps with constipation due to several beneficial effects:

  • participation in the breakdown of food components;
  • increase in the residence time of food in the stomach;
  • lowering blood glucose levels;
  • increased absorption of calcium and iron;
  • increase in intestinal contents and ensure the normal consistency of feces;
  • normalization of intestinal motility – mild stimulation of its walls;
  • normalization of intestinal microflora;
  • binding and excretion of toxins, allergens;
  • participation in the development of a sufficient amount of digestive enzymes, metabolic processes of bile acids.

To better understand the mechanism of action of fiber in the digestive system, consider its types.

Fibers

Dietary fibers are divided into two types: soluble and insoluble. The first absorb liquid and turn into a soft gel. They can increase in size up to 10 times, which increases the volume of feces and softens them – this is how fiber works against constipation.

Insoluble fibers mechanically stimulate the intestinal walls, increasing peristalsis and promoting the natural excretion of feces without affecting the receptors (unlike stimulant laxatives). Both types of fiber must be supplied to the body, this will ensure the smooth functioning of the digestive system and regular stools.

Effect of fiber on the intestines

The functions of fiber in the digestive system are very diverse. It begins to work for the benefit of health even in the mouth – it stimulates salivation while chewing food, which makes it possible to soften the food bolus and facilitate its passage through the esophagus.

We remember that fiber can absorb water, increasing in volume. It absorbs liquid, creating a certain volume already in the stomach. This provides a long-lasting feeling of satiety, prevents overeating.

Constipation is a risk factor not only for hemorrhoids, anal fissures and colorectal cancer, but also for cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis. Vegetable fibers provide normal intestinal motility, biliary tract, prevent constipation and help fight chronic stool disorders. The introduction of fiber into the diet will be a good prevention of serious diseases.

Fiber increases the residence time of the food bolus in the stomach, but reduces the time it takes food to pass through the large intestine. This reduces the risk of accumulation of toxins and carcinogenic compounds to a minimum.

It is known that fiber slows down the access of digestive enzymes to sugars – they begin to be absorbed only after the partial destruction of the cell membranes by intestinal microorganisms. Therefore, the absorption of carbohydrates is slower, and there are no jumps in blood glucose levels.

Fiber for the intestines is necessary not only for constipation, it increases the binding and excretion of bile acids and cholesterol, reduces the absorption of cholesterol in the small intestine. Thus, this component of food has a positive effect on fat metabolism and prevents the set of extra pounds. Due to this fiber, the development of atherosclerosis is also prevented.

Fiber in sufficient volume is able to bind and remove up to a third of the fats ingested with food, up to half of the carcinogens found in fried meat, as well as those formed during the breakdown of metabolic products in the intestines. Fibers can also act as a natural sorbent – to bind and remove salts of heavy metals, toxins, poisons.

Dietary fiber is a substrate on which beneficial bacteria of the intestinal microflora multiply. Therefore, fiber is involved in the correction and prevention of dysbiosis, maintains a normal balance of microorganisms and strengthens the body’s defenses.

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Can fiber cause constipation

It’s important to check with your doctor before getting specific on how to take fiber for constipation. It is produced in the form of a ready-made dietary supplement or pharmacy remedy for the normalization of bowel function, and is also found in large quantities in certain foods. Despite the fact that this component is of natural origin, there are certain contraindications for the additional use of dietary fiber in any form:

  • acute inflammatory diseases – colitis, enteritis, etc.;
  • acute infectious diseases of the gastrointestinal tract;
  • peptic ulcer of the stomach, duodenum in the stage of decompensation / exacerbation;
  • acute abdominal pain, prolonged constipation that cannot be corrected with laxatives and other possible signs of intestinal obstruction, fecal blockage, etc.

Proper intake of fiber will not cause constipation. But with insufficient drinking regimen or improper / excessive use (more than 70 g), problems may arise: increased gas formation, abdominal pain, bloating and a feeling of heaviness.

Wash down the product in the form of a dry supplement with plenty of clean water. In addition, to increase the effectiveness of the action, it is important to drink at least 1.5-2 liters of pure water per day.

One of the preparations based on plant fibers is the British drug Fitomucil Norm. It contains soluble and insoluble fibers. Phytomucil Norm has a completely natural composition – the shell of psyllium psyllium seeds and the pulp of homemade plum fruits. It is easy to take: usually twice a day is enough to achieve daily normal stools. The drug acts gently and predictably, it is enough to dissolve the contents of one sachet in a glass of water or other soft drink, drink and drink with a glass of clean water without gas. This form of fiber is effective against constipation and promotes the establishment of a normal bowel movement.

How much fiber do you have per day?

The exact amount of fiber an adult needs to eat daily to stay healthy depends on many factors such as gender, age, and lifestyle. According to a study by the world’s leading nutritionists, published in the prestigious Lancet magazine, eating 25 to 29 grams of fiber is the optimal amount for a beneficial effect on human health.

List of foods rich in fiber

Fiber-rich foods are low in calories and require a lot of energy to digest: digesting your daily fiber intake is accompanied by the consumption of the same number of calories as a 20-minute jog.

The physiological need for dietary fiber is 30 g per day. Researchers Livzan M. A. and Osipenko M. F. define the following list of high-fiber foods for constipation: “… vegetables, fruits, cereals, muesli, wholemeal bread, prunes, dried apricots, figs” (Livzan M. A and Osipenko M. F., 2016, p. 679). It is important to understand that the amount of fiber per 100 g of product varies significantly.

The record holder for the content of this component is wheat bran: 43 g of fiber per 100 g of the product. Accordingly, to get the daily allowance, you need to eat less than 70 g of the product. This will prevent complications. However, bran is made up primarily of insoluble fiber, which can cause constipation, discomfort, and bloating. It is better to give preference to products containing more soluble fibers than insoluble ones. For example, Phytomucil Norm contains 4 times more soluble fibers than wheat bran.

The rest of the daily diet should also be taken into account, because there is a lot of fiber in other foods. For your convenience, we have prepared a list of foods with the highest fiber content:

  • rye and Borodino bread – about 8 g;
  • lentils – 12 g;
  • Brussels sprouts – 4. 2-4.4 g;
  • grain wheat – 11 g;
  • corn in grains – 9.2 g;
  • whole grain pasta – 8.8 g;
  • dried apricots – 7 g;
  • oatmeal – 6.7 g;
  • hazelnuts – 6.1 g;
  • green peas – 4.3 g;
  • black currant – 3.4 g;
  • carrots – 3.4 g;
  • white cabbage – 2 g;
  • bananas – 3.4 g;
  • boiled beets – 3 g;
  • apples, pears, kiwi – 2.5 g.

There are other foods with fiber for the intestines that are useful for constipation: brown rice, cucumbers and tomatoes, radishes, lettuce, parsley, grapes, oranges and apricots, mushrooms, potatoes, beans, spinach, etc. Some of the fiber is stored in fruit juices, but we are talking only about freshly squeezed ones: there are practically no dietary fibers in purchased juices.

When formulating a diet, it is important to consider not only the need for fiber, but also to diversify the menu in order to prevent nutritional deficiencies. Eating a kilogram of fruit, for example, can be not only difficult, but also contraindicated due to the large amount of fructose. In addition, it is also impossible to refuse dishes that do not contain fibers – meat, poultry, dairy products. In this case, the easiest way to get the daily allowance is with the help of special additives. Which fiber is better for constipation is up to you.