[CHEAT SHEET] 5 hacks to reduce constipation

1. Fiber might hurt more than it helps

Fiber by definition is not digestible - therefore, if you're eating lots of it, you'll poop more.

End of story - isn't it?

No. Constipation doesn't occur due to a lack of fiber. It occurs do to a lack of "gut motility" (movement of the gut).

Gut motility - movement - slows down under conditions of high stress, low energy intake, high exercise, nutrient poor diet, and injury to the gut (food poisoning, inflammation).

Look to calm your lifestyle down, take in less stimulants, eat more regularly throughout the day, go for walks, stay hydrated, and improve the quality of your diet rather than opting for more fiber.

2. Rest and digest 

Love to eat on the run or give yourself all of 3 minutes to eat lunch? Bad idea.

When you're stressed, your body diverts blood and therefore energy away from your gut. This is bad news for those with a tendency towards constipation.

Take some deep breaths, and calm yourself before eating.

3. Build gut strength

Your gut lining is thin - really thin - one cell thick kind of thin. That's a very delicate, for an organ that has so much work to do.

Keep it strong by eating easy to digest foods, and plenty of traditional proteins like collagen, bone broth, and organ meat.

Yeah yeah, we know - that's not easy to do. But you can make it easy by getting some Collagen Restore™ and some organic liver in capsule form (no taste!).

You can also keep the mucosal layer that protects your gut lining strong by eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, which keep your gut bacteria happy, and well fed.

4. Eat to rebuild your metabolism 

Too many people are too stressed, diet too often, and then binge eat when it all falls to pieces. Your gut requires a lot of energy to run itself properly - so give!

Eat foods that support your metabolism, energy, and ease of digestion like ripe fruit, animal proteins, cooked vegetables including roots, quality dairy like hard cheese, and basically anything your great grandma would recognise.

5. Ditch the industrial gunk

Added sugars and industrial fats in food are no bueno. But so are emulsifiers, corn syrups, thickeners, and anything with numbers attached to them.

Most packaged foods, even when marketed as healthy, are not good for your gut. These "filler" ingredients are implicated as gut health damaging in multiple well controlled research studies.