Programs and Services

Nutrition Services

Constipation

• Drink eight to 10 cups of fluid each day. Try water, prune juice, other warm juices, and teas.
• Try drinking a warm liquid, such as soup or tea half an hour before normal time for a bowel movement.
• Add other sources of liquid to the diet such as soup or popsicles.
• Add two tablespoons ground flaxseed to daily diet.
• Slowly add high-fiber foods to the diet, try foods such as whole-grain breads and cereals, raw and cooked fruits and vegetables with the skins and peels, and beans and peas.
  • If you increase fiber in your diet, be sure to increase fluid as well or you may become more constipated.
• Snack on dried fruit such as apricots, raisins, prunes, and dates.
• Increase physical activity, even if by a small amount. Try taking a short walk about one hour before your normal time for a bowel movement.
• Eat a good breakfast; include a hot drink and high-fiber foods.
• Mix three parts wheat bran cereal, two parts applesauce, and one part prune juice. Eat this three times per day or more as needed, to promote a bowel movement. This works well on toast or in oatmeal.
• If gas is a problem, avoid carbonated drinks, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, dried beans and peas, onions, Brussels sprouts, Swiss chard, radishes, turnips, and watercress. Limit talking at meals to avoid swallowing air, do not use a straw, and avoid chewing gum.