Chronic Constipation

Description

This section is from the book "Mrs. Rorer's Diet For The Sick", by Sarah Tyson Rorer. Also available from Amazon: Mrs. Rorer's Diet For The Sick.

Chronic Constipation

Many persons seem totally ignorant of what causes and prolongs constipation. The mind has a more powerful influence over this than over any other disease; for this reason impress upon the patient that the given course of diet is curative.

Among the numerous conditions which cause and prolong this disease are the overeating of starches and the drinking of tea and coffee with sugar and cream with meals.

Too concentrated food, and too great a variety at a meal.

Drinking too little water between meals.

Softened bread or toast by dipping in tea or coffee.

Overeating of sweets, stewed dried fruits with sugar.

Eating heavy meals early in the morning, whether hungry or not.

Disobeying the call of nature until a more convenient hour.

All these things provoke indigestion, with its accompanying nervousness, constipation and lassitude, and a disinclination to be well, and a delight in invalidism.

Such persons could, if they would, even after long continued constipation, bring about better circulation, more natural and healthful conditions. The giddiness and faint-ness, important complaints in the mind of the patient, are always emphasized at the expense of the real trouble, which continues.

Green vegetables, carefully and simply cooked, fruits, raw or cooked without sugar, between meals or taken as a meal alone, are beneficial. Stewed fruits with meals or at the end of a meal as a dessert, are nine out of ten times constipating.

The few "Dont's" that follow may help you in selecting a suitable diet:

Don't eat an early breakfast, especially in bed.

Don't eat fruits stewed with sugar at the end of meals.

Don't drink at the beginning of a meal.

Don't preface your dinner with a soup.

Don't eat rich sauces.

Don't eat mayonnaise on vegetables; use French dressing.

Don't eat when not hungry. Fresh ingested foods meeting remnants of a preceding meal, rapidly ferment, producing sour stomach, and frequently in turn palpitation of the heart.

Don't eat too great variety at a meal.

Don't drink large quantities of fluids with meals; they cause discomfort and interfere with the action of the heart.

Things To Do

Bathe or sponge every morning; rub until the skin is aglow.

Drink immediately a glass of cool, not iced, water. In thirty minutes drink a cup of clear coffee.

If hungry a little later, eat fruit, or a soft-boiled egg and bacon.

Drink a pint of cool, not iced, water between breakfast and luncheon.

Masticate every mouthful of food thoroughly.

Drink at the end of the meal.

Buttermilk and brown bread make an exceedingly good luncheon or supper.

Take fruits with cereals, vegetables with meat.

At bedtime eat four or five tablespoonfuls of scraped turnip, or grated carrot, or apple, or two ounces of peanut brittle, or a half pint of freshly-popped corn.

When ready for bed, drink a glass of cool, not iced, water.