Optimal bowel habits are to have a bowel movement after every major bolus of food and within ½ hour upon arising.  Most industrialized societies are constipated so minimally you should have one bowel movement per day:

  • 2 inches wide (if smaller then could be constriction in bowels)
  • 6-10 inches long (the length of the rectum/sigmoid colon)
  • medium brown (if green or light there are bile issues, black there is blood)
  • ½ sinks and ½ floats (if floats only then not digesting fats, if sinks then not enough fiber)

If your bowels are anything different from that there are digestive problems. If you are not evacuating your bowels properly you are reabsorbing the toxins your body is trying to get rid of. There are many reasons for constipation but we will be addressing the simplest reasons first:

  1. Hydration: This is the most common problem. A person should be drinking 1/3 of their body weight in ounces and absorb it. If you are urinating within an hour of drinking water you are not absorbing it.
  2. Fiber: One’s diet needs at least as much fiber foods as constipating foods. So you can tally your servings to make sure this is occurring.
  3. Exercise: You need to move your body to exercise your bowels.
  4. Metabolic reasons: Many things can affect our bowels. Some common ones include thyroid disorder, food allergies, parasites, to name a few. A physician can help you unravel these causes.

A quick constipation recipe:

1 cup unprocessed bran
1 cup applesauce
½ cup of prune juice
Mix the above ingredients together and consume 2-4 Tbsp/day.

Also a beet in any form each day will stimulate bowel movements.