Questions & Answers

Should I Use Dried Fruit To Treat My Constipation?

Dried fruits are very good for constipation. You need to be careful with dried fruits, though, because they can contain a considerable amount of sugar. Small amounts of dried fruit should be your limit.

I prefer fresh fruits over dried fruits any day. That’s one of the reasons I grow all my own fruit. I think it’s a very good idea to grow some food yourself. The more you can grow, the better. There’s no way you can compare fresh grapes, fresh persimmons, fresh apples, or fresh apricots, with the dried versions. I mean, the flavor is entirely different and the sugar content’s different. To me, it’s much better to eat fresh food.

Raisins are quite interesting. They contain something called tartaric acid which helps to kill off certain bacteria in the bowel. This acid has a cleansing, detoxifying effect on the gut. Raisins also contain appreciable amounts of iron, magnesium, and specific B vitamins. If you have Candida or SIBO, you may want to skip raisins due to their sugar content. If you don’t have problems with bloating, gas, or burping, then raisins are probably going to be okay.

Every day of the year I have a bowl of cooked rolled oats with about a half tablespoon of organic raisins. I add a little honey from my own bees, and that’s my breakfast. You can have raisins with oatmeal, with yogurt, and even in salads. The combination of walnuts and raisins with some shredded chicken is very, very tasty.

You don’t have to consider dried fruits as something you have once a year in fruitcake. You can put them in many different dishes, but don’t add half a bag.

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Both raisin tea and prune tea are good for constipation. Prune tea is one of my favorite drinks for constipation. Put three or four prunes in a cup and add eight to ten ounces of hot water. Let the prunes sit for a while, give the drink a stir, and it’s ready. You can do the same thing using a tablespoon of raisins. When you’re done drinking the raisin tea, you can eat the solids left behind.

Both prune tea and raisin tea are gentle but effective laxatives.

If you have signs of indigestion like bloating and gas, you might want to get a comprehensive stool analysis before adding dried fruit to your diet. You want to know if you have Candida or a lot of dysbiotic bacteria that will thrive on sugar from dried fruit. If you do, now is not the time to be using dried fruit to manage constipation.

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