Vary summer diets for healthy bowels

Summer means salads – bowls full of brightly-coloured vegetables.

But if constipation is an issue for you then maybe you should reach for the potato salad or sushi in addition to your more traditional salad favourites.

The Gut Foundation says in its latest booklet ‘Constipation and Bloating’, that resistant starch and dietary fibre are important when it comes to maintaining regular and healthy bowel activity.

Resistant starch is starch from cereals, fruits and vegetables that isn’t digested by enzymes in the small intestine but broken down by bacteria in the large intestine instead. Dietary fibre is the remains of plant foods that – like resistant starch – passes undigested through the small intestine and is mostly broken down by bacteria in the colon.

How we cook starch determines which part of the digestive system breaks it down. So if you cook starchy food like a potato and eat it hot, it’s digested in the small intestine, but if you allow the potato to cool and then eat it, the starch ends up in the large bowel as resistant starch.

Rice cooked by the Asian absorption-method – commonly used in sushi and many Asian restaurants – also contains more resistant starch.
While both resistant starch and dietary fibre ferment in the bowel, resistant starch can produce more volatile fatty acids than dietary fibre. These fatty acids can protect against colon cancer. Both dietary fibre and resistant starch contribute to faecal bulk, which has a significant role in normal bowel movements.

We all need at least 30 grams of dietary fibre each day, recommends the Gut Foundation and unless we eat wholegrains we’re not getting enough dietary fibre.

Other sources of dietary fibre include: muesli, bran, wholemeal pasta, legumes, dried fruits, nuts and seeds (especially pumpkin seeds). But you’ll need to cut out the white bread, cornflakes and biscuits – it’s better to reach for wholegrain options.

The Gut Foundation also advises that if you’re passing wind then your diet is probably pretty good.

The new guidelines also show there’s no evidence to indicate that laxatives will damage the bowel; they’re not addictive and they’re safe to use under medical supervision.

The guidelines also address other commonly believed misconceptions about constipation. For example, clinical studies have found no evidence that moderate exercise helps people suffering mild constipation and other experiments have found drinking more water than normal doesn’t overcome constipation.