Health MOT

Bowel Health

Nutritionist Amanda Woodvine answers your quandaries, queries and questions

Q. How often should I be moving my bowels?
A. Although most people move their bowels once a day, there is huge variation depending on factors such as your diet, activity level and illness. Once a day is a general rule-of-thumb, although some ‘normal’ people have a bowel movement three times a day or only once every two days.

Q. What does a normal bowel movement look like?
A. Ideally, faeces should be brown, soft but still formed, and roughly the size and shape of sausage links.Your faeces take the shape of your colon. What you eat – including dietary supplements – can affect how your faeces look and smell, as can certain diseases. However, normal bowel movements do not contain blood, and are not black or tarry.

Q. I’m prone to constipation – any tips?
A. Constipation is when you go to the loo less often or you strain when you do go – caused by stools being hard and small. Straining can be painful but it can also cause bleeding or swollen veins in the anus known as haemorrhoids or piles. If you’re bleeding regularly or your constipation lasts more than two weeks, see your GP! Constipation can also produce stomach ache and cramps, bloating, nausea, headaches, a furred tongue, tiredness and depression.

Make sure that you get enough fibre from vegetables, pulses and wholegrain cereals – there’s no fibre in animal products! This will help soften your stools, making them easier to pass. Drinking one to two litres of water each day and exercising regularly can help, too.

Q. I get terrible bloating and wind when I eat beans – any suggestions?
A. Flatulence (wind) is caused by bacteria in the colon feeding on carbohydrates called oligosaccharides, which produce methane and sulphur. Pfoooar…!

High-fibre diets may cause wind but are brilliant for health, producing softer stools, protecting against colon cancer and possibly stroke and heart disease, too – not to mention relief from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Oh, and oligosaccharides also help control cholesterol levels. Powerful stuff!

Beans contain lots of oligosaccharides – as do cabbage, Brussel sprouts, cauliflower, turnips, onions, garlic, leeks and some seeds. Soaking gets rid of most oligosaccharides
so long as you discard the water before cooking.

Cooking the beans longer until you can mash them softens the starch and fibres and helps digestion. Start with small amounts, perhaps three times a week, and gradually
increase the quantity.

Sweeter beans such as adzuki, black-eyed peas, lentils and mung beans are probably the easiest to digest and cooking beans with a bay leaf, cumin or kombu also reduces gas.

Other foods which cause wind are beer, white wine, fruit juices, eggs and meat. Impaired digestion (eg in Crohn’s disease and IBS) can also cause excess wind.

Dr McDougall’s Digestive Tune-Up explains how a low-fat, plant-based
diet can prevent and cure constipation, haemorrhoids, IBS and other chronic intestinal
disorders. Just £16.99, including p&p from the VVF shop.

Stool Analysis
The shape, smell, size and texture of your bowel movements (or lack of one) can tell you a lot about how well your digestive system is working. Click here to take the stool analysis test!

Farty Facts
• Adults produce 400ml to two litres of gas a day.
• The average person farts on average 15 times per day, but the range is from three to 40 times, depending on diet.
• Certain medical conditions such as Crohn’s and celiac disease can impair digestion. See your GP if you experience any of the following: severe abdominal pain; weight loss; persistent diarrhoea; or pale smelly stools that tend to float in the toilet pan.
Some otherwise healthy people lack the enzyme necessary to digest lactose, the sugar in cow’s milk. As a result the lactose is fermented by the colon bacteria, producing large
amounts of carbon dioxide and hydrogen. The condition is called lactose intolerance. Besides gas production it can cause abdominal cramps. The ‘cure’ is to reduce milk intake to a level at which symptoms are controlled. Your doctor may carry out special tests to confirm the diagnosis.
• Sorbitol, a sweetener used in diabetic diets and present in jams, sweets and sugarless chewing gum, is not digested in the small intestine and can also cause wind.