How Food Can Help (Or Hurt) Feeling Constipated

Whether it’s an awful, bloated feeling, belly discomfort or painful poops, nearly everyone has experienced the symptoms of constipation.

The exact cause of constipation varies, but understanding how your diet affects the consistency (or inconsistency) of your bowel movements can help you know how to push toward your next one (pun intended).

What causes constipation?

Constipation, simply put, is when you have infrequent, difficult or painful bowel movements. You might also feel like your bowel movements are never fully complete, or your poop might look dry and pebbly.  

Here’s the thing — there’s no “right” number of poops someone needs to have each day or week, but there should be some level of consistency within your own personal bathroom schedule. If that’s not you, the reason for the varying poop consistency can depend on many different factors. Here are some of the most common ones:

Your colon moving your poop too slowly

Constipation is most commonly caused by changes in diet or routine that slow how stool moves through the colon.

“Water is removed from the stool the longer it sits in the colon,” says Teri Brentnall, MD, a professor of gastroenterology at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

And when there’s less water in your stool, Brentnall explains, it can result in infrequent poops — once or twice a week, or less — and your stool might be hard or pebbly.

What kind of changes can lead to this? If you’re traveling for work or taking a much-needed vacation overseas, that can slow your colon down and you might find that it’s more difficult to go during the first few days of your trip. That’s completely normal.

Changes to your exercise habits (or not exercising very often) can also affect symptoms of constipation. Keeping your body moving helps keep your stool moving, too.

Ignoring your body’s cues if you’re really busy can also lead to constipation. Do you try to hold it because you’re in a meeting, on a road trip or just trying to finish that one task that’s been on your list for weeks? It can wait — your poops shouldn’t.

Finally, eating a diet that’s low in fiber can cause constipation (more on that below).  

Pelvic floor dysfunction

Another common reason for constipation? Look to your pelvic floor muscles.

“Constipation can form because the pelvic muscles aren’t working together to let the stool be deposited in the toilet,” says Brentnall. “People with this problem frequently report straining while trying to have a stool.”

Constipation because of pelvic floor problems is more common in women who have previously had children, especially if there was any type of injury (or just because of how much the ligaments in the pelvic floor stretch in pregnancy and childbirth).

If your doctor suspects you have constipation related to pelvic floor dysfunction, Brentnall says pelvic floor therapy can be a very effective treatment.

Other health issues

The body itself can impact your ability to have consistent bowel movements. For example, Brentnall says the length of your colon, issues with colonic motility (aka how the muscles in your colon contract), hormonal fluctuations, irritable bowel syndrome and side effects from any drugs you might be taking can cause constipation.

Because these potential causes might require a more in-depth treatment plan, it’s important to get checked out by your doctor and work with them to find treatments that help you feel more comfortable.

In the meantime (but really, all the time), Brentall says that many doctors agree there is something you can do at home to start tackling that uncomfortable feeling — pay attention to your diet.

How diet affect constipation?

For most people, the single biggest thing you can do to prevent constipation is to make good decisions about what you eat. Your diet can have a significant impact on how your body processes and moves your stool.

Unsurprisingly, some of the tastier foods often cause symptoms of constipation:  

• Fast foods  
• Processed and ultra-processed foods
• Foods high in sugar
• Fatty meals

“You typically don’t need to cut out these foods entirely,” says Brentnall. “But adding more fiber to your diet can help prevent symptoms of constipation and help your bowels move more freely.”

Doctors talk about the importance of fiber all the time, but where can you actually find a good dose of it? Brentnall has a few suggestions:

• Vegetables like broccoli, Brussels sprouts and leafy greens
• Fruits like bananas, prunes, pears and apples (with the skin)
• Grains like oatmeal, bran, quinoa and brown rice

“These foods help your body retain water in the stool, which prevents constipation,” says Brentnall. “They can also help balance your gut microbiome.”

Probiotics can also help you go, specifically those found in yogurt.  

If you’d rather try to supplement your fiber outside of your diet, you can find fiber supplements (look for psyllium) at your local pharmacy or grocery store. Other medications, such as Miralax, can also help add water back to the stool, which helps move it along.

Debunking constipation myths

Sometimes Dr. Google (or its new bestie, Dr. ChatGPT) can offer some ideas for symptom relief that aren’t clinically proven to be effective. Two of the biggest myths? Water and dairy intake.

“Drinking large amounts of water doesn’t generally improve constipation, studies show,” Brentnall says. “Most people take in sufficient water every day.”

It’s great to stay hydrated, but that likely won’t be the quick fix you are looking for to alleviate your symptoms.

Another myth? That going too hard on dairy can clog you up.

“Studies also show that, despite what many people think, cheese does not cause constipation,” says Brentnall. “In fact, just the opposite — for women, moderate dairy intake, including cheese, is associated with more regular stools and less constipation.”

So maybe you don’t always need to spend that extra $1 on oat milk in your morning latte, and you can have some parmesan on your pasta without it backing you up for days.

Listen to your body

Ultimately, if you can’t get yourself to have regular bowel movements, don’t push it (again, pun intended). It can increase your risk of hemorrhoids, anal fissures and rectal prolapse.

Work on those diet changes to make sure you’re eating enough fiber and talk to your doctor about other potential causes if you don’t start feeling better soon.  

This article was originally published on May 18, 2022. It has been reviewed and updated with new info.