Avoid strong tea, especially if steeped a long time. Tannic acid is developed, giving an astringent effect. Coffee, especially the higher grades, in the occasional use, stimulates the bowels to action, but the habit of taking strong coffee gives the secondary effect, and torpidity is the result.
It may be a wise provision of nature that the poorer and cheaper the coffee, the less deleterious is its character. Java and Mocha may be really poisonous to an individual, while Rio is quite inoffensive. Most of the adulterations of coffee are harmless. One “feasting on fruits freely” will not feel the need of any drink at meals, and in total abstinence great gain will be made in overcoming symptoms of indigestion.
LAXATIVE.
- Rolled and cracked wheat.
- Bread, gems, biscuit, griddle cakes, crackers and mush from flour of the entire wheat, and graham flour.
- Granula.
- Bran gruel and jelly.
- Fruit puddings.
- Fruit pies.
- All fresh acid fruits, including tropical fruits, like bananas, oranges, lemons, etc.
- Dried figs.
- French prunes and prunellas, eaten raw.
- Stewed dried fruits, containing hydrocyanic acid, of which peaches, plums and prunes are the best.
- New Orleans molasses.
- Rhubarb.
- Onions.
- Celery.
- Tomatoes.
- Cabbage, raw.
- Corn.
- Squash.
- Cauliflower.
- Green peas.
- Spinach.
- Beets, etc.
- Liver.
- Oysters.
- Wild game.
CONSTIPATING
- Hot bread.
- White bread.
- White crackers.
- Black pepper and spices.
- Pastry made of white flour and lard.
- Bread, rolls, dumplings, etc., made with baking powders.
- Cake.
- All custard puddings.
- Salted meats.
- Salted fish.
- Dried meats.
- Dried fish.
- Smoked meats.
- Poultry.
- Cheese.
- Chocolate.
- Cocoa.
- Boiled milk.
- Tea.
- Coffee.
- Coffee made from wheat, corn, barley, toast, etc.
- Beans (dried).
- Potatoes.
- Farina.
- Sago.
- Starch.
- Tapioca.
- Rice.
- Raspberries.
- Blackberries.
Lean fresh meats, fresh fish, eggs, raw milk, oatmeal, barley, buckwheat, corn meal, and sweet potatoes have no marked action either way, unless in exceptional cases.
Appropriate and sufficient exercise is next in importance to having proper food, in overcoming constipation. General and habitual exercise is essential to promote good circulation, a healthy nervous tone, complete respiration, and also power and elasticity of the muscles. The stomach, liver and indeed all the alimentary tract require also local exercise in order that a healthy standard may be gained and maintained.
The worm-like or peristaltic action of the intestines is produced by the contraction of the muscular coat. It is by this action that the contents of the canal are carried forward. Is it not plain that if exercise can develop the muscles of the arm or leg it can give tone and power to these muscles as well? Dr. Taylor, in “Health by Exercise,” says: “It is a curious and most interesting fact that children and young animals, whose desire for motion is inherent, are inclined chiefly to those exercises and those positions which necessarily affect the abdominal contents.
“It is in such exercises as climbing, rolling, crawling, jumping and playing generally that these contents are most disturbed. We are convinced that the means prescribed by nature will secure healthful development and power in these most essential parts of the body. As if to insure these healthful effects, nature has ordained that by respiration, as an efficient and constant means, these motions shall be secured to the alimentary canal. The abdominal contents may be considered as being located between two great muscular organs, the diaphragm and abdominal walls. These muscles act conjointly and simultaneously and upon all the included parts, causing them to play incessantly upon each, and subjecting them to a constant and gentle pressure.”