Foods that Cause Constipation

Is Saturated Fat Guilty?

Saturated fat is much-maligned for raising the level of cholesterol in the bloodstream, increasing the risk of coronary disease ,cancer

...and one of the foods that cause constipation.

Members in the food family of fat are charaterised by a head of glycerol and three tails of fatty acids. The one who has double bonds on its tails, which enables it to remain liquid at room temperature is the beloved unsaturated fat. The one without the double bonds, therefore becomes solid at room temperature, is the ostracized saturated fat .

molecule of an unsaturated fat
one glycerol above attached to three fatty acid molecules at the tail part. Note the carbon-carbon double bond on the right and left.

Let's go and visit saturated fat. "Huh, how?" you might wonder. There are plenty of them in hot dogs. Okay, I need a good excuse to enjoy a few oily grilled hot dogs slapped with mustard and chillie sauce. For me, this is a sinful pleasure which I pay with the price of constipation. Sometimes, I think this is so unfair. After all it's only a few hot dogs. According to books written by health freaks, saturated fat takes longer time to travel from my mouth to my anus whereas high fiber foods such as those boring green vegetables, get out in a jiffy. In other words, food that stays longer in my digestive tract leads to constipation.

However, hot dog is nothing when compared to coconut. Coconut is most saturated with saturated fat, up to ninety percent. Pssst, I live on a tropical island. Here, a coconut sold at seventy cent is considered expensive. We folks on coconut islands can consume up to six times daily calories of saturated fat more than Americans ( who can be six times our average size especially at the belly ). Yet, we are leaner and if you interview our representatives from the islands of Pukapuka and Tokelau near New Zealand about constipation, they will say:

"Huh, what's that?". Their average bowel movement is two or more every day. Really...the refreshing goodness of natural coconut needs no advertisement.

The different ways the digestive tract react to hot dog and coconut get me thinking hard :

1. Could it due to the fact that hot dog has more of fatty acids called stearic acid whereas coconut has more fatty acids called lauric acid? Instead of lumping up all the saturated fats, maybe we should pay attention to the different types of fatty acids found in saturated fat in different proportions.

2. Could it due to our being subconsciously suicidal when we wash down saturated fat with either dehydrating alcohol or caffein and glueing our butts on the couch in front of TV most of the day?

3. Could it due to the quality of saturated fat in both food items? You know, the difference between processed food and natural food. Oops I need to check my tongue and rephrase. The processed food I meant is the type made for the sake of getting huge quickie profit with little consideration of preserving natural goodness and health of the consumers.

A classic example is refined cooking oil. Both saturated and unsaturated fat become evil after they are bleached, deodorized and hydrogenated. To make matter worse, many people who sell fried food use the same oil over and over again. In my community, they nickname this kind of oil " The Thousand Year Oil". It must be the most popular oil judging from the long queues.

I even began to think a detail should be added to the advice: stay away from deep fried food to avoid constipation. Oh no, this is a painful article to write because I am craving for crispy fried onion rings now. What if, the onion rings are not fried in "the thousand year oil"? What if natural virgin oil is used to fried the onion rings? I will indulge a.s.a.p.

Time to put the accused foods that cause constipation on the stand...

From plant sources, Constipationopia summons chocolate, vegetable shortening, palm oil, dough nuts, cakes, cookies and pies. From animal sources we summon egg yolk, lard, milk, ice cream, meat, poultry, regular cheese, regular hamburger, bacon and sausage.

Are they guilty as foods that cause constipation because they are loaded with saturated fat?

molecule of a saturated fat
glycerol head and three fat acids as tail without the double bonds.

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