Vegetables: The cure for constipation

Recently a client walked into my office complaining of persistant constipation.

I questioned him about his diet, how often he went to the toilet for a long-call and the state of his stool. It turned out had a long call only once a week and the experience was painful.

What was wrong with his diet is that he did not eat any fruits and rarely ate vegetables. Most of the time he took tea, bread and githeri and occasionally nyama choma.

He hardly drank water but took about five bottles of alcohol several times a week. After convincing him that eating healthy is not expensive I gave him a nutrition plan that included fruits and raw vegetables, like carrots, tomatoes, cabbages, kachumbari. For the price of one bottle of beer you can save buy four fruits a day. A person who buys a mandazi for tea everyday would get greater value from exchanging it with at two bananas.

Meal plan

I gave him a meal plan to follow. Half of his plate should be vegetables, º starch and º proteins. He was to include more beans and more natural foods in his diet. I gave him an appointment to come back after two weeks to review his progress.

The gentleman came back and gave me a long lecture on how before he spent a lot of money taking laxatives almost everyday. A doctor had given him a prescription which he made copies for refills.

Within three days of following my plan he was going to the toilet once a day and was energetic.

He wonders why the Government and health workers are not educating people on the benefits of good nutrition.

He promised to eat healthy, and to spread the message.

Constipation can cause serious health problems such as severe regular headaches, foul breadth, and lack of sleep, unexplained pain, fatigue, kidney problems, and depression.

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