I’ve heard people say, “if you’re constipated, you need more fiber in your diet.” and I’ve also heard people say, “if you’re having diarrhea, you need more fiber in your diet.” does fiber really help with both? and if so, how? I would think that fiber would help with diarrhea but make constipation worse. (TMI) >!but multiple times, eating fiber-heavy foods like flax seeds has caused diarrhea for me.!<
TLDR: how does fiber work to influence your bowel movements??
In: Biology
Let’s say you’re trying to plant a flower in two buckets. One bucket is full of dirty water. The fix would be to add a bunch of compost or nice soil to soak up the water. The other bucket is full of rocky clay. The fix would be to add a bunch of compost or nice soil to break up the rocky clay.
Your digestive system evolved to digest a relatively high fiber diet. Fiber is the neutral consistency that your intestines expect to pass through them so if you are having some sort of an imbalance that has to do with the actual content of your diet, adding fiber will bring it closer to its balancing point.
That having been said, there are many other reasons one might have diarrhea or constipation. Increasing your intake of fiber and water is a good first step toward correcting them but it won’t solve everything.
The trick with flax seeds, I learned, is drink way more water with them. Way more! I had the same experience as you OP and that was the culprit. I was eating them in the morning when I’m usually still on coffee. Chug a bunch of water when you eat them. Like two glasses. Problem solved.
Fiber binds moisture. Think of it like little sponges. A sponge can absorb water where there’s too much of it, and release water if it touches something that’s dry.
If you’re constipated it’s because your stool is too hard and can’t get around all the twists and turns in your guts so you need something that will add moisture to your stool. Eating fiber will help bind liquids and move through your digestive tract to dampen all the stuck stool. Like putting a wet sponge on a piece of paper – the paper will draw moisture out of the sponge and the liquid will make the paper come apart.
If you have diarrhea there is too much liquid in your digestive tract. If you eat fiber it will absorb some of that liquid to make everything a little less runny. Like cutting up a ton of sponges and throwing them into a soup – everything becomes less like water and more like a spongy mess.
In a more detailed sense, what really happens is that the dietary fiber coats the inside of your intestines and makes the stool move through your system slower, so the fiber and the lining of your gut have more time to absorb any excess liquids. This is why eating too much fiber too quickly can jam up your digestive tract and cause constipation if you’re short on liquids.
It also depends on the type of fiber. There’s soluble, and insoluble. Soluble fiber is fiber we can digest, and functions to “lube” your GI tract. Insoluble is fiber we can’t fully digest (think about when you see corn bits in your stool), and functions to bind your stool together.
If you’re constipated, more soluble fiber will help (in addition to more water). If you have diarrhea, more insoluble fiber will help.
Too much fiber leads to constipation, and too little leads to diarrhea. You need the right amount.
Diarrhea and constipation are KIND OF the same thing. Diarrhea is a way of getting things moving when there’s a stubborn blockage
Aside from what’s been stated already, there is a specific type of diarrhea that can occur simultaneously with constipation. Presumably (and this is not proven by any stretch), this is the result of overactivity of the bowels to try to move a constipated section, but this causes excessive watery stools to leak around that area.
So at least in SOME cases, diarrhea can be the result of constipation, and fiber and/or stool softeners can be used (and this is pretty common in hospital settings where people are not able to be active). Unfortunately, not ALL cases of diarrhea are, and doing so can certainly make those cases worse.
You have to understand what fiber does in your body. It goes all the way through and gives all your little microbes some bacteria they need which helps the gut microbiome which can help diarrhea and it goes all the way through undigested which helps if you can’t poop.
I have taken fiber every single day for the last 12 years. I am 52 years old heart is a great condition. No digestive issues. My labs are all good and I really give the credit to the fiber for doing that.
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