Contemplative Constipation

This food is the gift of
the whole universe -
the sky, and much hard work.


 

If you have ever planted a garden to grow food, you know how much daily, consistent work it takes.  The words above are the beginning of a Buddhist prayer practiced before eating a meal.  It is a practice of pausing, looking at the food on your plate, taking in colors and smells as you breathe away stressful thoughts before taking your first bite.  The prayer allows us to appreciate the hard work it took for that food to get to the table.  There are many steps:  Seeds saved and stored from previous seasons, planted after the turning and preparation of the soil; watering and weeding the rows of growing seeds; thinning the germinated seeds to allow them to grow big; finally, after weeks and months, picking the harvest and distributing it to kitchens where the food is washed, prepared, served and consumed.  The same is true for raising meat humanely.  The current trend of “farm to table”, takes many months and sometimes years, but how many of us are pausing to appreciate this.  Many experienced gardeners know that it is the perennial plants that have the most nutritional value - those that have been in the ground for years, digging deep roots.  Yet, all it takes is a few moments of gratitude, Saying Grace, engaging your heart and mind and improving digestion all at once.
 


May we transform our
unskillful states of mind and
 learn to eat in moderation.






 
About twenty years ago, I had a wonderful patient that came in on a weekly basis as a way to be proactive about her health.  Over the years, what I have noticed is that the healthiest people don’t wait until there is a problem to come in to see me; they come in frequently to stay ahead of the curve and accountable to someone who will keep them on track.
 
When she sat down, she looked worried and when I asked her how she was doing, she responded, “Something strange is happening; since our last session, every time I eat, I have a bowel movement.” 
 
“Tell me about what your stool looks like - Is it soft, runny, unformed, like diarrhea?”
 
“No”, she said, “It’s perfectly formed - not too soft or hard - and my bowels move shortly after I eat.”  The worried look was still on her face.
 
I thought for a few moments and said, “Congratulations, your bowels are moving normally.”
 
Our dogs eat, and within an hour or so, they move their bowels comfortably (unless we give them highly processed food, the equivalent of a junk food diet in human terms).  My dog Audrey, for instance, a smallish cockapoo, often drops three nicely formed bowel movements on an hour long morning walk.  She avoids even the most expensive, grain free dry kibble in her bowl or eats around it to get to the REAL food I mix in. 
 
Humans eating a highly processed diet generally have issues with their gut for several reasons:  They lack good amounts of soluble and insoluble fiber (I’m not talking about Metamucil); they lack a variety of both prebiotics and probiotics that feed the gut microbiome; and they are eating too many plant irritants not prepared properly, like gluten and lectins, that create a condition called “Leaky Gut Syndrome”.  The regular staples of the SAD diet (Standard American Diet) - foods containing refined flour, foods fried in toxic vegetable oils (French fries), meat from CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations) fed corn and soy to fatten them quickly;  sugary sodas and juices to add to the diabetes pandemic; cakes, cookies and other desserts are all created intentionally by the food industry to hit, what journalist Michael Moss, in his book, “Salt, Sugar, Fat”, calls the “bliss point” of food.  The “bliss point”, created by food chemists is that perfect amount of salt, sugar and/or fat that pings the addictive part of the brain, releasing dopamine - the “pleasure” neurotransmitter - that sets up a constant craving for all the things that are making us sick. 

 



May we eat it in
mindfulness so as to be
worthy to receive it.


 





Another words:  May we think before we eat.  Whether it’s our dogs or us humans, this type of eating will catch up with us eventually, creating autoimmune conditions of all types with symptoms that affect the skin (think hair loss in dogs) and the gut (think diarrhea and/or constipation).


 
When I see patients for the first consultation and ask them about their digestion and bowel habits, I have heard responses like, “I go about every three days,” or, “Normal for me is going once per week.”  Or, I have IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), an autoimmune condition reflecting dysbiosis of the gut microbiome from poor eating habits, unmanaged stress levels or antibiotic use, causing shifting patterns of diarrhea and constipation.  It is rare that I hear from a patient, “I go twice a day - no problem,” as we would see in a healthy human (or a dog).
 
Yet, over 63 million people in the United States suffer from constipation which, if not resolved, can lead to Parkinson’s Disease and Cancer in some cases, from stool that is sitting in the colon (and sometimes the small intestines) without recirculating.  This is not normal, and the symptoms - bloating, irritability, nausea, lack of appetite and even vomiting - are uncomfortable and interfere with the possibilities of a joyous life.  Our ancestral bodies, still operating as though we were born in the Paleolithic era, have not caught up to this Fast Food World - But, is this the world we want?



 
May we take only foods
that nourish us
and prevent illness.






 
Functional Medicine doctor Mark Hyman, M.D., says:  “We are all toxic waste dumps,” or “If we were meat, we wouldn’t be safe to eat!”  The point is that we become toxic if we eat toxic food and surround ourselves with toxic products (think Mercury amalgams, vaccinations made with aluminum and household products that are “cleaning” the house while making us sick). 
 
How we digest food is actually fascinating and the process can begin before food even hits your tongue.  Just by thinking about that cookie on your desk, the salivary glands in your mouth begin releasing enzymes to break down carbohydrates while the hormone Insulin is released from the pancreas, ready to grab glucose to bring it to where it is needed for energy.  Once food actually does come to your lips and is chewed, ground and swallowed, a process called “peristalsis” begins, alerting the organs of digestion below to get ready.  Peristalsis is the rhythmic movement of the long gut tube triggered by food starting at the top; it is a purely mechanical process, inspired by food coming down that creates the action of special smooth muscles inside the gut to contract and release until you feel the urge, called “mass movement”; then, it arrives at the rectum and is “moved” out of the body.
 
This amazing process is finely choreographed, involving food, water, the release of acid by the stomach and enzymes in the Small Intestines and Pancreas.  Because peristalsis is mechanical and not guided by your thoughts (as in telling your elbow to bend), it relies solely on the amount of food you are eating (too little or too much), the type of food (is there enough fiber to help sweep it through) and the amount of water so that the food is not too hard.  It also depends upon how much movement you do throughout the day (this doesn’t have to be exercise).  Sitting for many hours without moving, eating poorly, not drinking enough fluid and taking certain strong medications will create hard stool that is difficult to move.   



 
We accept this food so that we may practice 
the path of understanding and love.
 
-Thich Nhat Hanh




 
The good news is that, for most of us, the problem of constipation can be turned around. 

See the list below:

This amazing process is finely choreographed, involving food, water, the release of acid by the stomach and enzymes in the Small Intestines and Pancreas.  Because peristalsis is mechanical and not guided by your thoughts (as in telling your elbow to bend), it relies solely on the amount of food you are eating (too little or too much), the type of food (is there enough fiber to help sweep it through) and the amount of water so that the food is not too hard.  It also depends upon how much movement you do throughout the day (this doesn’t have to be exercise).  Sitting for many hours without moving, eating poorly, not drinking enough fluid and taking certain strong medications will create hard stool that is difficult to move.   ​