Fiber important in diet

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I have terrible constipation. I eat eight to 10 prunes daily, and they help. But if I miss a day, I am constipated again. I don’t eat breakfast. For lunch, it’s toast with jam. Dinner is soup with crackers or meat with potatoes and a vegetable, and then a dish of yogurt. I snack on crackers. Any help you can give will be appreciated. — J.M.

ANSWER: Your diet has very little fiber, and fiber is often the answer to constipation. Fiber is the indigestible part of food. It holds water in undigested food as it passes through the intestines. That keeps the food residue bulky and moist and easy to evacuate.

•People should get around 25 grams of fiber a day. I’ll give you the fiber content of some foods, and you can start including them in your diet as you slowly make your way to the 25-gram goal. An apple, a pear, a baked potato with skin, half a cup of cooked green peas, half a cup of cooked baked beans and a cup of cooked brown rice have 4 grams of fiber each. Half a cup of cooked brussels sprouts has 2; a cup of strawberries has 3; half a cup of cooked pinto beans has 7.

•Don’t skip breakfast. Eat a high-fiber cereal. Some have as much as 14 grams of fiber in half a cup. You can get half your daily requirement right there.

•You can always add bran to any food. You can buy bran in health-food stores. One tablespoon has 1.6 grams of fiber. It’s tasteless, so it won’t affect the taste of any food you sprinkle it on. And stick with your prunes. Three prunes have about 2 grams of fiber, and, in addition, they contain a substance that has a laxative effect. You can eat them every day.

•Increase your fluid intake when you increase fiber intake.

Not everyone agrees about fiber’s value.