Beans,Beans, The Musical Fruit...The More You Eat, The More You Toot ;)

{Everyone Poops}

There was a time when I was thoroughly embarrassed about all things "down there". You know, like turn all immature at even the idea of going to the gyno's office. Or, gas? Who, me?! No way, never. Yeah, right. After having visited the ob-gyn a gazillion times with each pregnancy and given birth, with random people staring at my cha-cha with a huge beaming florescent light directed at it, I've lost the snicker that used to come along with bodily function talk. While, I may not have totally lost all inhibitions, and clearly don't find poop as exciting and awesome to look at as my 3 year old Little Man does, I am at a point in my life were I can, almost with an entirely straight face, speak about irregularity. Lucky for you, because today I am taking the mature approach about constipation. Seriously, did you know that four million Americans have frequent constipation, accounting for 2.5 million physician visits a year, mostly women. Horrible.

If ever there was good news about constipation, it's the fact that it is a symptom, and is usually temporary. Common causes of constipation are:

• Not enough fiber in the diet
• Changes such as pregnancy, aging, and travel
• Lack of physical activity
• Medications
• Milk
• IBS
• Dehydration

So, some ways to try and stay on track are to drink lots of water and exercise, which you already do, right? Right! You can also add some mulberry juice to your diet, which contains many minerals and vitamins, as well as stimulates digestion and assimilation of nutrients in the small intestine. Also, grandma was totally right about those prunes...just be watchful of how many your down ;)