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4. What is the worst way to avoid and
relieve constipation: (a) drink more water, (b) eat more
roughage, or (c) use a laxative?
Answers:
1. A deficiency in Vitamin C can cause
weakness, anemia, bleeding gums, painful and swollen parts,
slow healing of sores and wounds, premature aging and
lowered resistance to infections.
Vitamin C assists the body in
defeating bodily infections as it acts as a natural
antibiotic. This vitamin is essential for the normal growth
and maintenance of practically all the body tissues. It is
required in order to maintain healthy teeth and gums and
also helps fight fatigue and the pains that tend to settle
in the joints, as well as promote healing in wounds and bone
fractures, increases sexual vitality and prevent premature
aging. The C Vitamin promotes healing and protects against
all forms of stress and harmful effects of toxic chemicals.
Vitamin C is well known to help prevent and cure the common
cold. Although less known for this benefit, Vitamin C also
helps in decreasing blood cholesterol.
The recommended daily allowance of
this vitamin is 50 to 75 mg for adults and 30 to 50 mg for
children. Vitamin C is one of the least toxic vitamins so it
is relatively safe to use in high doses. The body just takes
what it needs and excretes any excess naturally.
2. The smoking of one cigarette can
neutralize 25 milligrams of Vitamin C. Thus, if you have
one orange for breakfast and follow it by only one
cigarette, you will have lost more than half of the vitamin
content. One slice of pineapple, which is also a good source
of this vitamin, is almost totally nullified by the smoking
of a single cigarette.
Vitamin C is primarily necessary for
its qualities of resisting infection. It is only a logical
step to presume that a smoker, whose intake of Vitamin C is
destroyed by the smoking habit, will be more open to
infection than the non smoker.
3. Processed cheese’s only benefit is
to encourage constipation. The processes involved in making
these spreads and bulk cheese seem to be organized to
deliver the least benefit in the greatest bulk. Examine a
package of these processed cheeses and notice one
interesting thing: most of these cheeses are from forty to
fifty percent water. Of course they call water by a more
refined name: “moisture”. So, not only you are not getting
any nutritional benefit from this food, which by the way are
very high on preservatives as well, but you are being
cheated of half of your food dollar when you buy processed
cheese.
Examples of processed cheeses include
American cheese and other common orange cheese spreads. Much
healthier substitutes for processed cheeses are natural
cheeses, which can be a great meat substitute as well as
good calcium and phosphorus source.
Examples of natural
cheese are: cottage cheese, cream cheese, cheddar, muenster,
Roquefort, mozzarella, swiss, parmesan or provolone, just to
name a few.
4. A laxative may help relieve
constipation temporarily and may be safely used
occasionally. Yet, laxatives cannot correct the underlying
cause of constipation. They may irritate the large
intestine, and their frequent use makes the intestine less
sensitive to normal stimulation, thus encouraging
constipation in the long run.
On the other hand, a well-balanced
diet, which provides sufficient roughage (undigested food)
and cellulose (an indigestible material in foods),
encourages regular elimination. The following foods are very
high in roughage: all fresh vegetables, particularly
lettuce, cabbage and kale; nearly all fruits except bananas;
the coarse grain products such as whole wheat flour, bran
and oatmeal.
A diet that does not supply sufficient
roughage may encourage constipation. Many foods which are
naturally high in roughage lose it in the process of
refinement, the best example being white flour. Most of the
roughage of the whole wheat is lost in the process of
reining the flour.
Other ways to prevent constipation
are: increase water intake; exercise, especially abdominal
exercise and establishing a certain time for elimination.
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