Many people who have read about treatments of constipation have in high likelihood learned about prunes. The prune is often thought of as a good laxative, largely because of the high proportion of dietary fiber by weight. The thing that most people don\’t realize is that prune juice alone is an excellent laxative.
The cultivation and exploitation of plums has gone on for hundreds or even thousands of years, according to the best archaeological evidence. Modern prune makers follow an ancient tradition. Plums are plucked and collected in one area where temperature is raised to about 200 degrees Fahrenheit. In ancient times this was likely done in or near an oven. After drying, the prunes can be further processed to create related products.
It\’s understood that high fiber helps give prunes its laxative properties for treating constipation. The average amount of fiber in a prune is almost 6% by weight. But there is little or no fiber in prune juice so how can the juice form be of benefit? It turns out that the other major component in prunes which gives it anti-constipation properties is the sugar sorbitol.
Sorbitol is present at almost 15% by weight of prunes, and 6% by weight of prune juice. It\’s a complex, polymeric sugar. That means on the molecular scale, it\’s a very long chain of sugars. This property allows it to absorb and retain water in the gut as it passes through. In fact, it sometimes is used as a sugar substitute in foods that are labeled \”sugar free\”.
The pear is another food that is high in sorbitol. If you\’ve chewed sugar free gum in the past, you might have noticed that a key ingredient is sorbitol. Unlike glucose, sorbitol isn\’t processed and taken in as energy. Couple that with its slightly sweet taste means that it\’s the perfect sugar substitute.
How does sorbitol achieve its anti-constipatory effects? There are two properties, both of which have already been mentioned. The first is that sorbitol tends to absorb a lot of water, the second is that sorbitol isn\’t metabolized by the body. Together, the effect of sorbitol is to bulk up the colonic mass with a lot of fluids.
The increased water content means that the colonic contents become softer and bulkier. A number of other constipation treatments have similar effects, two classes of which are known by their names osmotic and bulk laxatives. The benefits of prune juice are not restricted to helping stomach contents move faster, but also include important vitamins and sugars for energy. For a simple, natural food, it seems that prunes have many benefits.
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