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The Food Chain

Factual: Food & Drink

Examining what it takes to put food on your plate

The Food Chain examines the business, science and cultural significance of food, and what it takes to put food on your plate.

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The Food Chain: The constipation taboo

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The constipation taboo

10/02/2022 GMT

BBC World Service - The Food Chain, The constipation taboo

What we could learn about our health and happiness if constipation was normalised

What we could learn about our health and happiness if constipation was normalised.

It’s estimated that as many as 1 in 7 adults are suffering from constipation at any one time. And yet, talking about the problem is taboo. 

Ruth Alexander is joined by two experts who want us to be more open about the condition. They say our reluctance to talk about constipation is having an impact on our well-being and creating a costly burden on health services. 

Find out why a balanced and varied diet will help many people avoid the problem, but not all; and why prunes – a famous remedy – can actually make it worse.  

Plus, a historian traces how we came to be so reticent about our toilet habits; and how constipation may have had a decisive role at numerous turning points in history. 

If you would like to get in touch with the show please email thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk 

(Picture: Closed airplane toilet door. Credit: Getty/BBC) 

Contributors: 

Anton Emmanuel, University College Hospital London and the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery

Louise Foxcroft, medical historian and author 

Miguel Toribio-Mateas, School of Applied Sciences at London South Bank University.

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