As of 1995, it cost $500 million to jump through the FDA hoops to prove any new drug, herb or supplement to be safe and effective. Few marketers of herbs or supplements have that kind of spending money. Drug companies, which do have the money, can justify the expense because once they get a new drug approved, they usually have a patent entitling them to exclusive marketing rights for many years. During that time they can recoup many times over the investment made in the approval process. But who in their right mind would spend hundreds of millions to prove that prune juice is a good laxative? (It is.) You can't patent prunes, so you could never make your money back.

When Dan Rather's producer called, he asked me what questions Rather should ask Dr. Kessler. I told him to have Rather offer Dr. Kessler a bottle of prune juice and ask if he considered it a safe, effective laxative. If he answered no, I suggested that Rather request that Dr. Kessler drink some and experience the results for himself. If he answered yes, I suggested that Rather ask why FDA labeling regulations prohibit prune juice marketers from stating that prune juice is a safe, effective, gentle laxative.  At my supermarket, prune juice costs only $1.30 a quart, making it probably the cheapest, least unpleasant laxative now available. At my nearby herb store, effective botanical laxatives--aloe vera, cascara sagrada bark, senna pods and leaves and psyllium seeds and husks--are almost as cheap, but they don't taste half as good.  Meanwhile, FDA-approved commercial laxatives, many of which have senna, cascara sagrada or psyllium in them, are comparatively costly. And many Americans do use prune juice as a laxative. So why won't the FDA allow it to be labeled as such?

 

The sad fact is that most Americans probably wouldn't need a laxative, herbal or otherwise, if they ate right. Doctors know that a high-fiber diet controls constipation by keeping things moving through the intestine.  Thanks to a family history of colon cancer, I was already a high-fiber freak when I first heard a talk by Denis Burkitt, M.D., a respected British surgeon who has spent a lifetime working in East Africa. Dr. Burkitt noted that in nonindustrial societies, among them the African communities where he worked, people eat a very high-fiber diet and rarely suffer from constipation. In fact, the only people Dr. Burkitt ever saw with constipation while in Africa were wealthy people who ate the same low-fiber diet that so many Americans eat.   Here's a sure-fire formula to create a problem with constipation: Take all the fiber-rich fruits, vegetables and whole grains out of your diet. In their place eat lots of meats, fats and dairy foods. No wonder an estimated 10 percent of Americans suffer from constipation, with at least 20 percent of the elderly complaining of it.

When I say that diet can control constipation, I'm not just talking about prune juice. Every whole-grain item and every fiber-rich fruit and vegetable helps prevent and relieve constipation. In folk medicine the foods that get special recognition as laxatives include almonds, apples, avocados, chicory,  dates, endive, figs, flaxseed, grapes, mangos, papayas, papaya, persimmons, pineapple, prunes,  rutabagas, soybeans, turnips, walnuts and watercress. You might easily contrive any number of soups and salads from this list.

If you are constipated, the first thing you should do is change your diet to the "double high five" by eating five fruits and five vegetables a day. If you are still constipated after two days, increase your fruit and veggie intake while diminishing your intake of low-fiber foods like meats and refined breads. Also, I'd recommend that you avoid tea if constipation is a problem for you. Tea is rich in tannins, which is one reason that it is recommended as a treatment for diarrhea. Tannins help bind stools and hold back bowel movements.

Fruit and vegetable juices also work, especially those that retain much of their fiber. Prune juice tops the list, of course, but some juice advocates say that apple-pear juice is a particularly good laxative. Among vegetable juices, asparagus, jícama and potato have been suggested. Some people who favor juicing use machines that eject most of the fiber. When it comes to treating constipation, that's a big mistake, because fiber is precisely what you want.

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