Hi, I’m Michelle, and welcome to today's video. We're going to be talking about
foods that soften the stool, fluids that help to soften the stool, and also too,
some foods that you might want to try to steer clear of that actually make the stool really
hard and lumpy. Let's take a quick look on the screen now. We are aiming ideally for a type
3 to 4 stool which is a smooth well-formed stool, and it's a sausage shape. So if your
stool is like a type 1 or 2 which is hard and lumpy or little lumps, then that's too hard,
that's going to be really hard to empty using the correct bowel movement. Or alternatively,
if the stool's too soft, like a type 6 or 7, it's going to be too watery.
Let's start with fruits. So we've got grapes, we've got Kiwi fruits,
these are a great food to, or great fruit to help you keep the stool soft. We've got our stone
fruits like our peaches and our nectarines, we've got pears, and one of my favorites is the prunes.
So prunes are a great food also to help you keep the stool soft. If we look at our vegetables,
foods like your average was like your green beans, you can have the capsicum foods, the spinach, and
also too, your cruciferous vegetables like your broccoli and your cabbage. But just be careful
when you're introducing these types of foods, particularly your cruciferous vegetables, because
they can make you quite gassy. So you want to introduce these foods in small amounts and slowly.
If we move across now to some of the whole grain cereals, some of the cereals that you
can include in your diet are your multigrain bread. So if you can actually see the grains,
that's a great way to know that you've got a good bread there. You've got your brown rice, so
the husk is still on the outside of the rice, and some of your whole-grain cereals, and I love oats,
they're a great source of soluble and insoluble fiber for the bowel. Another little grain here,
and this is actually a bulking agent, this is called Psyllium – now Psyllium is a great little
supplement you can use or fiber supplement you can use to actually soften the stool,
but you've got to increase it gradually. So basically when you start with your Psyllium husk,
you start with half to one teaspoon and you might increase two teaspoons, once again,
being careful with the Psyllium, because it can actually make you quite gassy when you
start out. If you're someone who's keen on your spices, so your red chilies are great,
couldn't have chili flakes here, and also too curries. So curries and chilies are great foods
for increasing bowel motility, also will help to soften the stool and get the stool through
faster. And finally, some snacks, these are sort of like you more occasional foods,
but your unsalted and unbuttered popcorn, great. And also too, a couple of pieces of chocolate,
so that's something we all like to hear, isn't it? So chocolate can also be a great stool softener.
So to help you keep is still soft, you also need to think about how much fluid you're taking in.
So fluid's really important, and I probably should have mentioned it when I was talking about fruit.
Some of the fruits that we had before, they've got lots of fluid in them, so they're actually
a really good source of hydration. But in terms of fluids, we're aiming, most of us, for two liters
of fluid a day. So this can vary according to some medical conditions, this can vary according to how
much exercise you're doing, the temperature, your body weights, so some of us need a little bit less
fluid than others. But in terms of how much we need, it's the two liters, so I’ve got a liter
here of our water. So you can see these are three fairly large glasses, so your fluid can be ideally
made up of water, that’s the drink of choice, isn't it, really? But if you're not really a great
water drinker, some other things that can help you soften your stool up, some prune juice. So prune
juice is a great little additive. You could have pear juice. I’ve got pear juice here. You could
have your decaffeinated tea, so your chamomile tea here. You could also have regular tea and
regular coffee too, that will have a bit of a diuretic effect, so it can irritate the bladder,
and make you more prone to a lot of urgency if you're living with pelvic floor problems. And
also too, it's going to divert fluid away from your bowel, and we want the fluid in your bowel.
So finally now, let's look at some of the foods that you might choose to avoid, and these are
foods that firm the stool. So now if we're looking at the foods that are likely to firm the stool,
that you might want to limit, and not to say that you can't have them, but you might want to be
aware that some of these are the types of foods that can firm the stool. So if we look at here,
we've got mashed potato, we've got white rice that's been boiled, we've got white cheese,
and we've got white bread, and interestingly, white marshmallows. And I can't tell you the
reason for white marshmallows, but these are known to be foods that will firm the stool.
And back here, we've got some pretzels, they look brown because they're baked, but they're
what I mean. So it's quite interesting, isn't it, when you see that these foods tend to be white,
so that's not really a rule of thumb, but the whiter food might be something to keep in the
back of your mind that these are foods that might be foods that firm the stool. If you're looking
at the bread, look at the comparison with the white bread here and the grains in the whole
grain bread. So just little things, little tips to remember about food so they're going to be
more likely to soften the stool and foods that are going to be more likely to firm the stool.
So let's review what we've talked about. We've talked about all the types of foods that will
soften the food, that you might like to eat including your diet. We've talked about the
fluids and really a big importance of hydration. We talked about the foods that are more likely to
firm the stool that you might want to limit. And we've really talked about the importance of these
being on a regular basis, introducing these gradually, and if you're already constipated,
making sure that you address the constipation first before you start to introduce these foods.
So thanks so much for watching today, I really hope this video helps you manage
your bowels and keep your stool soft. I’ll see you next time. Bye for now.