Hard Stools: Dietary Causes

Dear Tina: Hard stools is a tough one and I haven't found all the causes yet. The most obvious one, not obvious to others, is the food which causes metabolic acidosis. The single biggest cause that I have found so far to cause hard stools and water retention came from white bread and possibly white flour. What manufactureres do to the white bread is amazing series of adding more chemicals and additives without any care of long term side effects which leads to long term metabolic acidosis. I will take 4 tablespoons of coconut oil perhaps twice a day to help loose the stools. This should help. Coconut oil I might used for all cooking from now on. Vegetable oils seem to cause constipation with me on many ocassions. The coconut oil lubricates the stools.

For example, propionic acid, commonly used as preservative in white bread, is used by many researchers (including me) to cause a metabolic acidosis induced in experimental animals. It also caused my own mother's blood pressure to go from 125/90 to something like 207/120 within a short few hours especially when eaten during the night. Toxic clearance is reduced during body in a relax or sleep mode so the effect of this is muted if the same were eaten in the morning.

When this happens, the propionic acid, continues to cause metabolic acidosis in form of constipation and water retention for over about two weeks for me taken several times a day for many days. For me it was about a week.

Removal of propionic acid from the body is relatively difficult. Propionic acid also "hardens" in presence of some salt solution. So if it is in the blood, it can block to narrow capillaries causing a typical rise in high blood pressure.

Of course in healthy adults, this doesn't happen, but occurs more in people who are less physically fit. How I know propionic acid solidifies inside the body is that during a production of propionic acid, in a liquid medium, this is separated by adding salt and propionic acid rises to the top of the solution separating itself from the water. This is how they extract propionic acid. When people eat lots of propionic acid rich bread, it also "surfaces" through the sweat glands and clogs, since the sweat is salty, so it might even cause acne, which it dose in propionic producing bacteria, commonly found on people's sweat glands. So those hard fats, might have something to do in some case of propionic bacteria.

So in conditions of metabolic acidosis from propionic acid blood is salty to propionic acid clumps together and causes them to clogged causing the body to retain more water as the body becomes more acidic from reduced circulation.

When the body is oxygen starved, metabolic acidosis happens. The body then goes into emergency alkalinity by retaining more alkaline metals, more water is retained, and creating a spew of biochemical mess. This is all based on my sufferings eating just the white bread. While popularly people think it's gluten, it might be but there is many other elements that I found from the white bread.

A white bread also contains alloxan, bromine and other things used for bleaching that causes the body to be metabolic acidosis, causing very hard stools. And believe me I have had very hard stools from eating white bread. Not that I like eating white bread, but people here constantly give me white bread, so everytime they do this, I get obese. That and eating pastries, cakes, cookies are almost virtual guarantee to obesity. Fruit juice is another real problem, from the fructose. If loosing weight, fruit juices should be avoided, white flour and the like.

If I stopped eating it for weeks then the problem goes a way as I eat rice instead, which are somewhat safer than white bread as it causes less metabolic acidosis. The bromine process of bleaching white breads also leads to hypothyroid by causing excretion of iodine, thus creates another problem here.

The second big problem of hard stools I have found, are those vegetable oils that people overlooked. For people studying fish pathologies, there is less medical politics in this field since it's not as profitable as humans, dogs or cats so this field is ignored. Hence, I can witness a more unique perspective of nutrition just observing the fish pathology. One of the most single most interesting things I found is a lot of diseases of the fishes came from the cooking of foods. Cooked foods are generally o.k., but the one element that cause cataracts, spinal problems, fish development and a whole host of sickness much like modern day disease was feeding of "oxidized oil".

In a more layman's language this is "rancid oil" or spoiled oil. It should be noted that rancidity of vegetable oils is virtually difficult to detect if we compare against animal oils. However vegetable oils racidity are oxidized greatly accelerates itself by thousands of time when it is heated at 150 degrees celsius for only couple of minutes which is the normal cooking temperature.

What takes a week for vegetable oil to go rancid in room temperatures goes bad within minutes after cooking, but the smell is undetectable. Hence a majority of sickness of the fish is due to this and it is no wonder the popularity of vegetable oils started making inroads in the 1960s about at the same time people are getting sick. For more details on the effect of rancidity from cooking, go here:

http://www.fullbooks.com/How-and-When-to-Be-Your-Own-Doctor4.html

Of most interest is that vegetable oils block hormonal production from free radicals in free fatty acids for one and some hormones relates controlling blood pressure and urine output.

One little known information, in saving cost against more expensive diuretic medicine is that a simple urea, often sold as cheap fertilizers, which is a major component of the urine. The urea a metabolic digestion of protein. Urea controls urine output. The more the urine, the greater diuretic action. So taking 1/8-1/4 teaspoon of urea mixed in water for example can help increase urine output. With insufficient urea, or insufficient protein intake, water retention increases. Doctors who need to reduce water retention can do so with a supplement of urea, or injection of a weak solution of urea, or simply eating high protein foods, such as chickens, salmon fish, for example. When the body digest the protein, it becomes urea and urea improves urine.

It should also be noted that most major dietary fads today are more or less an adaptation or niche created from the Dr. Stillman diets, who effectively lost weight in over 10,000 patients during the early 1960s. The dietary plan was a simple one (perhaps too simple to make it a business): 80% of the meals are to be protein from fish, chicken and lean meats. Dr. Atkin's diet, pretty much take the other argument calling it for "anti-carb" while ignoring the fat issue. Then there was eat right for your blood type, promoting O blood group (which takes care of majority of U.S.) to eat meat. You can also take the opposite end and say eat only low glycemic index diet such as South Beach Diet. However, it's difficult to lie when someone who makes use of a dietary supplement that effectively reduce weight, while the gurus say something else, then I get suspicious. Over last week, I by chance visited a weight loss store supplement that was fairly effective and got a chance to read the ingredients, which was only white kidney bean extract and chromium picolinate. I laughed reading that, so the saleslady didn't know it was an inside joke, at least for me. Basically the effectiveness of the remedy turns out that white kidney bean extracts prevents amylase from breaking down the starches into sugar. And the chromium picolinate reduces blood sugar. What it says to me is that glycemic theory is not what is all cracked up to be since some starches have medium glycemic index anyway about 64, and rice is also a starch too. The majority of people here eat rice and we still get fat. So hence any starches, complex carbs or simpler carbs is still going to have an effect on the blood sugar still. Slowing down sugar spikes helps small but may not help a lot with the constipation. Remember I got constipated from just eating white bread with tuna, or salami or bologna, cancer causing since salami and bologna are basically cured meats, containing peroxynitrites, and other things too. There were reasonable glycemic index, but what's wrong with glycemic index is I can still get fat eating low ones if they happen to cause metabolic acidosis, wuch as diet cola. Aspartame causes blood sugar to go through the roof, since they degrade to formate, methanol, formaldehyde, which the poisons suppresses normal glandular functions in maintaining alkalinity. Bad fats are ignored with the glycemic diets also.

In general sodium thiosulfate is not toxic even if the labels say it's not fit for human consumption. Because as a former chemist, whether they are fit for human consumptions depends on chemical analysis of impurities not legal grounds. A legal grounds is that a company can put any labels on any thing, even safe ones as a means to protect against misuse of product since they are not "legally" engaged in the sales of medicine. Now a chemist can look at the same thing and know it is safe since they will request for a impurities analysis and technical specifications of a product. Even if sodium thiosulfate were somewhat impure, it's a chelator, so the likelihood of a high heavy metals being toxic is very unlikely. I get better chance of dying of arsenic poisoning drinking in any random drinking water in Bangladesh, or even water from a more developed country (usually high in cadmium), getting mercury poisoning from vaccinations (most exceed EPA levels on mercury anyway) or eating foods from vegetables where they used chemical fertilizers to grow them. If anyone bothered to check, there is more heavy metals from drinking water with old water pipes and even with water filter, chocolates, fried foods, and other foods people take for granted. Also sodium thiosulfate is used in small amounts anyway, and I am talking about drops of 10% sodium thiosulfate such as 10 drops -20 drops per glass of water, and only when I am sick. People in other countries faced enormous challenges drinking toxic water exceeding EPA levels on arsenic all their lives and the volume of water is a lot greater than drops of sodium thiosulfate taken during sickness. I have to make my own stance on what I can and cannot take, because the present system in regards to what is good for you and what is not good for you is so twisted that it is time, I think about it for myself without being over dependent without reason.

Question: also, i did eat a bowl of spagetti and tomato sauce, but no bowel movement.

Eating a bowl of spaghetti will not increase bowel movement, it merely reduces the hardness of the stool.

Question: will it be ok to just add 2 teaspoons of baking soda to 1/2 glass water and consume, hoping that relieves my hard stools?

If that doesn't work, generally it is a weak laxative, I might try for a stronger one such as 1 teaspoon of baking soda and 1 teaspoon of sea salt in 1/2 glass of water. It is generally a good laxative for me, if the baking soda were a mild one. Yours seem to be a bit mild. Milk of magnesia is also a common laxative too, but a good one should not add any aluminum.

I should avoid white bread, white flour, fruit juices like the plague if I have constipation. However, other things hidden can cause it too such as aspartame, diet drinks, painting a new house (fumes causes metabolic acidosis). Sometimes certain food, usually pastries they might add ammonium chloride, which also causes metabolic acidosis which leads to constipation too. I have to grow through one by one to find out what food is causing constipation also, common ones are coffee, tea, tannin rich goods, cocoa, etc. I may have overlooked some obvious ones, so if you can send me the food list I might find some more.

> is there anything else to reduce i can take to reduce the hard stools?

Once hard stools are formed, it's difficult to reverse it. Prevention is a lot easier, but avoiding bread, tea, coffee, and a host of other carbohydrates, starch, high vegetable, especially white bread and all bread, fruit juices appears to be some of the ones causing them. Most doctors would recommend high fiber foods, but that doesn't seem to help, as urine clearance depends on high protein, low fat food, such as fish, chicken as my favorite. Lecithin added with every meal also helps, as is drinking plenty of water during every meal, avoiding chlorinated water, using sodium thiosulfate drops to neutralize them.

> also, i have noticed in the past 3-4 days, no matter how much water i drink, i do not have a noticible amount of passing urine. also a lot of bloating and water retention.

There is chlorine or maybe chlorine in the water that is part of the problem, calcium clogging up the kidney may also be another problem.

In case of a severe metabolic acidosis there is another remedy that helps also, of course only for emergencies which is 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda and 1/8 teaspoon of sodium carbonate in one glass of water. This is a washing soda, which in presence of the body's carbon dioxide also becomes sodium bicarbonate. It is currently used in research circles in reviving heart attack and resuscitation effort, called carbicarb, which are basically "equimolar" concentrations of baking soda and sodium carbonate. The issue about baking soda is it may cause slight rise of lactate or lactic acid, but only initially before becoming alkalize because of baking soda can't absorb all of the carbon dioxide gas generated. However, if sodium carbonate is added it doesn't cause that slight rise in acid.

People think adding baking soda or sodium carbonate will create a "fizz" from the coke. Well it depends. The water does help absorb most of the carbon dioxide too. I can demonstrate by 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda in 1/2 glass of water, well stirred. Then I pour the coke slowly. There will be NO fizz, but only a tiny one barely visible. Why this is an issue in research circle is that the CONCENTRATION of the baking soda especially the lower concentrated one, with more water is more effective alkalization than a higher concentration of baking soda, with less water. Hence, if concentration is high, more carbon dioxide, the body remains acid, and constipation is still possible. However the paradox is, if the concentration of the solution is low, it won't pull the fluids into the intestines, but it will alkalize the body more effectively.

Hence, adding a crystal of sodium thiosulfate dissolved in a glass of water with some baking soda in 1/2 glass or 1 glass of water may help get the needed laxative effect. A sea salt and baking soda also is a stronger than baking soda used alone. Milk of magnesia is also another common ones for emergencies.

One extra tip: folic acid about 500 mg usually will neutralize toxic substances such as methanol and other chemicals which causes metabolic acidosis from formate that might also help. However I think the above remedy should generally help, but all sweets and bread products, and cooked vegetable avoided

Ted writes again, adding: "To help some diuretics, eating a couple pomegranate fruits I found to be useful and powerful. Others that are helpful are alpha lipoic acid. Although green tea may help they may cause constipation.