Real Health Podcast: The Taboo of Poo: the benefits of healthy digestion with registered dietitian Lorraine Cooney

On this week’s episode, I was joined by dietitian at the Blackrock clinic and author of the new book Why You Can't Go: and what you can do to find life-changing relief from constipation.

First, we got into what constipation is: Lorraine defined it as excreting less than three times per week. This is important as many people fear they are not pooing enough but may just have a slower digestive system.

I felt it was essential to establish what a normal poo schedule looks like and the best time for your daily visit to the loo. With that Lorraine explained, “a lot of people will say that you need to move your bowels every single day. That is not true. So long as when you do pass it is easy, soft, formed and feels complete. That's an epic bowel motion.”

In the interview I was interested to hear that there are optimal positions for ease of excretion. The dietitian says that “it does help some people to change the position of your legs, so you raise your knees above your hips, you can change the angle of your back passage. This helps relax that muscle and have a different angle and straight exit. You can get a footstool, pop your feet up and sit down, relax.”

Food is an important component of digestive health according to the gut expert. She says, “there are some foods that are created more equal than others, like Kiwis, mango, prunes, figs, some vegetables, maybe sweet potato and kale and then we've got some whole grains like oats. These are the primary foods that can help create softness in the stool and get an easier exit strategy.”

You can listen to the full episode here or wherever you get your podcasts.