Foods That Help with Hemorrhoids and Constipation

Constipation is a common complaint at every age. If it persists it can lead to hemorrhoids, headaches, dizziness, insomnia, boils and even bowel obstruction.

Foods to prevent and treat constipation

Fibre-rich foods are ideal for people with hemorrhoids and constipation — Fibre-rich foods are always an ideal choice for people with hemorrhoids and constipation

The condition is largely caused by too little dietary fibre and too little water. To prevent and treat constipation, consider the following traditional dishes:

Nourishing foods rich in fibre and pectin — found in fresh or dried vegetables and fruit, and grains such as brown rice, fresh corn and dark bread — play an important role in preventing constipation.
Increase foods rich in magnesium such as milk, millet, yardlong beans, sweet potato, jute leaves, amaranth, Malabar spinach, taro, papaya, banana and yoghurt, as magnesium helps stimulate bowel movement.
Drink about 2–2.5 litres of water a day.

Choose a diet suited to your condition — You can also choose a diet suited to your particular condition

In addition, foods may be chosen according to the pattern of the condition:

If stools are hard and dry and the body feels hot (heat-type constipation): Eat cooling, moistening foods such as jute leaves and Malabar spinach in crab soup; luffa cooked with peanuts; sweet potato shoots and leaves stir-fried with garlic; fish mint stewed with snakehead fish; fish mint eaten raw or boiled as a drink; mung beans cooked with wood-ear mushrooms; and dishes made with tomato, aubergine, amaranth, okra, bitter herbs, black beans and aloe vera, along with fresh green vegetables and fruit. Drink a glass of warm water first thing in the morning.
If stools are soft but require much straining, leaving you exhausted, with cold hands and feet (cold-type constipation, qi deficiency): Eat qi-tonifying, moistening foods such as brown rice with sesame salt; eel stewed with codonopsis; black sesame eaten raw or roasted. Take 1–2 spoonfuls of sesame oil in the early morning; climbing perch braised with wood-ear mushrooms; papaya stewed with pork bones; tonkin jasmine stir-fried with garlic chives and aromatic herbs; and dishes made with honey, black sesame, adzuki beans, watercress, pennywort, banana, millet and yardlong beans.
If constipation occurs after childbirth or during recovery from illness (blood deficiency): Eat blood-tonifying, moistening foods such as beef stir-fried with watercress; tonkin jasmine soup with pork; eel congee with mung beans and rice paddy herb; half-ripe papaya stewed with meat; purple yam soup with meat; luffa cooked with peanuts. Eat plenty of beans, sesame, grains and fresh vegetables and fruit.

Foods to avoid

Spicy, heating foods make the condition worse

To prevent and treat constipation, avoid dry, spicy and heating foods such as strong tea, cocoa, alcohol and tobacco, fast food and refined foods, as well as fried or heavily salted meat and fish kept for a long time, and greasy foods.

For heat-type constipation: avoid food that is too salty, spicy or heating, such as pepper, chilli, garlic and curry.
For cold-type constipation and qi deficiency: avoid sour, bitter and cooling foods such as aubergine, orange, bamboo shoots and coconut water.
For blood deficiency: avoid dry, salty foods and foods low in nutrients.

Traditional physician Phan Thi Thanh – via Health & Life