Tips & Tricks: Fruit Lax

Here is a recipe that has been passed along to me for constipation. The biggest downside (for me) of taking pain medication is battling with constipation. I’ve written a post about it but thought I’d put the recipe here to make it easier to find.

The history: it came by of way of my brother-in-law who is a family physician. One of his patients is waiting for spinal surgery and the last thing she can do is strain and she is in quite a bit of pain and requires pain control meds. She and her mother have tried everything and stumbled upon this recipe. She says that it works really well. My brother-in-law got a sample (a half liter) for me to try. I also find that it works very well so I am passing it along.

The recipes calls for brown sugar. I didn’t use it. However if you don’t like bitter at all, you might want to consider it. I find that it is quite palatable without but does have a slight bitter flavour from the senna leaves. Boy were they hard to find. I ended up at Capers in downtown Kits and tried Whole Foods and the places you would expect to find this kind of thing on the North Shore.

The second thing I did was buy organic ingredients. But that’s just me. It cost me over $45 to make enough for at least two months. It would have been a lot cheaper if I just used regular dried fruit but they use sulphur to dry it and I don’t know how they grow it. For sure they are using chemicals and I’ve got enough of my own brew happening without adding who knows what to the mix. But that is just me.

Here is the recipe:

FruitLAX: Natural Fruit Laxative

2 oz (56 g) senna leaves (health food store)

8 oz (224g) pitted prunes (works out to be about a cup)

8 oz (224g) figs (ensure a moist brand, works out to be about a cup)

2 cups of pitted dates

2 cups of dark raisins

8 cups of boiling water

2 cups of brown sugar

Pour the boiling over the senna leaves. Let steep 10-15 minutes, then strain the leaves out. Longer is not better.

Put all the ingredients and the senna liquid into a large non-stick pan and cook for about 30 minutes (until soft and liquid is absorbed). Stir often.

Process with blender in small amounts.

Keep in refrigerator.

Start with one tablespoon each morning.

Tips & Tricks: Constipation

One of the problems with taking pain medication is that most of us get constipated. Some medications are worse than others but in the end it is almost always a problem. Especially when we have to increase our dosage.

We also do not need to strain. That’s tough on the back. So here are some tricks I’ve learned along the way. The first one is to drink a lot of water. You need more then the average person. Do what you need to if you don’t like water. You can flavour it with fresh lemon or lime. You can drink herbal teas instead. Most herbal teas don’t contain caffeine but some do so check it out. Even a coffee can count as water intake but not more than 2 cups. The reason for that is that too much caffeine makes us pee getting rid of that water we so preciously need. In the summertime I make iced tea using strawberry or berry herbal teas. Adult koolaid.