# Pecans=motility



## Mary55 (Apr 29, 2003)

In case this helps someone I'm posting my experience with pecans. I started eating them to try to heal my anal fissure after reading that it helped one person that way. Not sure if it has healed my AF, but it does seem to be getting me closer to that.One thing that it did was to take care of my constipation without turning into diarrhea. I don't eat the pecans all the time, just when it seems like C is a possibility again. Within a day I have relief. My only problem was that I like them too much, so it's hard to not eat too many. Even when eating a lot (several handfuls) it didn't give my diarrhea, just lots of movement. Besides this I still injest a fair amount of olive oil, cooked veggies, no dairy (lactose intolerant, and take 2 flax seed oil capsules a day & 400 mg. vitamin E a day. All the oils including the oil in the nuts seem to help. Pecans probably have fiber as well, but not so much as to cause a problem for me.Again, this is not scientific & everyone is so different. But maybe it will help somebody. You can experiment with how many nuts to eat a day. About 10 halves does it plenty for me.


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## getnold (Aug 20, 2002)

thanks for the post. i read that as well and have been too chicken to try it. peanuts and cashews are so binding for me that i look with fear at all nuts.i guess that's a green light for pecan pie!


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## ghitta (Jul 6, 2002)

that's great that you've found something that works for you. personally, not only am i allergic to nuts, i have read in different sources that they (especially peanuts, to which, actually i'm not allergic but avoid) are very very bad for people who tend to candida and/or diverticulitus as unless ground fine, nuts, like seeds, will get caught in those hideous intestinal pockets, ferment, cause bad pain, bloating, etc. just thought i'd throw those two cents in......g-


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## Mary55 (Apr 29, 2003)

I also find peanuts binding, but the pecans seem ok. I'm allergic to cashews & have heard they are related to the poison ivy plant which I'm also really sensitive to. I can understand that the little bits of nuts could get caught for some people, but so far I haven't had any symptoms I can relate to that. I try to chew them very well & it takes a few days to get the last of it to pass if I haven't had any pecans since. I mostly eat pecans when I seem to be getting C again which is about once a week. At least the stool stays soft so it doesn't rip me up.


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## getnold (Aug 20, 2002)

that's interesting about the relationship between cashews and poison ivy. i've read that peanuts are not even real nuts; technically, they are peas (remember the old southern song "eating goober peas"?). so what's the deal with them being almost universally binding?if anyone knows why they cause c, please post the answer.


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## AD (Jan 23, 2000)

From what I understand, no food is inherently constipating. Constipation is not caused by what you do eat but what you DON'T eat. It occurs over time, not right after eating one food. Because a sustainable diet will likely contain more than one or two different foods a day, it's nearly impossible to conclude that a certain food may be causing constipation.If I eat nuts of any kind, they end up coming out the way they went in (in tiny chewed-up pieces). I started grinding nuts in the blender or food processor into a nut butter. That way, there are no remaining "pieces." Perhaps some of you may also find nuts easier on your gut if you ground them up.FYI, I have heard that cashews have a poisonous shell. I guess that's why it's one of the only nuts which I have never seen shelled.


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## getnold (Aug 20, 2002)

AD,i've heard that theory as well, but it doesn't apply to my system. i eat nothing but fruits and vegetables and if i add just four or five peanuts or a single spoonful of peanut butter to my diet, i am in trouble the next day with c. any amounts of the following foods will bind me up no matter how much green veggies, fiber supplements, fruit, oils, etc that i consumeeanutscashewsbananasdiet sodaegg nog ("store-bought")one bite or one swallow is enough to ruin me and i suspect that i am not alone in this.


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## AD (Jan 23, 2000)

I'm still skeptical that any specific food or foods are actually physically constipating you or anyone else here. From what my mother and others have told me, nuts are more likely to cause D. There is more likely a problem with some of the nerve signals to the colon. Even if it is sort of a "placebo" effect, if it helps, then I think it's wonderful. It just doesn't seem biologically possible. However, I am not an expert, and I can't make any of these statements with certainty.


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## SpaceNeedle (Jul 22, 2000)

bump to getnold's list....true for me as well..peanuts (yikes)cashews (yikes)bananas (yikes)


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## getnold (Aug 20, 2002)

with all due respect to your mother, why believe that some foods cause d, e.g. prunes or licorice and not believe that some foods cause c? there is no logic in it.i suffered with c for years before i isolated those foods and identified them as causing a great deal of trouble for me. it would have been so much easier for me if someone had published this info so i would have been clued in. that info is just not out there because those foods contain fiber, and that's all the myopic medical community cares about. "fiber is good for you. bananas have fiber. therefore, bananas are good." there are so many holes in that logic that i could write a phd dissertation on it.my only motivation in posting is the hope that i can reach someone with this info and help them years before they would be able to figure it out on their own. There is no harm in trying it. if one reader cuts out a food and finds that it helps, then i did my good deed for the day.


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