Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site bbncc5.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!harvard!bbnccv!bbncc5!sdyer From: sdyer@bbncc5.UUCP (Steve Dyer) Newsgroups: net.med Subject: Re: dried fruit (actually laxatives) Message-ID: <323@bbncc5.UUCP> Date: Sun, 11-Aug-85 00:55:04 EDT Article-I.D.: bbncc5.323 Posted: Sun Aug 11 00:55:04 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 13-Aug-85 02:06:51 EDT References: <767@druak.UUCP> Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman, Cambridge, MA Lines: 26 > Why is it that people eat prunes or other dried fruit for a laxative > effect, but they don't consider eating fresh fruit. Is it because > the dried fruit requires so much water to digest and the sponge-like > situation causes the desired effect? Or perhaps there is some chemical > change when the fruit is dried? I wasn't aware that dried fruits in general act as laxatives, except possibly insofaras they contribute a concentrated source of pectin and fiber. Prunes seem to have a laxative effect of their own quite separate from the fact that they are consumed as dried--try some prune juice as an experiment. I don't know what chemical is the active agent in prunes; there was a claim a while ago that oxyphenisatin, a prescription laxative, was somehow related to the agent in prunes (and therefore supposedly a bit more "natural" and "better" that other laxatives) but this turned out to be advertising hype, and the stuff was pulled off the shelf for liver toxicity anyway! I might mention that the actual physical need for laxatives is far less that the amounts consumed by our society. A balanced diet high in fruits and fiber should be all that one needs to avoid the scourge of "irregularity", a condition whose ill effects are poorly documented but greatly feared. -- /Steve Dyer {decvax,linus,ima,ihnp4}!bbncca!sdyer sdyer@bbnccv.ARPA