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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
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