Whole Woman Diet question

Body: 

Christine,
I have a rectocele AND an anal fissure. Every time I back up I break the fissure open. I'm still breastfeeding so the one medicine i've been recommended to help with the fissure, I can't take. Is this diet good for smooth bowel movements? Or is it more based on healthy eating in general.
How would following your book help a rectocele? (and while I'm asking all these questions, how does the posture help with a rectocele?) I've now had the fissure for 14 months and finally figured out that the rectocele is part of the problem. My goal is to have smooth bowels, with not 1 bad day for at least 8 weeks in a row. I still find that without miralax, I can't guarantee that. So that's why I want to know more about your diet book.

Thanks in advance!

Hi Subi,

First of all, my heart goes out to you regarding the “bottom” problems. I had intractable constipation as a child, which was at its worst in mid to late adolescence. I developed an anal fissure at sixteen that would break open on and off for years.

It was common in my generation for kids to eat whatever we wanted (and the food then was about as chemically toxic as it is now) and then be given enemas on a semi-regular basis. It’s hard to imagine a mind set that would not register the connection, but as I said, there was a lack of consciousness that was very common in those days. My kids have never known an enema bag!

I met my present husband when I was 20 years old (we ended up marrying other people, each having two kids, and then reuniting years later!) and he gave me a copy of Diet for a Small Planet, which was the most popular vegetarian book of its time. Perhaps because I had grown up on fried hamburger patties, candy, and donuts, and spent a very sickly childhood, I was completely taken with that book. I made significant diet changes in my early twenties, which I have no doubt spared my bowels many of the chronic diseases we hear about today.

I went on to develop interest in macrobiotics, raw food, and vegan diets, and DWW is a synthesis of the “lively” eating that has kept me constipation-free for decades. There is no place in my food philosophy for stool softeners or laxatives of any kind. I see the bowel as a living eco-system – just like a pond or river. Dumping medicine into the river does not create health in the same way that carefully and patiently nurturing the natural flora and fauna back to life does. There is no distinction between “smooth bowel movements” and “healthy eating in general.”

The rectocele is going to take patience, time and significant lifestyle change to heal. For some women it is the most responsive of the prolapses and for others the most stubborn. As for the posture, we carry most of our intestines toward the front of the body. When I think about slouched posture with the stomach pulled in and the tailbone tucked under, it’s easy to visualize the large bowel pressing down on the rectum, which in turn presses into the back vaginal wall. Try to imagine straightening your rectum by pulling it up by the crown of your head! Truly, you can sense the anatomical reality of pulling that area up by your tailbone, which is ultimately lifted by the way in which you hold your head.

Wishing you well,

Christine

I took piano lessons with Francis Lappe's daughter! Have read their more recent books? I live in a town filled with vegan/raw/macrobiotic eating but I've married in to a very middle America cooking family. I also for other health reasons, really need protein, at least that's what I've found. I was vegetarian in college then got mono and found that animal protein was the only thing that made me feel better. Same with my pregnancy and now with nursing, it's the one food that grounds me. I'm currently seeing a naturepath and now I'm a flax seed and nut junkie. I'm slowly trying to wean myself from some of the foods I've considered staples (dairy and sugar and wheat) and increase vegies/nuts and seeds.

Yeah...she is a completely delightful person. We had a chance to meet her a couple of years ago and I told her the story of her book and how it changed my life. She grabbed me by the shoulders and gave me a big kiss on the cheek! Afterwards, my husband said, "Why did YOU get kissed...I was the one who gave you the book!" lol.

I've read that the uric acid molecule in meat is very similar in chemical structure to caffeine and have wondered if this is the reason people find it pacifying.