Many things in life, including what you eat, can cause constipation. Making changes in your diet will help your battle with chronic constipation. Although nutritional deficiencies are not the only cause of constipation, you can help alleviate your symptoms by using a constipation diet.

What does a constipation diet look like? When you are trying to prevent constipation you want to eliminate as many processed and unnatural foods as possible. Processed foods are lacking in vital minerals and nutrients that keep your digestive system running properly. They also commonly have excess sugar, fat and preservatives that your body doesn't need.

As a good rule of thumb, concentrate your grocery shopping on the outer edges of the store. This is where you'll find the fresh, unpackaged food like dairy, meats, fruits and vegetables. If it's in a box, it's best to leave it alone. Of course, it may be impossible for you to completely eliminate processed foods from your constipation diet due to your busy lifestyle. If that's the case, try to eat more fresh foods than processed foods.

Water is the utmost importance of a constipation diet. Drinking at least 8 glasses of water a day is important to your digestive health, as well as your health overall. Most people walk around dehydrated without even knowing it.

Water is necessary for digestion to help your stomach turn your food into liquid form. This liquid is transferred to the small intestine where the nutrients are removed. After that, your food reaches the colon where the water is removed to form stool. If you don't have enough water in your system, your colon will extract as much water as it needs from the stool. This leads to hard stool and eventually constipation.

Fiber is essential in a constipation diet. Increasing your daily intake of dietary fiber will help you retain water in your stool and prevent constipation. There are many ways to add fiber to your diet. There is natural fiber in all fresh fruits and vegetables. Prunes are helpful in reducing constipation. They have a mild laxative effect. There is also fiber in most grains as long as they are not too processed. For example, whole grain wheat bread has more fiber than white bread. Emphasize fiber rich foods in your diet, and you won't have to worry about constipation.

These changes in your diet will help you relieve the symptoms of constipation. A constipation diet is a good start to getting your digestive system back on track, but it is possible you may still be missing a key culprit of constipation.