None of your friends are chatting at the party about today’s subject; but surprisingly it ‘sits’ at the top of the United States trending health issues on Google. People are searching for information to help them manage hemorrhoids, but don’t really want to converse about hemorrhoids in mixed company.

If you’ve been blessed not to have suffered with this problem it may sound like a subject for a good joke; but according to the National Institutes of Health it affects 75% of people at some point in their lives. The swollen and inflamed veins in the lower part of the rectum or anus can cause considerable pain, itching and even bleeding. Today I’m not going to write about soaking in a hot bath, creams or suppositories to treat hemorrhoids, for that information you can go to Google; or if it doesn’t stop soon, to your doctor. Today I will write about how to prevent this uncomfortable and unspeakable problem, not about palliative care for a problem with a clear cause that can be dealt by making adjustments to your diet.

Once I was a young mother; I gave birth three times and each time suffered from this problem. I then joined the group most affected by this malady – women during pregnancy and after childbirth. But all adults, both men and women ages 45 to 65, are also in the group that suffers from this predicament. That’s a large number of people who have suffered or will. So what can be done to treat the cause, not just the symptoms.

The main resolution is to get enough fiber in the diet to avoid constipation, which is the main cause of hemorrhoids. For years and years, I took Metamucil a fiber supplement, recommended by my gastroenterologist. It worked fine; but a funny thing happened. My husband was diagnosed with diabetes and we embarked upon a high-fiber diet to help control his diabetes. Voila! What do you know? The fiber from food solved my problem and his at the same time. I feel that I should mention, just in case you are not a regular reader of this blog – I really like to solve problems with remedies that are close to nature. To me, eating more fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and whole grains is a much better resolution because it is natural. I’m not going to tell you today of the long list of benefits of eating a high fiber diet, but you can read about it in other blog posts.

I’ll warn you, if you begin to increase your fiber intake, you may temporarily have an increase of flatulence, but that does go away. You can gradually increase fiber to greatly reduce going through this inconvenience. If you’re new to a high fiber diet, you may not realize that you need to include additional liquids with the fiber; but that’s pretty easy. Fruits and vegetables are obviously full of fiber and water, so they’re a natural to increase in your diet. The goal is to get about 25 grams of fiber a day for women and about 38 for men. Biting into an apple doesn’t translate into grams of fiber for most of us; so you may want to look up what you’re eating on the Mayo Clinic Chart. (The only thing I don’t like about the Mayo Clinic chart is that they give the fiber for instant, cooked oatmeal – 4 grams in a cup; but you can get 4 grams in regular or old-fashioned oatmeal in a ½ cup. That’s double – so skip the instant oatmeal. Not only that, but the instant oatmeal doesn’t stave off hunger as long.  It digests much faster and hunger returns.)

If you look at the chart, you may realize that it’s not easy to get that much fiber if you’re not dedicated to a plant-based diet.  If you’re getting lots of calories from meat, cheese, eggs, juice, and processed grain products, you quickly discover that the American diet (think burgers, egg muffin, and pizza) is not going to do it for you.

The really good news is that if you’re moving toward eating more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and legumes, you’re not only going to deliver more nutrients to keep your body healthy, but you will solve some problems that you don’t even want to talk about.

If you’re still on your first-of-the-year quest for health by changing exercise and eating a more plant-based diet, then you’ve already learned that fiber is your new best friend. Not only do the fruits and vegetables deliver a nice supply of fiber, they help you fill up on fewer calories. If you didn’t start at the first of the year, start anytime.  Best of all, start now.

You don’t need to stick with the standard fruits; some of the exotic fruits like mango, persimmon and guava have more than double the fiber in a cup than do our standard fruits like apple, banana, oranges, and strawberries (about 6 to 8 grams compared to 3 to 4 grams for regular fruits). Remember to eat the skin of the apple and potato – why let all that fiber and nutrients get away from you.

At our house we’ve switched from salad dressing to humus as a standard dressing. Said another way, we’ve gone from zero fiber dressing to 4 grams of fiber per ¼ cup serving. Sometimes I also sprinkle pine nuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, or beans on our already high fiber meal. Beans hike up the fiber intake fairly quickly.

I’m partial to true whole grain breads, pancakes, breakfast cakes and cereals. I’d just as soon not have processed grains with inulin (or some other nutritionally impoverished processed fiber) dumped it to increase the fiber numbers. There are many other nutrients in whole grains that are removed, in addition to the fiber, so insisting upon whole grains solves the nutrient issue and the fiber issue at the same time.

If you’re eating lots of processed foods you may be getting lots of inulin and it may cause gastrointestinal discomfort. When you eat natural fiber in foods like veggies, beans, whole grains, generally it is limited, but some of the processed foods and snacks are loaded with inulin because the food processors know you’re looking for fiber on the label and it’s a cheap way of hiking up the fiber numbers.

The bottom line on defeating hemorrhoids, and reaping other benefits, is to eat whole fiber-containing foods. Remember also to take liquids. Do exercise and don’t sit all day. If you do these things you will really increase the chance that you’re not suffering quietly at the party.