Prunes....any brand suggestions?

[M.harris1128]

I thought I saw that we can have prunes but just want to make sure. Also, what are the best brands? What ingredients should I avoid in prunes, aside from added sugars and sulfites?

[ShannonM816]

You can have prunes. You'll just have to go to the store and look at ingredient lists to see which ones are compliant. On the Whole30 Downloads page, there are helpful references like the Sneaky Sugars list and the Additives Cheat Sheet that will help you figure out if the ingredients you come across are okay or not.

 

Fruit, and especially dried fruit, is okay to have but should be limited. Fresh fruit is recommended to be limited to a couple of servings a day, where a serving is about the size of your closed fist. When you have dried fruit, imagine what size the fresh fruit would have been -- in this case, plums -- and limit your serving appropriately. So, probably one, maybe two in a serving. It's really easy to overeat dried fruits, and they are sweet enough that they can keep your sugar dragon roaring, so pay attention to how you feel when you have them.

[M.harris1128]

Thanks...it's not that I want to have them because I like them. I am quite constipated! Awkward! I'm on day 7 and haven't gone since day 3!

[ShannonM816]

Ah. You might want to list a couple of days' worth of food (including approximate portion sizes), water intake, and exercise and see if anyone notices anything that could help.

 

Off the top of my head -- are you drinking at least 1/2 oz of water per pound of body weight each day (so if you weigh 120 lbs, you'd need at least 60 oz of water)? Are you eating lots of vegetables -- the recommendation is 1-3 cups at each meal, aim for 3? Making sure you're adding plenty of fat to your meals? 

 

Are you taking a magnesium supplement? That can help. Natural Calm unflavored is a powdered one that you can mix with water and drink that is definitely compliant, but you should be able to find it in tablet form without a bunch of extra non-compliant stuff as well. Some people find a cup of coffee can help get things moving. There are also yoga moves that may help -- google yoga for constipation to find examples. 

[DonnaB]

I'm a big fan of Azure Standard, and usually place an order once a month. They have excellent organic prunes that I stew with their frozen apricots for the same reason. Hope you're feeling better.