It would be difficult to overestimate the role diet,
specifically dietary fiber intake, is thought to play in the
cause of constipation in Western countries. Comparing
dietary fiber intake between populations has often
correlated positively with stool frequency and weight and
inversely with colon diseases including cancer. Likewise, the
increase in refinement of sugars and carbohydrates is linked
with slowing bowel transit times and altering the
environment of the colon (21). Perhaps the poster child for
the movement against refined foods and their lack of health
benefits was, and maybe still is, white bread. As Arbuthnot
Lane had said on one occasion “the whiter your bread, the
sooner you’re dead”. White bread, it has been said,
embodies the very misuse of the technologies available to
us, which allowed us to easily remove health benefits from
the “staff of life” for the sake of convenience and profit.