An ongoing and oft un-mentioned battle that millions of people face on a daily basis is the misery of constipation. Constipation is the most common gastrointestinal complaint in the U.S. today, resulting in around two million annual doctor visits. That in itself is an eye-opening statistic, but when combined with the 725 million dollars Americans spend on laxatives each year it’s obvious constipation has become all to prevalent in society today.

Constipation develops when the colons muscle contractions become slow or sluggish while attempting to push stool through it. This causes the colon to absorb too much water from the stool making it overly hard and dry, and difficult to pass. While there are various scenarios that cause this to happen the most common by far is the lack of fiber in one’s diet.

Fiber, soluble, and insoluble is the part of fruits, vegetables, and grains that the body cannot digest. Soluble fiber dissolves easily, taking on a gel-like texture when in the intestines, while insoluble fiber passes though virtually unchanged. In either form, the bulk and soft texture of fiber helps to prevent stool from becoming hard, dry, and difficult to pass. While rich in fiber the flax in Kathy’s Krackers also expands into a gel form- known as mucilage- when it comes in contact with liquid, resulting in softer, more passable stools; making the addition of flax via Kathy’s Krackers to one’s diet a viable combatant to constipation.