I don't know about the colon, but there definitely was a layer of tough elastic mucus in my esophagus for years, before I went raw. I could never hawk it up, it was too thick. Even now I have to hawk up some mucus daily, probably from nuts/seeds or avocados.

But wait... how could you hawk up stuff that's in your esophagus? Windpipe, sure, but there is nothing in the stomach to generate the air needed for hawking.

Yes! All those methods can be used to ferment meat. In addition to discussions of high meat, you can find other threads discussing things like fermenting bones.

Then there's aging meat, where unseasoned meat is allowed to hang in the air (in or out of the fridge) and age on the inside as the outside dries out somewhat. When you eat it, it's like an unsalted, uncured, unsmoked, gourmet ham - something changes in the meat's texture and flavor that tastes excellent.

Great pic, Jessica!

I've had that foul taste when maggots have been on the meat, and I understand that it is ammonia that gets produced by the the breakdown of maggot "urine" (whatever it is that they excrete), so it can be rinsed off if it is strong and disagreeable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyethylene_glycol will give you an idea about the polymer polyethylene glycol. While there are naturally occurring polymers, PEG is a synthetic plastic. Miralax's website http://www.miralax.com/miralax/why-miralax/how-miralax-works.jspa says that

Water is vital to your body for healthy living, and to help your digestive system stay regular. Constipation may occur when stool moves slowly through the colon, which could allow too much water to be removed. This can make the stool hard, dry, and difficult to pass.

MiraLAX® contains Polyethylene Glycol 3350, which is a completely different way to treat occasional constipation. It activates water to work in 3 ways - hydrating, easing and softening - to unblock your system naturally.

Reading between the lines, it looks to me as if this large molecule of PEG is a mild irritant to keep things moving a little faster through the colon, before the stool can dry out. If it were me, I'd take magnesium supplement over polymers any day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dioctyl_sodium_sulfosuccinate is in stool softeners. It is a surfactant. Surfactants are commonly used in laundry detergent as wetting agents.

Manufacturers of DSS products claim that their products are the natural way to relieve constipation, which I think means that the water they hold in the stool is a natural way to relieve constipation: they work by making your stool "wetter." If it were me, I'd take magnesium supplement over laundry detergent any day.

Right now there isn't much variety of organic fruits cause nobody in America eats the organic, how do I know? Because I'm a produce clerk at my kroger NOBODY EATS Organic. But I eat bananas,pears,apples,grapes,kiwi,oranges. Those are the main fruits i eat just because that's unfortunately all available

Kroger is quite an operation. Wikipedia says, "By revenue, it is the country's largest supermarket chain, second-largest general retailer, and twenty-third largest company."

So when you say that "nobody in America eats the organic" and you base your statement on your own experience working at Kroger's, may I remind you that people who eat organic produce in America don't shop at Kroger's. There are no Kroger's in California, but here we have people who don't shop at Lucky's, Ralph's, Safeway/Von's, and so forth.

but I eat a lot fruit that is high in magnesium?

Nummi was referring to ways in which the body directs available magnesium ("...If gut is harmed it directs magnesium from the body to the gut for healing purposes, leading into deficiency elsewhere in the body, like the head."), absorbs dietary magnesium (...gut absorption rate of nutrients and minerals, especially magnesium, is significantly reduced"), and uses magnesium at the cellular level ("...sugar needs magnesium to be metabolized by the cells").

In your case, that means that you might not be retaining, absorbing, or utilizing the magnesium that is in the food you eat.

To make matters more complex, you might be eating fruit from magnesium-depleted soils, so the magnesium content of your fruit may not match the magnesium content listed on a nutrition table.

What do we think about ultraviolet photographic film? Yes, it picks up the ultraviolet portion of the spectrum. Yes, if the source of the ultraviolet light is reflecting off a surface that blocks the UV light (such as they showed with sunscreen), the UV photographic film will be black in the blocked area.

Can we deduce that ultraviolet light exposure is bad for humans? There are supporters of both yea and nay on this topic, but the film does not lead us to that deduction. It's just an mildly interesting use of different photographic negative stock.

LOL. I can't imagine anyone giving you nutrition lessons! Do you know what she was trying to treat you for?

I don't make fish smoothies, but I do use the internet to find fish anatomy charts so I learn what part is what. The gall bladder is bitter, and bitter may be good to eat, but I do best when I eat it alone to "savor" the bitter taste for a second. I love dissecting the fish innards, it makes me feel so familiar with the food I eat.

All food is liquid, called chyme, by the time it exits your stomach. (Yes, there are exceptions due to things not working well.) At pretty much the end of the transit, water is absorbed from the chyme. A well-functioning colon will make well-formed stools by eliminating all but the right amount of water. Constipation means that too much water has been removed. Diarrhea means that not enough water has been removed. (That's why people get dehydrated from diarrhea.)

Your whole digestive tract, from mouth to anus, depends on a bazillion different functions, starting with the smell of food, it's taste, the physiobiology of chewing, and the mystifying number of biochemical signals that tell each cell what to do.

Let's say you want to take juices. Then, you are depriving yourself of one of the first digestive signals, chewing. The tongue is a rich array of sensors that trigger chemical processes later on in the stomach. If you drink juice, you're saying, "Screw you, stomach, I'm going to dump some shit in you, and you won't have a clue what to do with it!"

Other dietary extremes wreak other kinds of havoc, like unbalancing your colon's bacteria types, losing or retaining water, or upsetting the mineral balance in your body.

I'd say: Constipated > eat normal amounts of food.
Normal amounts never mean "full" or "stuffed." Eat until "satisfied."

Then, once everything is going well, you can see what comes out.

P.S. I've had pelvic floor dysfunction. I had an operation for it when I was in my 40s. It came back, but never bothers me since I've been eating raw paleo style. I've also have autoimmune issues in my gut, but the usual symptoms have completely healed on this diet.

I switched, cold turkey, from cooked food to RPD. I started feeling better from day one.

@eveheart: One, thanks for the "paleo police" comment; I know a lot of people who've signed up on that.

Personally, I'd like to do this to do it; I don't believe it's the end-all-be-all of ultimate fitness or whatever. But yeah, since posting, I've read somewhere that the Inuits' diet was ~15-20+% carbs from all the glycogen in raw meat, so that and organs (if I haven't been lied to) should keep me out of ketosis.

I've read that the glycogen in raw meat "dissipates" quickly, so if you eat meat that you haven't just killed, it won't be a source of glycogen.

But, having said that, I have learned to rely on my own experience and common sense more than the details of other cultures. I think a raw paleo diet based on my locality makes the most sense, and is as close to end-all-be-all as I can come.

I had bowel movements with castor oil, but I don't believe I was completely cleaned out.

There is no "completely cleaned out" because the bowels have a cycle. They should never be empty, even when you fast with nothing but water.

I'm just worried that this constipation will cause my apendix to burst, rupture my colon.

Constipation does not readily cause the appendix to burst, and the colon does not rupture in normal usage, even if you are constipated.

The correct dose for Epson salts is NOT 2T in 8 oz water! Ugh, how can you even drink that down?

There are truly many conditions that can exist in the colon, such as diverticula, strictures, and leaky gut syndrome. None of them should be treated with relentless laxative abuse.

The common definition of constipation is dry stools that are hard to pass. Have you passed one of these, perhaps with anal tearing so you see a little blood? Because I am beginning to doubt even your report that you are constipated. If you want a well-formed stool, you're going to have to let it happen by eating right. Then, if your colon seems a little sluggish, take a normal dose of a gentle laxative, and find out which laxative works the gentlest for you. The colon wall is complex and it does many jobs, but if you keep ripping at it with laxative abuse, you won't get good results.

@eveheart: Yeah, I got that, but I'm wondering, if I were only eating animal (no dairy products), would I necessarily be eating keto?

Well... yes, if you ate only animal, you would most likely be in ketosis, unless you were massively overeating protein. I'm sure you need to rephrase your question slightly, because I know you are not saying that cutting out dairy products puts you in ketosis.

A paleolithic diet is rarely ketogenic on a year-round basis, unless you went the extra step to limit carbs. I limit carbs to control blood sugar, but I test blood sugar and not ketones. When I do test for ketones, they are usually in the "trace" range because I try to keep my carbs up as high as my blood sugar will allow.

If you have been enjoying a cooked diet that works well for your fitness goals, why not just eat the same foods raw, improving the quality of foods (e.g. grass-fed, organic, etc) if necessary? There are no "paleo police" that say you have to omit raw dairy.

Also, commercial yogurt cannot be made raw, even if they start out with raw milk,  because the milk must be heated to activate the thermophilic (heat-loving) yogurt bacteria strains. Kefir, on the other hand, is a natural raw food when made with raw milk, because kefir strains are mesophilic (grows at lower temperature).