We Tried This Sweet Trick To Poop Instantly. Here's How It Went
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Your morning poop time is a time to properly wake up, assess the day's duties, and possibly even spend a few moments of quiet reflection by yourself — that is, unless you're straining to go. Suddenly, time is of the essence and you can't wait to finish your business and be out the door. (Why do your bowel movements have to act up at the worst possible times?)
I can't say this happens to me very often but on the rare occasion that it does, I like looking for genius ways to get yourself to poop quickly. Whether that involves munching on a banana, drinking a warm cup of coffee, or running around the apartment to get things moving, I would be willing to try most things. Sweet tricks — stuff that involve ingesting something sweet — however, have never had much appeal, mainly because I don't have a sweet tooth and prefer to stick with savory food in general. Even so, an unexpected ingredient that can make you poop instantly caught my eye – agave. So I thought I'd give it a go.
Commonly promoted as a wholesome and natural option to table sugar, agave comes from the agave plant. As registered dietician, Kris Sollid, explained per Food Insight, "Agave syrup results from the harvesting and processing of the agave plant's core through a sequence of heating, juicing, filtering, and evaporation that eventually yields the liquid sweetener." My product of choice was Wholesome Sweeteners Organic Blue Agave Syrup. The natural sweetener didn't seem to work in the poop department for me, however. Here's what happened.
There was no instant pooping with agave
I tried the hack on two days and the results were disappointing, to say the least. Luckily, I had my trusty beverage on standby – coffee's effects when it comes to poop have yet to fail me.
For starters, it was incredibly difficult to ingest the natural sweetener because it was overly sweet. I literally had to force myself to swallow a teaspoonful come morning. Then I sat and waited, for almost an hour or two every morning. Nothing happened. When I turned to my caffeine stimulant, however, things started moving.
Agave is thought to ease constipation because of its fructose content — it has more than 84% fructose, per a 2012 study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Fructose isn't absorbed in the same way as glucose in your system. It is converted to fat via your liver. When fructose isn't fully absorbed, this can lead to loose stools. Agave fructans, when consumed as soluble fiber of a jelly — Gelyfun®gastro — was found to ease constipation in people with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), per a 2023 study published in the journal Nutrients. Does this mean you should try agave syrup when you are constipated?
Consuming agave to poop: Things to consider
Natural sweeteners are often hought to be healthier because they contain vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that are good for you. In the case of agave, this translates to small amounts of iron, potassium, magnesium, calcium, and selenium, plus vitamin C and a number of B vitamins. But the key word here is small, especially considering the fact that you're only going to have a teaspoonful at any given time.
Plus the particularly high fructose content, even higher than regular table sugar (50%) or high-fructose corn syrup (55%), per Healthline, is a concern for most experts. As we mentioned before, fructose requires the work of your liver to be absorbed by your body. While glucose is readily digested and turned into energy, the fructose into fat conversion is thought to increase triglyceride levels and put you at risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Other health concerns with a high-fructose diet include liver metabolic disorders like insulin resistance, obesity, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), and type 2 diabetes, per a 2019 study published in Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome, and Obesity. People watching their blood glucose levels should avoid consuming agave. Agave also contains more calories than sugar. One teaspoon of agave nectar has 21 calories when compared with table sugar that has 16 calories, per the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
On the poop side of things, people who have a fructose intolerance should also avoid trying this hack to get their bowels moving. You could experience abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea, and gas. As for me, I'm going to stick with things like poop buttons to help keep things moving.