Ancient #Poopmaxing

Long before sorbitol had a name, people knew prunes worked. Confucius wrote about his love of prunes back in 479 BC. Pompey and Alexander the Great were fans too.

Plums have been cultivated in China and Eastern Europe for thousands of years. Somewhere along the way, people figured out that the dried version kept things moving. This was not a modern marketing trick. It was centuries of trial and error, passed down like a family secret.

Science eventually caught up. A 2011 study in Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics found prunes worked better than psyllium (the fiber in Metamucil) for chronic constipation. Prunes carry both soluble and insoluble fiber, plus about 15 grams of sorbitol per 100 grams. Sorbitol is not fully digested in the small intestine, so it moves into the large intestine and does its work there.

So next time someone jokes about prunes, remind them that emperors and philosophers were poopmaxxing thousands of years before it was cool.

## References
- [Prunes vs. Psyllium for Reducing Constipation, badgut.org](https://badgut.org/information-centre/a-z-digestive-topics/prunes-vs-psyllium/)
- [No Joke: Prunes Work Better vs. Constipation, Tufts Health & Nutrition Letter](https://www.nutritionletter.tufts.edu/general-nutrition/no-joke-prunes-work-better-vs-constipation/)
- [The Chemistry of Plums & Prunes, Compound Interest](https://www.compoundchem.com/2015/09/01/plums-prunes/)