I don't need to know this for my own personal needs, but I have to include it in a project on eating disorders at the last minute and don't know much about it.. I wasn't sure whether to post this on eating disorders or not, but didn't know if this was really an eating disorder type thing.. if I posted on the wrong board, please forgive me
First off, what foods can act as laxatives?
Second, do people really use them to try and lose weight?
I took laxatives for many years. It's a form of bulimia, just like binging and purging is. I never ate specific foods as laxatives, instead I'd take an entire box of pills at one time. Sometimes several times a day. Yes, it can be extremely detrimental to your health, just like purging via vomiting can be. You completely deprive your body of food because it goes through you so fast. Your body doesn't retain any of the things it needs to survive. It also can lead to severe dehydration. I don't think of laxatives as a weightloss tactic, more of an eating disorder. Do a search engine search on bulimia and you should get plenty of information on the subject.
Hello, Don't know anything about trying to loose weight with laxatives, but I do know some people try to do that. I do know that apples, apple cider, prunes, and prunes juice are amoung the well known natural food laxatives. I have also discovered that watermellon and bananas are considered food laxatives in China. Funny thing is that my mom always told me that bananas are binding and bound her up.
Laxatives are very dangerous if abused severly. People with ED do abuse them, not all, but some do. They take it for the effect of getting all the food out of their system pretty quick, so they will not see the numbers on the scale increase and for the pure psychological benefit as well. It may cause temp. weight loss but once you eat again, your weight will temp. increase. It is bad for dehydration since your losing alot of electrolytes through going to the bathroom.
Laxatives? 
