15 Surprising Foods That Make You Constipated

Hot dogs are a spring and summer cookout staple, but processed foods have virtually zero fiber — which is critical for keeping you on the reg.

A carrot dog, however, is a totally different story. It may not get you all the way to the 25 to 38 grams of fiber the USDA suggests you take each day, but all those veggies will give you more of a boost than bread and processed meat alone.

Wait, what?! We've all heard that coffee can get your bowels moving, but drinking too much can be dehydrating, effectively drying out — and clogging up — your system, writes Winnie Yu in What to Eat for What Ails You.

The doughy, cream-cheese-slathered breakfast is considered one of the "Ten Plagues of the Gut," according to The Un-Constipated Gourmet, along with two other breakfast favorites — doughnuts and pancakes — because the standard, white-flour variety tends to have very little fiber.

Low-fiber pasta + tons of dairy from the cheese and cream sauce = you'll be singing Adele's "Hello" to your toilet, because you two haven't seen each other in quite awhile.

In moderation, it's totally fine to go HAM on stuffed shells. Every day? Eh, not so much.

You've always heard fruit is rich in fiber, and bananas are fruit, so they must be good, right? Not quite. A 2005 study in Germany found bananas to be second only to chocolate in terms of foods that caused constipation. (A 2014 Korean study echoed these sentiments about the fruit.)

So that chocolate-dipped frozen banana may not be the best call if you're feeling bloated.

See aforementioned German study. Drown your sorrows in a ... glass of fiber-rich prune juice?

The calcium makes for strong bones, but too much dairy can slow down your digestion and harden your stools, making (eventually) going to the bathroom a painful experience, according to What to Eat for What Ails You.

There's no harm in chowing down on a little chow mein every once in a while, but if dishes featuring rice noodles, rice and semolina pasta are some of your go-to weeknight dinners, you may want to ease up — for your bowels' sake. (They're all low in fiber.)

A whole wheat crust gives you a little more fiber, but Danielle Svetcov, author of The Un-Constipated Gourmet, says the difference in texture often leave people feeling unsatisfied. If you do go for a slice, have some granola for breakfast that day, Svetcov recommends.

If you need a snack during your next Netflix & Chill sesh, opt for popcorn — it tends to have twice as much fiber as a bag of chips, according to USDA data.

Red meat tends to have more saturated fat than white meat, the

American Heart Association reports, and those fats can gunk up your intestines, making it harder to go to the bathroom.

It may be called "the other white meat," but pork is technically red meat, and you know what they say: Mo' sat fat, mo' problems (for your bowels).

All that cheese can be binding, What to Eat for What Ails You states, but don't cancel your date night at Melting Pot just yet: If you're otherwise getting plenty of fiber and water in your diet (25 grams of the former, eight glasses of the latter), eating cheese shouldn't be an issue.

Ice cream may be one of the ultimate comfort foods, but if you're starting to feel constipated, the dairy in it will only worsen your symptoms, reports the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.