Occasional constipation -- when you're traveling or pregnant, for instance, or when your diet's off kilter -- is common, and though it's uncomfortable, you know that soon it will pass.

But when constipation is chronic, seeking relief can become an obsession.

Danielle Svetcov has turned her lifelong battle with constipation into a career move, writing "The Un-Constipated Gourmet: Secrets to a Moveable Feast" (Sourcebooks). It came out this summer and has a large potential audience: According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, more than 4 million Americans have frequent constipation, accounting for 2.5 million physician visits a year.

"It's the common cold of the gut," Svetcov observes.

Svetcov, who has suffered from uncooperative bowels her whole adult life, had her first colonoscopy at age 21. Neither that test nor subsequent ones have pinned down any pathology as the cause of her condition. Looking for guidance, she started collecting tips from fellow constipees (I just made that word up), gathering home and folk remedies from anyone willing to share.

"Some people would tell me in an exclamatory way, with no shame, 'Oh! My grandma in Greece did this . . .,' " she says. "Others would speak in hushed voices or whisper to me, 'I have a recipe . . . .' "

Svetcov encourages people to experiment, to move beyond laxatives and bran cereal to incorporate high-fiber foods that actually taste good. In fact, I came by "The Un-Constipated Gourmet" when Post recipes editor Bonnie Benwick passed it along to me, with her endorsement, after trying some of its recipes. While I haven't yet cooked them myself, Svetcov's offerings sure don't sound medicinal. There are recipes for bacon-wrapped dates (it's the dates, not the bacon, that work here), black bean and roasted corn salad with mango (a key-food trifecta) and persimmon pudding. Persimmons, the author tells us, "contain twice as much dietary fiber as apples. And if you eat the peel, I can almost guarantee results."