Food Remedies: Constipation -- I sure wish the literature agreed on what helps and what hurts constipation. This says pears and canned fruit in general make constipation worse! It does say that magnesium has laxative properties, and that chocolate is a leading source of magnesium. I knew that chocolate had laxative properties, and I suspect that the chocolate icing on DS's birthday cake a week ago might have been the trigger that loosened him up.