My Diet For Diverticulitis

Photo by Stacy Cilia

The correct diet for diverticulitis is very important if you want to reduce or even eliminate deeper attacks. While antibiotics will normally temporarily alleviate your often excruciating pain and discomfort, taking them over a long period of time can be almost as dangerous since, in addition to having the diverticulitis condition,  your body can eventually grow immune to their effects.   If a case becomes extreme it may be necessary to go through a risky and invasive surgery which can lead to a reduction in the quality of your life.

There’s a school of thought holding that there’s a simple strategy to combat this.  It maintains that strategically combining foods in a diet for diverticulitis can help you stop worrying about a the next attack and start getting excited about your next meal.  The pain of diverticulitis can make this difficult to imagine, but it is a legitimate outcome using the proper program and food.

The strategic food combination approach lets you manage a diet for diverticulitis and diverticulosis by planning your meals to allow your digestive system to work for you and not against you.   Combining the right foods and eating them while in the correct manner at appropriate intervals at all hours is all that it takes to see a noticeable difference in any digestive problems for you to have including diverticulitis, symptoms of heartburn, IBS and colitis.  It’s possible to get past the constant fretting and stewing over every minute ingredient.

One company called Puristat advocates a particular way of combining foods, and even a particular order in which to eat a meal.  Their recommended order in order to prevent a ‘food traffic jam’ is

First =Water or Fruit Juice

Second =Soups that are not cream based

Third =Green leafy non-starchy vegetables

Fourth =Starches and starchy vegetables

Fifth =Proteins

This company recommends strategic food combinations (along, of course,  with their digestive health/detox/cleanse products) to improve energy and maintain digestive health in general.

While this approach is not generally promoted by traditional western medical personnel, I don’t know that the approach has been discredited either.   It may be worth trying, keeping in mind to pay special attention to those “diverticulitis foods” that historically have caused trouble.

I’ve previously written about a study on the diet for diverticulitis that dispels the common notion that eating foods such as seeds, nuts, and corn will cause diverticulitis flare ups.  The prevailing thought used to be that these foods be excluded in a diet for diverticulitis patients because they’re likely to get trapped in the diverticula pockets of the intestine, causing the flare up, or a true case of diverticulitis.
Despite the findings of the study, however, many diverticulitis sufferers still hold to the idea that these foods in their diet do, in fact, precipitate a bout of diverticulitis.  Various conversations – both offline and on internet forums – include people relating personal experience with seeds causing a flare up, and the effective practice of avoiding seeds and nuts in their diet.
This prevalence of anecdotal evidence begs the question, “Is the avoidance of seeds and nuts in the diet of diverticulitis sufferers based on old beliefs, or did the scientists get it wrong in their study?”

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Many people, when asked to define ‘diverticulitis foods‘, or foods that are best avoided, jump right to the category of nuts and seeds.  Additionally, a relatively low fiber diet of processed foods with high fat is commonly blamed for all of what ails us, both physically and socially.  But what does the research tell us?

A 2008 study from the Journal of the American Medical Association challenges the long held belief that foods such as seeds, nuts, and corn get stuck in the diverticula, or pockets of the colon, leading to the infection and symptoms of diverticulitis.   The study demonstrated that nuts, corn, and popcorn consumption did not increase the risk of diverticulitis or related complications.  In fact, the study found a decreased incidence of the development of diverticulitis in men who regularly ate nuts and popcorn.  This study has changed the advice of physicians with their patients regarding diverticulitis foods.  In fact, these items previously considered ‘diverticulosis foods’ are sometimes suggested as being part of a healthy, high-fiber diet to avoid diverticulitis.

What about the other foods that get the blame as being a poor diet for diverticulitis?  There’s epidemiological support for the idea that people from cultures with high-fiber diets are less likely to develop diverticulitis than those living in cultures with typically low-fiber diets, it’s easy to conclude that “junk food” is the villain of a diverticulitis diet.   Even though we may not have sufficient controlled studies to prove this contention, a long term diet of healthy foods and sufficient dietary fiber is almost always recommended to avoid illness.

Does that mean no twinkies, cake, burgers, or fries ever for those with diverticulitis?  Read the rest of this entry

We talk about the various forms of diet for diverticulitis, but many wonder, exactly “what is diverticulitis?”

Let’s step back first to look at the big picture.  Diverticular disease is a two-headed monster, each head representing either diverticulitis or diverticulosis.

Diverticulosis is the kinder of the two heads, and describes the pockets or pouches in the lining of the colon.  These small pouches are called diverticula, and can be clearly seen in this video.  Generally, the presence of diverticula doesn’t cause any symptoms and goes unnoticed.

It’s when the second head, called diverticulitis, rears its head and roars that prompts the question, “what is diverticulitis?”  Diverticulitis is condition of infected diverticula, causing pain (often in the left side of the abdomen), nausea, and other symptoms.

Diverticulitis can often be managed with diet.  In the video, Dr. Galati recommends 35-40 grams of fiber per day.  Read my previous post on foods that comprise a healthy diet for diverticulitis.

While a hearty, wholesome, high-fiber diet is a wonderful long-term diet for diverticulitis sufferers, an acute diverticulitis flare up requires immediate attention.  When you have painful symptoms of diverticulitis, your colon doesn’t want you to keep slamming whole grains into it.  It just needs to rest so your body can fight the infection and start to heal.  Yep, your colon needs first aid.

One way to give that colon the rest it craves is to radically adjust your diet for that diverticulitis flare up.  That means a clear liquid diet of, well, clear liquids.  The first clear liquid that comes to your mind is likely water.  Good as refreshment, but not very satisfying if you’re hungry.  Truth is, it’s difficult to have a filling, satisfying meal of clear liquids, but if you’re suffering the pain of a diverticulitis episode, a full meal may not sound so appetizing.

Other foods can be consumed on this diet as well.  Among the foods Mayo Clinic suggests are:

Broth
Clear soda
Fruit juices without pulp
Ice chips
Ice pops without bits of fruit or fruit pulp
Plain gelatin
Plain water
Tea or coffee without cream
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A healthy diverticulosis diet is a reasonable eating style for anyone, but particularly those afflicted with diverticular disease.

Diverticulosis is one of the two ugly stepsisters that comprise diverticular disease. It’s the condition of having pouches or pockets in the wall of the colon. Typically diverticulosis is asymptomatic (you don’t feel anything unusual), although it may cause cramping feelings or involve other complications. When those pouches in the colon – called diverticula – become inflamed and infected, it conjures the other stepsister, diverticulitis.  That’s something you’ll definitely feel.

If a diverticulosis condition doesn’t have other complications, it can often be managed with a healthy “diverticulosis diet”. This diverticulosis diet is a set of eating habits that are based on the sound eating habits for the
whole population, but its salient feature is high fiber.

Yep, it’s that roughage your mom always told you was so good for you. It’s recommended that a normal adult
eat 25-35 grams of dietary fiber daily. This is not a difficult level to reach unless one is accustomed to an overall regimen of low-fiber diet, especially featuring high quantities of red meat. A
healthy diverticulosis diet does not restrict red meat entirely, but the meat should be just one part of an otherwise high fiber diet. Read the rest of this entry

What are diverticulitis foods?  OK, so foods aren’t really ”diverticulitis foods” by themselves.  It’s all just food.  But for those suffering from diverticulitis symptoms,foods may have more or less painful results.

For those with diverticulitis, foods best consumed will depend on the state of the condition of the person.  If the person with diverticulitis is experiencing no pain or symptoms of flare-ups, diverticulitis foods to remain free of flare-ups include high fiber foods.  If the person is experiencing painful symptoms of diverticulitis, foods that are high in fiber are best avoided.  That means converting to easily digestible, low fiber, low residue food.  In painful cases,diverticulitis foods may include a clear liquid diet.

High fiber diverticulitis foods to eat when no symptoms are present include fruits such as apples, figs, and pears.  The peels of these particular diverticulitis foods are more difficult to digest, so it may be best to peel before eating. Same goes for certain vegetables that are otherwise good diverticulitis foods.  These vegetables include broccoli,squash, and carrots.  Other high fiber diverticulitis foods contain whole grain, such as whole wheat bread, whole grain cereals,and bran cereals. Raisins, beans, lentils, and bran cereals all offer high fiber content. Think in terms of the hearty breakfast with roughage mom used to feed you on a cold morning (the oatmeal kind,not the eggs and bacon kind).

If a person is starting to feel tenderness in the abdomen or nausea, it may be the sign of a flare up beginning.  Time to adjust the diet to lower fiber mode in order to give the intestine a rest and heal.  During low fiber mode of  the diverticulitis diet, good diverticulitis foods may include white rice, yogurt, refined pasta, white bread, eggs, and pulp-free fruit juice. Read the rest of this entry

People inflicted with diverticulitis need to adjust their diet, but what’s a good diet for diverticulitis?  What should I eat?  When do I eat it?  What to avoid?  The answers to these questions depend on whether a painful flare up exists or not.

Some background:  Diverticulitis is an inflammation of the diverticula.  “So what’s a diverticula”, you ask?  Diverticula is the plural of diverticulum, a bulge or protruding sac in the colon wall.  Imagine a bulge on theweak spot of an inner tube and you’ll have the idea.  The presence of these bulges is called diverticulosis.  The cause of these bulges is sometimes attributed to the stereotypical”bad western diet” of high fat, low fiber, high processed foods.

A person who has developed diverticula usually has no symptoms.  In fact, they often don’t even realize they have diverticulosis until the diveticula pockets become infected or rupture, causing an infection in the surrounding tissue.  This is, of course, the condition called diverticulitis.  It’s at this point that people then, on the advice of their doctor, begin a special diet for diverticulitis.

As with many diets, a diet for diverticulitis refers to long-term, healthy eating habits, not short term, although the diet is greatly different during active flare-ups than when in maintenance mode.

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