Best foods for diverticulosis

The stomach is naturally designed to digest foods in their natural state. Unfortunately, in today’s world, too many foods go through many processes that make breaking them down difficult for your body. When you eat these processed foods, it can lead to digestive problems like diverticulosis. The good news is, even though you’ve been on a diet of processed foods all your life, you can still recover by simply adding the best foods for diverticulosis to your daily meals.

What is diverticulosis?

It is a forerunner to a more serious digestive condition called diverticulitis. When you eat, food passes through the digestive tract into your large intestine or colon and then proceeds to be excreted from your body out the rectum. If the food you eat does not contain enough fiber, it cannot be properly digested and may cause constipation. When you are constipated, the colon is put under a lot of pressure and small pouches form as a result. These intestinal pouches can become inflamed or infected. This is when diverticulosis progresses into diverticulitis which displays symptoms similar to Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

Eating a diet of the best foods for diverticulosis enables ingested food to be processed properly so that your large intestine will not come under pressure.

What are the symptoms of diverticulosis?

You can have diverticular pouches on your colon for a long time before you start noticing symptoms. It is only when an infection breaks out or inflammation occurs on these pouches that you become ill. In other words, when symptoms appear, you have diverticulitis and not diverticulosis anymore.

Symptoms you might experience are diarrhea, abdominal pain, bloating, constipation, pus in stools, and blood in stools, weight loss and excessive flatulence.

What are the best foods for diverticulosis?

The formation of diverticular pouches can be prevented by following a diet filled with fiber-rich foods. Whole grains such as whole wheat bread, whole pasta, wild or brown rice, wheat cereals, vegetables and fruits all have the necessary fiber you need for digestion. They contain soluble and insoluble fiber. Soluble fiber foods are those that slow down digestion by forming a gel in your body. Oatmeal, oranges, grapefruit, strawberries, carrots, celery, asparagus, Brussels sprouts and flax seed are examples of the best foods for diverticulosis. Most have a high water content which softens stools and can ease your intestine.

Insoluble fiber foods are those that move digested food from your stomach, into intestines and out of your body. Because pouches also form when stools are stored for longer than they should, eating insoluble fiber will move waste along faster to relieve your colon.

What are the worst foods for diverticulosis?

Foods that contain refined carbohydrates, unhealthy saturated and are low in fiber are bad for your intestine. Some of these foods include white rice, white bread, regular pasta, sugary cereals, pastry, fried foods, cake, chips and other processed food. Most of these foods cannot provide the fiber your intestine needs, which inevitably leads to all sorts of digestive and non-digestive conditions.