The diverticulitis diet is a meal plan which is particularly designed for people who are suffering from a digestive disease called diverticulitis. This disease involves formation of pouches in the large intestine which get inflamed. Once this occurs, the person can suffer from abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting and cramps.
For acute cases of diverticulitis, going through a diverticulitis diet could help in alleviating the pain. This may be accompanied by medications like antibiotics but to effectively beat the discomfort and pain, it is best to do changes in the diet. If you are suffering from this problem, then it is time for you know more about the proper foods to eat.
This illness requires clearing up the infection and curing the inflammation. The colon has to be rested too. That is why, diverticulitis diet involves intake of high amount of liquid. Chicken broth that is liquidized can help a lot. You also need to increase the amount of water that you drink everyday. Since eight glasses is the recommended amount for an average person, you would need to take it up a notch and drink at least ten to twelve glasses per day. This will enable you to do cleansing much faster. Aside from water, green herbal teas and fruit or vegetable juices are recommended too.
Fiber from the right types of food should do positive effects on your body. However, you should do the fiber increase gradually. It is not recommended to suddenly bombard your digestive system with whopping amount of fiber from fruits and vegetable as this may make it harder for your digestive tract to function. This could also make things worse because you may experience cramping, bloating or having too much gas. You can start by eating cooked vegetables, green salads, steamed fruits without the skin and low fiber cereals.
As you progress with the diverticulitis diet, you have to carefully elevate the amount of fiber that you ingest. According to the American Dietetic Association, the recommended amount is about 20 to 30 grams of fiber each day along with 6 to 8 grams of soluble fiber. This should promote enhanced stool formation and excretion so that the pressure on the colon would be reduced. It is still ideal to ingest more fruits and vegetables because these have high amount of fiber. Focus on eating more apricot, blackberry, blueberry, grapefruit, prune, asparagus, broccoli, spinach and cabbage. Along with these, you can also add whole wheat bread and pasta, brown rice, oatmeal, oat bran and grits.
It is important to be a little cautious when eating foods with high amount of acidity as these may cause heart burn and high amount of acid within the digestive tract. It would be best to eat in little proportions too so that it would be easier to digest the food. There should be less food residue to enable the system to cleanse properly.
As part of the diverticulitis diet, you should also avoid food and drinks that have high amount of sodium because these can lead to dehydration and makes it harder for your digestive system to perform its work.
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