Diverticulitis Disease Diet Sheet:
Personalising your diet to manage diverticulitis.

If you suffer from diverticular disease of any kind then you will know the importance of creating a safe and healthy diverticulitis disease diet sheet that will outline for you what you should and shouldn’t eat in order to help you manage your specific diverticulitis problem.

Without a doubt diet plays a major part in not only the cause of diverticulitis but also the management and hopefully the resolution of the condition.  Unfortunately, it often takes a major attack before we make the necessary dietary changes.

The following can be used as a basic structure to build your diverticulitis disease diet sheet around.
Because the main cause of diverticular disease is intra bowel pressure we need to ensure a smooth flow of material through the bowel and a smooth elimination. To this end the mainstay of any diverticular diet plan should be a high fibre diet as the norm.

There are exceptions such as when you are having an acute attack where you need to cut back fibre almost completely to allow the inflammation and infection time to heal. But for general day to day prevention and management of diverticulitis, a high fibre diet is a must.   

The average amount of fibre for your eating plan, which is significantly higher than the normal daily average for men and women,  is 25-40g per day. The standard sources of fibre such as fruits and vegetables and whole grains are all that’s needed. Just make sure you tale sufficient quantity and drink plenty of water to facilitate easy movement through the bowel.

Your diverticulitis diet should also be a diet of diversity. You want a variety of different foods for a number of reasons.  Apart from being low in fibre the diets of those suffering from diverticular disease also tend to be routine and lacking variety. This can lead to a general nutritional deficiency as the unintentionally restrictive diet does not cover all the nutritional bases.

These kinds of diets are also boring and don’t encourage regular eating of sufficient amounts of nutrients. So if you are someone who tends to stick to the same old stuff when it comes to eating, be aware that you may be suffering from nutritional deficiencies that may be causing or exacerbating your condition.

Once you have a varied high fibre diet in place your eating program should be modified to your specific needs and reactions to what you are eating. Sometimes even though something is ok by the book you will have a negative reaction.

Some times this may be a “one off” and other times there will be a pattern of pain or discomfort when you eat a particular food. Sometimes you need to eliminate it completely other times you may simply need to cut back and modify the amount and frequency in your diet program.

You need to be methodical and pay attention to the details when creating your own personal diverticulitis disease diet sheet.  Read what you can and create a plan. Find some good recipes that are delicious and that you will be able to stick with and pay attention to how you feel as you make these dietary changes.  The answer to the problem is in  your diet, but you may need to work a bit at creating an eating plan that you enjoy as well as one that will help you in the management of your specific diverticular complaint.