Foods To Avoid With Diverticulitis

Some Food Items You May Want To Look At.....

It's an area of some controversy deciding what are the specific foods to avoid with diverticulitis . On the whole most health practitioners dealing in the treatment of diverticulitis agree that during the acute active phase of the disease, the treatment principle should be to restrict bowel movements in order to allow the inflamed and irritated bowel time to heal without being irritated by the movement of faeces.

However once the acute inflammatory state of the disease is passed the specific foods that were helping with the healing now become foods to avoid with diverticulitis.

There is total agreement however that a high fibre diet is essential to the prevention of diverticula (pouch like protuberances in the bowel) and the prevention of the relatively benign condition of diverticulosis turning into the acute inflammatory condition of diverticulitis.

In relation to specific foods to avoid with diverticulitis, the general consensus is that seeds and nuts should be avoided. Even when well chewed, it is thought that seed and nut residue can easily irritate the wall of the bowel as they pass through.

It has also been suggested that small seed and nut fragments can get easily lodged in already present diverticula leading to irritation and infection due to bacteria forming around the food.

While in principle this make sense the current thinking about the specific foods to avoid the diverticulitis is changing with many health-care professionals now claiming that any foodstuff has the potential to become lodged in already present diverticula and create inflammation and infection.

While this may be true, it seems logical to avoid hard and small foods (such as nuts and seeds and whole grains) that could get stuck in the bowel, particularly in the early stages of recovery from diverticulitis where the chance for recurrence a higher.

People with diverticulitis need to be on the lookout to these kinds of foods that may sneak into their diet. Take strawberries for example. Now obviously strawberries are not nuts or seeds, but the small seeds on the outside of the strawberry could certainly cause some problems for people with a history of diverticulitis.

In a similar vein it would seem to make sense to avoid overly hot and spicy foodstuffs. If you have ever experienced a bowel movement the day after eating a lot of hot and spicy food, and most of us probably fall into  that category at one time or another, you will agree that these kinds of foods do in fact irritate and inflame the delicate tissue of the bowel.

This is irritation that an already inflamed bowel could well do without. Far from just being uncomfortable, these kinds of foods may in fact cause a significant worsening of the condition and delay proper healing.
 
In conclusion the basic foods to avoid with diverticulitis are

-All varieties of nuts and seeds
-Dried fruits such as sultanas and raisins
-Cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage and Cauliflower
-Whole grains