IBD diet: What to eat, avoid and more

IBD diet: What to eat, avoid and more

• The goals of treatment for inflammatory bowel syndrome are to improve inflammation and, ideally, get rid of it altogether.
• Once the inflammation is under control, the other digestive issues go away too.
• You may have heard about anti-inflammatory diets or anti-inflammatory foods.
• A good IBD diet is a type of anti-inflammatory diet, incorporating most of the standard recommendations for a healthy diet.
• While you still need to create your own list of foods to eat and foods to avoid based on the triggers you and your doctors have identified, there are some general guidelines you can follow.

Foods to eat

Your triggers will inevitably reduce your food choices. But you should still aim to eat a diverse, nutrient-dense diet to help keep your inflammatory bowel disease under control. Your diet should include a healthy mix of:

Fiber –

• Fiber can be a problematic nutrient.
• It’s an essential part of a healthy diet, but one that commonly brings on symptoms during a flare.
• Focus on sources of soluble fiber (which help reduce diarrhea) like beans, fleshy fruits, oats and barley and eat other whole grains and high-fiber foods as you can tolerate.

Lean proteins –

• Too much fat can lead to poor protein absorption and make your symptoms worse.
• Stick to low-fat sources of protein like chicken, turkey, fish, eggs, and tofu.

Fruits and veggies –

• Eating a colorful array of plants provides a diverse mix of vitamins and minerals.
• If the fibrous peels and seeds cause digestive troubles, remove those before eating.

Calcium-rich foods –

• IBD, and especially Crohn’s disease, can lead to lactose intolerance.
• So, you may need to get your calcium from non-dairy sources canned fish or dark green vegetables.
• For your dairy fix, you can choose lactose-free or non-dairy alternatives to milk, yogurt and cheese.

Probiotics –

• Inflammatory bowel disease can flush the “good” bacteria out of your gut.
• Yogurt, kimchi, miso, sauerkraut, tempeh, and other sources of live bacteria can help bring your gut bacteria back into balance.

Foods to Avoid with IBD

There is no reason to avoid any food unless it triggers or worsens your symptoms. You want to get as many nutrients from as many different sources as you can. But if you haven’t yet identified the foods that trigger your flares of Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis or IBD, these are common culprits:

• Fatty, greasy or fried foods
• Hot or spicy foods
• Raw, high-fiber fruits and vegetables
• Nuts, seeds and beans
• Caffeinated or sugary beverages
• Alcoholic beverages
• Candy, sweets and other sources of added sugar

 

Alcohol, caffeine, and spicy foods can irritate anyone’s colon. So, the problems can be worse if you have inflammatory bowel disease. Fat, sugar, and fiber are all harder to digest. So, you may need to stick to foods that are low in these categories or eat sources with higher contents in moderation. Once your IBD flare-up is under control, you can slowly incorporate foods back into your normal diet, one or two at a time every few days. Start with things you know you can tolerate — liquids first, then soft solids. And slowly increase your calories, protein, and fiber to return to a healthy diet that may have suffered from poor appetite or weight loss.

• Whether you’re in remission or in the midst of a flare, your diet is one of the keys to managing inflammatory bowel disease.
• But like any diet, sticking with it isn’t always easy.
• When you work with an experienced team of IBD experts and dietitians, you can develop a diet plan to get adequate nutrition while avoiding your triggers — and still eat many of the foods you love.