Diet Tips to Relieve IBD’s – Part Two

When experiencing a flare up of an inflammatory bowel disease, make food choices that are gentle on your digestive system. Try a low-fiber diet (less than 10g of fiber per day) or a low-residue diet which keeps in mind that some low fiber foods, such as dairy and coffee, can actually increase residue or stimulate bowel movement, while some foods that are lower in residue, such as blenderized bran, are indeed high in fiber.

In either case, eating foods from this list should help to alleviate discomfort and give your system a chance to heal.

Grain Products
• Choose enriched and refined white bread products over whole grains
• Plain, unsweetened cereals like Cornflakes or Cream of Wheat
• arrowroot cookies or soda crackers
• white rice, refined pasta and noodles

Fruits
• Think soft and squishy like applesauce, apricots, cantaloupe, canned fruit cocktail, grapes, honeydew melon, peaches, watermelon
• fruit juices (except prune juice)
• avoid raw and dried fruits, raisins and berries

Vegetables
• vegetable juices
• potatoes (no skin)
• alfalfa sprouts, beets, green/yellow beans, carrots, celery, cucumber, eggplant, lettuce, mushrooms, green/red peppers, squash, zucchini
• avoid gas-producing vegetables from the cruciferous family--broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, cabbage, etc….

Meat and Protein -- avoid beans and lentils and go for well-cooked, tender meat, fish and eggs.

Nuts and Seeds -- avoid them all, and foods that may contain seeds (such as yogurt with berries).