Diet with diverticulosis of the intestine and sigmoid colon

The number of patients who complain about digestive system work is increasing every year. The reason is quite clear - the culture of nutrition of modern man leaves much to be desired. We will not touch upon the philosophical aspect of this issue, we will better learn how to make a right menu for GI diseases, in particular for diverticulosis of the intestine.

During the treatment of this disease, the main emphasis is on compliance with the diet. With diverticulosis of the intestine, which most often affects the sigmoid region, patients have to radically revise their own diet. Despite the fact that the exact reasons for the development of this pathology are not yet known to physicians, scientists were able to draw certain conclusions: the chances of getting sicker are higher among those who eat foods of predominantly animal origin.

What is intestinal diverticulosis

A few words should be given to a brief description of this ailment, which most often affects the large intestine. Diets with diverticulosis are arranged in such a way as to minimize the burden on the sigmoid section. A characteristic feature of the disease are multiple protrusions of the intestinal walls. In form they resemble a small pocket, which in medicine is called a diverticulum. At the initial stages, the disease is rarely accompanied by painful sensations. Patients can for years not know about the presence of pathology, which manifests itself as minor disorders on the part of the digestive system. Meanwhile, the complication of diverticulosis can suddenly exacerbate the clinical picture. The patients have abdominal pain, the chair is broken, nausea acquires constancy, and the inflammatory process becomes more pronounced.

The most important reason for the development of pathology is an unbalanced diet consisting mainly of high-calorie foods. Negative on the state of the gastrointestinal tract affects the use of food in large quantities.

How the diet treats this disease

It's interesting that doctors do not use medications to treat diverticulosis of the intestine and sigmoid colon. Diet with this disease - the main and, perhaps, the only effective way to stabilize the digestive system. The diet plan and diet should be made only by a professional gastroenterologist. The specialist will choose the menu, proceeding from the principles:

• accounting for the individual characteristics of the patient's body;
• maximum cell enrichment with valuable trace elements.

This can be eaten and needed!

Before talking about diet and menu for a week with diverticulosis of the intestine, you need to pay attention to the allowed and prohibited foods. According to experts, the approximate diet of patients with sigmoid disease should look like this:

1. Sour-milk products. Regular consumption of low-fat kefir, cottage cheese, yogurt is necessary to restore normal intestinal microflora.
2. Fruits and berries. In fresh form they should be eaten at least three times a day. Patients who diet on diverticulosis of the intestine are advised to eat apples, citrus fruits, kiwi, bananas, black and red currants.
3. Cereals. Of all cereal crops, only buckwheat, oatmeal and brown rice are absorbed easily and do not cause discomfort to the walls of the intestine.
4. Meat and fish. Preference should be given to low-fat varieties( rabbit, chicken, turkey, crucian, pike perch, hake, pollock, cod).
5. Drinks. The body should receive a sufficient amount of liquid, so there are no restrictions. You can drink tea, coffee, compote, homemade jelly.

From what it is desirable to refuse

Carefully include in the diet you need bakery products. Favorably on the state of the intestine will affect yesterday's bread, pasta from durum wheat. At the same time from sweet baked goods and rye products will have to be abandoned.

Not all types of vegetables are allowed to be included in nutrition in diverticulosis of the intestine. The diet implies the use of soft dietary fiber, which the body is easier to digest. Stiff and heavy for the diseased intestine is considered to be cabbage, including sea, color and white, mushrooms, beans, onions and garlic.

Whole milk is prohibited. By the way, this is one of the most complex products, and about the advisability of its use in adulthood, even with a healthy bowel, there are still discussions. The older the person, the less he produces lactase - an enzyme that breaks down the milk sugar( lactose).Immunity of milk is often found in patients.

What to consider during treatment

The preparation of a diet and menu for a week with intestinal diverticulosis is based on simple rules:

1. Fractional food. In simple terms, you need to eat a little. The more the portion, the more difficult it is for the small intestine to extract enough enzymes to fully digest food. The optimal amount of food for an adult is a portion the size of a fist.
2. The break between meals should not exceed 2.5 hours. Often you need to eat to ensure that the body receives the required amount of energy. I adhere to this schedule, you will accustom your stomach and intestines to constantly be in tone.
3. The balance of the diet. Diet in the diverticulosis of the intestine involves eating food in the correct proportion of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. Ideal doctors call the ratio 1: 1: 4.
4. Only useful cooking methods. In diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, the main emphasis in nutrition is on the use of thermally processed foods. Dishes cooked in the oven or on a steam bath retain the maximum nutritional value.
5. Ban on fatty, salty, smoked, sweet. To process such products, the body has to spend a lot of energy. They also cause in the intestines processes of putrefaction and fermentation, which increases pain and flatulence.

Example of the weekly menu

Many gastroenterologists believe that patients with diverticulosis should adhere to the technique of separate nutrition - to consume proteins separately from carbohydrates. So the body receives the maximum of nutrients from the incoming food, and the process of digestion and assimilation is greatly facilitated. Taking into account recommendations from specialists, we will compile an approximate menu for a week for patients with diverticulosis of the large intestine. Whichever diet you choose to observe in this disease, it is advisable not to deviate from the proposed scheme:

1. On Monday and Tuesday it is desirable to eat liquid food( vegetable soups), supplementing the diet with fruits, herbal tea.
2. Wednesday should become a day of rest, during which you can drink only kefir or there are some apples.
3. Thursday is a fish day. During a diet with diverticulosis of the intestine, be sure to pamper yourself with a fragrant broth prepared from lean river or sea fish. Do not forget about enough liquid.
4. On Friday, you can start the day with a few spoons of oatmeal or buckwheat porridge. For lunch you can eat boiled meat and vegetable puree. It is better to eat an orange or a banana for a mid-morning snack, and for dinner - a pair of spoons of low-fat cottage cheese.
5. Saturday is the sixth day of the diet. You can start it with a protein omelet cooked in a double boiler. Vegetable salad or porridge is better to fill with vegetable oil. Before going to bed, to not load the stomach, drink curdled milk.
6. On Sunday, eat vegetable soup, baked fish, fruit and drink compote.

Useful dietary recipes

To achieve a real therapeutic effect in the treatment of intestinal diverticulosis, the diet includes products that improve the digestive system, remove slags and harmful substances from the body. Among medical prescriptions it is worth noting:

1. A mixture of apples and wheat. This vegetable "tandem" helps prevent the development of inflammation in the intestines. For cooking, you need 2-3 tablespoons of germinated wheat grains and one green apple, which must be peeled and grated, and then mixed with the ground in a wheat blender. After thoroughly mixing the ingredients, the mixture is eaten in the morning before breakfast.
2. Kissel made of oatmeal and yogurt. To prepare a dish that helps to clean diverticula, take 3 liters of boiled cool water and a glass of low-fat kefir or yogurt. Stir thoroughly. After that, add 500 g of flakes and leave overnight in the refrigerator. By morning, the mixture will become a thick concentrate, which should be used in cooking jelly( 2 tablespoons of porridge take 1.5-2 liters of water).
3. Tea from mint. This plant is often used to treat diseases of the digestive system. Prepare a fragrant fragrant drink that has a calming effect, simply: 5-10 g of grass is poured with boiling water and insist 10-15 minutes.

Drug therapy

If the positive dynamics are not observed for a certain time, the doctor may decide to treat the diverticulosis of the intestine with drugs. Diet, by the way, the patient will have to comply and continue. In cases of severe manifestations of the disease or a complication of diverticulitis( inflammation of the intestinal "pockets"), experts prescribe medications that:

• restore intestinal peristalsis( prokinetics);
• eliminates pain, discomfort, burning( spasmolytic);
• create a favorable microflora( pre- and probiotics);
• prevents seeding of diverticula by pathogenic microorganisms( enterosorbents).

If the patient's condition worsens and medication fails to produce the expected results, surgical intervention can be prescribed. Most often, the indication for the operation is:

• exacerbation of diverticulitis;
• perforation and bleeding of the gastrointestinal tract;
• appearance of fistulas.

How to eat properly after surgical treatment of

Compared with the above-described dietary restrictions, which is more rigorous is the diet after an operation on the intestines with diverticulosis. Conditionally it can be divided into several stages. On the first day after the operation, when the patient comes out of anesthesia, he can not eat and drink anything, but to ensure that the nutrients enter the weakened organism, the patient is put on a dropper.

Only liquid food

On the second and fifth day, the patient will be treated with diet No. 0a, which will prevent mechanical trauma to the operated bowel. The list of dishes is rather meager( decoction of broth, low-fat chicken broth, rice broth), so to ensure the energy needs of the body the patient should eat at least 7-8 times during the day and receive parenteral nutrition.

Puree and soft dishes

On the sixth day the patient is transferred to a diet No. 1a. Its basis - semi-liquid and puree dishes( watery cereals from cereals, vegetable soups, scrambled eggs, fish soufflé, jelly, berry jelly, etc.).The volume of one serving should not exceed 300 ml. Under the prohibition of milk, sour cream, vegetable juices.

Step-by-step introduction of solid food

To begin it is necessary so:

• Diet No. 1 is suitable for those patients in whom processes of recovery of gastrointestinal tract processes are favorable. In the diet you can enter pieces of boiled chicken and lean fish, bread, kefir, baked vegetables. Adhere to such a power scheme should be at least two weeks.
• Diet No. 4c is based on the principles of the previous one. It implies the gradual introduction into the diet of products of solid consistency, sweet fruits and berries. The period of compliance with diet No. 4c is discussed with a specialist. As the patient recovers and feels well, the patient is transferred to regular meals.

In this case, a person who underwent an operation on the intestine needs to listen to his own organism and, in process of recovery, make adjustments to the diet, basing on his own state of health and the reaction of the digestive system.