Diet For Gastroenteritis: Permitted And Prohibited Foods

2024 Author: Josephine Shorter | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 21:43

Diet for gastroenteritis

Proper nutrition is considered an important factor in the treatment of many diseases, this is especially true for the pathology of the gastrointestinal tract. Gastroenteritis and other diseases occurring against the background of inflammatory processes require special attention to the patient's nutrition.

Moreover, about 1/3 of all gastroenteritis develops precisely because of inaccuracies in nutrition. Therefore, diet is the most important condition for recovery. Competent selection and combination of food products will help restore damaged mucous membranes. Diet for gastroenteritis becomes an integral part of treatment (of course, we are not talking about the diet that people trying to lose weight follow, but about a diet that is optimal at a certain stage of the course of the disease, which allows you to speed up the healing process).

Content:

• The basics of nutritional therapy for gastroenteritis
• Features of nutrition for gastroenteritis
• What do you need to eat with gastroenteritis?
• Prohibited foods for gastroenteritis

The basics of nutritional therapy for gastroenteritis

Gastroenteritis can occur in both acute and chronic form. The causes of inflammation vary. Infections, food, allergic reactions can provoke the disease.

However, there are uniform recommendations for compiling a menu for all patients with gastroenteritis:

• Situations in which the mucous membranes of the stomach and intestines are exposed to mechanical or chemical influence should not be allowed.
• You need to eat food that envelops the walls of the stomach and intestines.
• The menu should be balanced. Food for the body is a source of vitamins and minerals.
• Food should not contain bacteria and other pathogenic flora.

It is important to select foods carefully and prepare them correctly. After the end of the acute stage of gastroenteritis, it is forbidden to include fried and fatty foods in the menu for 14 days. Products should be chopped, mashed from them, boiled thoroughly.

Children with gastroenteritis need to eat well. Dishes should be made monocomponent. It is important to eliminate sugar and other sweeteners.

Food should be warm, too hot or cold dishes irritate the mucous membrane of the digestive system, which will lead to an exacerbation of the pathology.

You need to eat often and in small portions. This will avoid overstretching the walls of the digestive system, prevent the occurrence of vomiting, and normalize intestinal motility.

Features of nutrition for gastroenteritis

At the first signs of the disease, it is recommended to refuse to take any food in order to avoid unnecessary stress on the stomach, ease the course of the inflammatory process and improve the general condition of the patient. During this period, you need to drink a lot, and the liquid should be warm. As drinks, you can use diluted fruit or berry juice, boiled water or mineral water without gas, weak teas without added sugar, berry decoctions. The fluid entering the body will help prevent dehydration from vomiting and diarrhea and an increase in body temperature, make the course of the disease more favorable, and also speed up recovery.

Food for gastroenteritis should be introduced into the patient's diet gradually, offering him small portions at short intervals. This diet helps reduce the stress on the stomach. It is important to remember that food products for gastroenteritis should be served warm to the patient. A few days after the first symptoms of the disease appear, low-fat broth and soups, dietary oil, and cereals are added to the number of permitted products. The main thing to remember for patients is that it will be necessary to introduce foods rich in animal proteins and carbohydrates into their diet.

What do you need to eat with gastroenteritis?

In the early stages of the development of the disease, dishes should be liquid. It is allowed to include broths cooked on chicken breast in the menu. If a person is sick and vomiting opens, then he needs to drink non-carbonated water with salt.

When the patient's state of health is stabilized, the menu is expanded.

It is entered into:

• Slimy rice-based porridge, rice broth.
• Chicken broth with vegetables. It is included in the menu from 3 days from the onset of gastroenteritis.
• Boiled vegetables. Preference should be given to puréed carrots and potatoes.
• Oven apples.

From the 5th day of illness, millet, buckwheat and semolina porridge are added to the diet. You can eat chicken meatballs and cutlets, but they should be steamed. Consumption of herbal teas, pear or apple compote is allowed. Sour fruits and berries in the first 14 days from the onset of the disease are not consumed.

There is no need to salt food. It is important to avoid spices and other spices. This applies to peppers, cinnamon, dill and various sauces.

Fermented milk products, which are low in fat, replenish the reserves of proteins and minerals well. It can be curd mass, kefir, biolact. It is forbidden to include in the menu sour cream and cottage cheese, as well as cheese.

Children's diet for gastroenteritis is built on the same principles as the adult diet. You need to eat in small portions. Vegetables and meat should be pureed. Animal and vegetable fats in the child's menu are limited.

Prohibited foods for gastroenteritis

There are many foods that are on the prohibited list for gastroenteritis. This applies to sour vegetables and fruits, which contain a lot of coarse dietary fiber. You should also avoid drinking milk. It is unacceptable to eat hot or cold dishes, consume alcoholic beverages.

Foods that are prohibited from eating in the first 14 days after the development of gastroenteritis:

• Fresh vegetables and fruits.
• Sour vegetables and fruits such as lemons, oranges, sorrel.
• Milk and dairy dishes.
• Fatty fish and meat.
• Fresh bread, baked goods, rusks with hot spices.
• Jelly, candy, biscuits and other confectionery.
• Smoked sausage, etc.
• Chocolate and cocoa products.

Grilling, frying, salting and fermenting dishes is unacceptable. Eating such foods will irritate the intestines and stomach and make the disease worse. They can be introduced into the diet no earlier than a month after the onset of the first symptoms of pathology. Before expanding the menu, you need to consult with a specialist. If this is not done, then the likelihood of the transition of an acute form of gastroenteritis to a chronic one increases.

The author of the article: Gorshenina Elena Ivanovna | Gastroenterologist

Education: Diploma in the specialty "General Medicine" received at the Russian State Medical University named after N. I. Pirogova (2005). Postgraduate studies in the specialty "Gastroenterology" - educational and scientific medical center.