Foods to avoid with diverticulitis

What foods to avoid with diverticulitis? The foods that affect you will be very personal in nature, but here are some general guidelines.

Avoid like the plague: nuts and seeds! Anything with a particular shell (sesame seeds, etc.) should be avoided. They will simply irritate the lining of the colon again and cause diverticula to develop.

Corn is another food (any type of corn products, popcorn, even cornmeal and tortillas) that should be avoided as much as possible. Chili peppers and other spicy foods are also known to be very bad for diverticulitis sufferers.

A hodgepodge of other items that people with diverticulitis have cited as problematic include: raw vegetables, strawberries, blackberries, iceberg lettuce, tomato juice, fried or fatty foods, and onions.

This is by no means a complete list of foods to avoid with diverticulitis, and again, the foods that have an effect on you will be very personal in nature, so it is absolutely essential that you keep a simple food journal. If you don’t want to write down everything you eat, at least keep in mind the foods that aggravate lower bowel problems and add them to your list of things to avoid.

Another thing to avoid if you can is stress! If you are stressed, your digestion is affected. In fact, many sources list stress as the #1 cause of diverticulitis. When you are under stress, the flow of blood and oxygen to your digestive system is compromised and your natural defenses are reduced. Your body’s ability to fight infection in that area is hampered and your chance of having a flare-up of diverticulitis increases. This might be an oversimplification of stress in relation to diverticulitis, but the absolute truth is that reducing stress will reduce suffering from diverticulitis, not to mention all the other benefits that less stress will bring you.

To summarize, here is a long list of things to definitely avoid in your diverticulitis diet:

1) walnuts

2) Seeds

3) Corn Products

4) Chilis and other spicy things

5) Raw vegetables, onions, iceberg lettuce and tomato juice

6) Fried foods and other high-fat foods

7) Stress!