Crohn's Disease Diet

Crohn's Disease Diet
Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammatory bowel disorder, causes abdominal pain and severe diarrhea. It's treatment options include medications and surgery. However, certain changes in diet and lifestyle can help in managing the symptoms of Crohn’s disease. Here is some useful information about Crohn’s disease diet.

Crohn’s disease is an inflammatory disease of the digestive system, which can affect any part of the digestive system, from mouth to anus. The exact cause of Crohn’s disease is not known. Some possible causes of Crohn’s disease are certain viral or bacterial infection, heredity, family history and ethnicity. Smoking and use of isotretinoin (used to treat acne scars) can increase the risk of Crohn’s disease. Crohn’s disease causes the erosions on the inner surface of bowel. These erosions eventually become larger, causing scarring of the bowel. It can lead to narrowing and obstruction of the small intestine.

Crohn’s disease causes symptoms such as diarrhea, intestinal ulcers, abdominal pain and cramps, presence of blood in stool, loss of appetite and weight loss. Treatment of Crohn’s disease is aimed at reducing inflammation of digestive tract. Various options for the treatment of Crohn’s disease are medications such as anti-inflammatory drugs, immune system suppressors, antibiotics, anti-diarrheals, laxatives and pain relievers and surgery to remove a damaged portion or scar tissue. However, there are some alternative treatment options such as certain changes in the lifestyle, diet and herbal and nutritional supplements. Dietary changes can definitely help in reducing the symptoms of Crohn’s disease. Let’s understand in detail about Crohn’s disease diet.

Crohn’s Disease Diet

Diet plays an important role in maintaining your overall health. Crohn’s disease diet plan is helpful for relieving the inflammatory symptoms. Since Crohn’s diet can cause loss of appetite and poor absorption of vitamins and minerals, it is very important to maintain a nutritious, healthy diet. Your diet should contain adequate amount of proteins, vitamins, minerals, calories and other essential nutrients. Include chicken, lean meats, fish, eggs, peanut butter, tofu and cheese in your diet, which are the rich sources of proteins. If you have lactose intolerance, you can have hard cheeses and yogurt. Soy products such as soy yogurt and soymilk can be a good substitute for milk.

A low-fiber and low-residue diet is recommended in Crohn’s disease diet plan. It can help in relieving the symptoms like diarrhea, abdominal pain and cramps. This diet can also decrease the frequency of bowel movement.

Due to dietary limitations and reduced ability of small intestine to absorb nutrients, you may suffer from a deficiency of vitamins, minerals and other essential nutrients. Therefore, multivitamin and mineral supplements are recommended for people with Crohn's disease. Vitamin supplements including vitamin B-12, vitamin D and folic acid and mineral supplements including iron and calcium are recommended.

In addition, you should consume adequate amount of fluids in order to keep your body hydrated. Crohn’s disease causes diarrhea and intestinal inflammation, which leads to fluid loss and dehydration. Many health professionals recommend daily intake of at least eight glasses of water.

During a flare-up of Crohn’s disease, it is very important to maintain proper nourishment by following Crohn’s disease diet plan. You should have six small meals rather than three large meals. It will facilitate normal digestion and absorption of food.

Foods to Avoid

Certain foods can aggravate the signs and symptoms of Crohn’s disease. Hence, you should try to eliminate these foods from your diet. Your diet should contain limited amount of dairy products such as milk and cheese. Some people have lactose intolerance and they can’t digest lactose present in dairy foods. But when you limit the intake of dairy products, you should take some calcium supplements in order to avoid calcium deficiency.

Foods such as spicy foods, broccoli, cabbage, beans, citrus fruits and raw fruit juices and beverages such as alcoholic drinks and caffeinated beverages can aggravate the symptoms. Try to eliminate these foods from your diet.

If Crohn’s disease affects small intestine, then it causes difficulty in digestion and absorption of fats. This can worsen your diarrhea. Therefore, you need to avoid high-fat foods such as butter, mayonnaise, margarine, cream, avocados, fried foods and red meat.

High-fiber foods such as fresh vegetables, fruits and whole grains are considered beneficial for digestive health. But, in case of inflammatory bowel disease, high-fiber foods may worsen the symptoms such as abdominal pain and diarrhea. However, baking, steaming or stewing of vegetables can make them easily digestible.

Dietary changes balanced with regular exercises and healthy lifestyle prove beneficial in reducing the painful symptoms of Crohn’s disease and maintaining your digestive health.
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source:wikipedia