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Diarrhea Diet- What to Eat?
Diarrhea is a seemingly innocuous symptom in a child. However, it can lead to severe dehydration that can further push the body at a critical point. Furthermore, when you are considering this predicament in adults, well, it can be downright shameful. While some basic home remedies can easily elevate the victim of this frankly abhorrent condition, one should also watch what they are eating. The reason for this is pretty self-explanatory. For one, when there is a case of gut infection, foods tend not to be digested properly, for this process is accelerated. Therefore, one of the major background workings of diarrhea is that the food happens to be accelerating across the digestive tract. This causes foods that are not right to cause immense irritation on the intestines. Additionally, a diarrheic digestive system has a hard time digesting anything, let alone foods that are normal for your body to handle. Therefore, to protect your child from dehydration if they have it, and protecting yourself from unseemly and shameful accidents if you have it, you need to be completely aware of Diarrhea diet.
What Types of Food are Best for Diarrhea Diet?
When it comes to foods for diarrhea, the goal is to make sure that there is no strain put on the digestive tract of the body. Furthermore, diarrhea causes a lot of fluid loss due to its disposition towards dehydrating the body. Therefore, along with the fluid intake, it is also important for you to eat foods that motivate and further rehydration of the body. You need to find food that adheres to the sweet spot that is an intersection of the two facets:
- Foods that have a soft texture and can be eaten without fear.
- Foods that don’t push the digestive tract to its limits.
Therefore, the types of foods that should be given are to be soft, and easy to digest. Potassium-rich foods tend to be soft and have a slowed movement in the digestive tract. Furthermore, they can also replenish the energy stored of the body. In addition to the two mentioned food criteria, you can also add a third one. You need a lot of energy to be restored rapidly. Therefore, the conjunction of frequent and energy-rich meals with a soft texture and a slow digestibility is the penultimate sweet spot of foods that you are looking for in a diet to deal with diarrhea.
Foods You Should Include in Your Diarrhea Diet
1. Oatmeals:
Oatmeals can be incredibly bland, if not done right. Furthermore, even if you happen to get the right taste out of it, its vomit like texture does not help, at all. However, oatmeal is also a soluble fibre. Therefore, it can be helpful in managing diarrhea. However, this particular facet can be considered a counterproductive one. Mostly because, when you are trying to stop going to poo, why would you put your hands in the dragon’s mouth and use fibre to aggravate the diarrhea. If you think that, you would be wrong in this assessment. Why? Well, the word to keep in mind of here is “soluble” fibre. Andrea D’ Ambrosio, a registered dietitian at the Dietic Directions says that soluble fibre can help managing diarrhea. How? Well, soluble fibre is a type of fibre that attracts water. This attractive force is to hold together the water molecules in a congealed or gel-like As a result of this, the digestion process can be slowed down by adding some additional weight to the bowels.
2. Psyllium husks:
Much like the above food, this one also is made up of soluble fibre. Why are we stressing so much on soluble fibre? Well, according to D’ Ambrosio, it is a necessary measure of water using soluble fibre. The reason for this is if this does not happen, the person with diarrhea can alternate between being constipated and being marred by loose-motion. This entropic behaviour can have a detrimental effect on the digestive tract. As a result of that, the diarrheic symptoms can take new heights.
3. White rice:
This is one food that you must have heard of even as a home remedy. This food is not only easy to eat but also does not contain much fibre at all. Without a lot of fibre, bowel movements are not motivated too much. Instead, with foods such as white rice, the focus becomes on bowel formation, rather than bowel movements. White rice has been deemed unhealthy in many circles, and it is rightly so. However, when you are suffering from diarrhea, eating brown rice can have detrimental effects because of the presence of soluble fibre. Therefore, stick to white rice, at least until your diarrhea stops.
4. Bananas:
Well, the talk is still about the soluble fibre, and bananas have it in droves. In the case of children, this particular food in its mashed form has been deemed especially effective. However, this food’s effectiveness is subjective to the underlying cause of diarrhea. One of the causes of diarrhea is fructose (sugar that is found in fruits and honey) mal-absorption. Therefore, if this is the cause of a person’s symptoms, then eating a banana can be, well it is “going to” be counterproductive, and thus can aggravate the disease. However, this is still subjective. Therefore, you should eat a banana, even if you have to find the root cause of your diarrhea beforehand. Furthermore, Banana also entails a fair amount of potassium. This is an electrolyte that needs replenishment after a lot of fluid loss. Therefore, with banana, if you can eat it, you get two advantages: a slowed digestive process and replenishment of lost electrolytes.
5. Foods that are based in broth:
Soups are always awesome to eat under any circumstance. Especially during diarrhea, when your body wants as much replenishment as possible, soups make sure you replenish the lost fluids inside your body. Furthermore, the body can handle broth-based foods. Considering that your body is in a desperate need of energy, this food is one of the best options for you.
6. Coconut milk:
In the section about the banana, we discussed potassium and how it is one of the electrolytes that your body needs after a lot of fluid loss. Another potassium restoration food is coconut milk. Low in fat, and high in nutrients, this food can give you a quick recharge after the immense weakness post-stool episode.
7. Chicken Soup:
According to Dr Lisa Young, people with diarrhea should consume chicken soup. The broth that it entails is pretty good when it comes to restoring the fluids that one has lost. However, if the chicken soup entails chicken meat and bits are not necessarily the “lean” bits, then, you should only drink the soup.
8. Meaty foods with high amount of protein:
In the previous point, we kind of laid stress upon the “lean” bits. Therefore, if you are an omnivore, then you should stick with protein-rich cuts of meat, well-made eggs etc. These foods are going to ensure that the energy of your body is restored.
9. Stick with organic vegetables:
Many organic vegetables can help your body fight the effects of diarrhea. These vegetables are beets, tomato, carrots, celery and mushroom. There are other vegetables as well that can be organic. However, they tend to induce gas. Therefore, it is better to stay away from them.
Foods to eat after diarrhea
Diarrhea, as much of an unseemly and painful condition as it is, most of the time it has an expiry date. Once diarrhea is over with, your body isn’t going to snap back into action, for your digestive system would still need a serious reset. Therefore, post diarrhea, your goal is to eat foods that can restore the proper functioning of your digestive system. Such food can be put under one umbrella category of probiotics. Probiotics refer to foods that entail good bacteria. These foods motivate good bacteria in the gut and therefore, motivate better digestive functions.
According to Dr Allan Walker, a professor of paediatrics at Harvard medical school, especially in children, the use of probiotics is highly recommended, for it can even treat diarrhoea in children, especially if the condition is because of the presence of Rotavirus infection.
You feel extremely weak, and have to endure a fair bit of abdominal pain when you have diarrhoea. Therefore, you should take better care of what you eat during this phase. These foods might not be as delectable as you might hope to be, on the contrary, many of the foods mentioned are bland. However, they can help with making sure that you can snap back from your condition at a much faster rate. One should avoid milk products or sugar free foods during diarrhea.
Furthermore, once your predicament is over, you would need to do some serious work to reset your digestive system to a normal state. In the end, you will get your health back.
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