Diet for peptic ulcer

For full treatment and prevention of relapses of the disease, it is imperative to improve your diet and give up bad habits: one of the most important components of therapeutic measures is considered to be a diet for stomach ulcers.

Gastric ulcer is, unfortunately, a fairly common disease of the digestive tract. Annual global incidence rates of peptic ulcer disease are 0.10-0.19% of those diagnosed by doctors and 0.03-0.17% of those hospitalized. [ 1 ]

In the United States, approximately 4.5 million people suffer from peptic ulcer disease each year. Approximately 10% of the U.S. population has evidence of duodenal ulcer disease. Only about 10% of young adults have H. pylori infection, but the proportion of people with H. pylori infection steadily increases with age. H. pylori infection can be diagnosed in 90-100% of patients with duodenal ulcer disease and in 60-100% of patients with gastric ulcer disease. [ 2 ]

The appearance of this pathology is closely related to our eating habits and lifestyle. Irregular food intake, overeating, fasting, poor eating habits, smoking and alcohol, stressful situations provoke changes in the gastric mucosa. [ 3 ]

[ 4 ], [ 5 ], [ 6 ], [ 7 ]

Diet for stomach ulcers

One of the main roles in the treatment of peptic ulcer disease is played by a complete, balanced diet, which must be followed throughout the entire period of development of the pathological process. [ 8 ], [ 9 ]

Meals should be mostly fractional: you need to eat often, but the portions of food should not be large.

You should not eat hot food or too cold food: food from the refrigerator should be warmed up, and freshly prepared dishes should be cooled.

Unfortunately, you can't fry or bake food until golden brown. Now you'll have to eat boiled, stewed or steamed dishes, as well as foods that cause increased gas formation (cabbage, peas).

Salty dishes, like fried ones, are also taboo. Daily salt intake should be reduced to 10 g. [ 10 ]

If there are no problems with the urinary system and thyroid gland, the daily amount of liquid consumed should be increased to 2 liters. This can be decoctions of medicinal herbs (chamomile, rose hips, mint), not very strong green tea, or just clean water. Carbonated drinks, alcohol and smoking are strictly excluded. [ 11 ], [ 12 ]

The majority of the patient's daily diet should consist of dairy products. Milk has the property of enveloping the walls of the stomach and reducing the damaging effect of gastric juice. Fermented milk products should be fresh and not over-fermented. It is permissible to use fresh milk for making porridges, soups, and kissels. Also useful are mashed unleavened cottage cheese and soy milk. [ 13 ], [ 14 ], [ 15 ]

What can you eat if you have a stomach ulcer?

• bread made from high-quality two-day-old flour, unleavened biscuits, crackers;
• vegetable broth, soup using cereals (without meat and cabbage), can be with milk, small vermicelli, egg;
• boiled or steamed meatballs and cutlets made from lean, tender meat (chicken, veal), fish (boneless);
• milk soups (using any cereals except millet), pudding, soufflé;
• vegetable puree (carrots, potatoes, zucchini, beets, pumpkin), egg whites in the form of steamed omelettes or soft-boiled, cottage cheese casserole with butter;
• sweet berry or fruit puree, fresh juices (diluted with water), honey, marshmallows;
• kissels made from milk, berries or fruit, tea with added milk.

What foods should not be eaten if you have a stomach ulcer? [ 16 ]

• spicy, hot, salty and sour dishes;
• products with preservatives and colorings;
• rich, strong broths;
• smoked and sausage products, lard, fatty meats, fried foods;
• fresh baked goods, pancakes, crepes;
• cabbage, radish, marinades, pickled vegetables;
• soda, iced cocktails, alcohol, ice cream, fruit ice, bananas. [ 17 ]

[ 18 ], [ 19 ]

What is the diet for stomach ulcers?

The main goal of ulcer pathology therapy is the regeneration of stomach tissues and restoration of the failure of the digestive processes. This is where the main direction of the diet is manifested.

During the period of exacerbation, patients are prescribed diet No. 1a for 10-20 days, then they switch to an extended diet No. 1. During the period of remission, the patient should, at the discretion of the doctor, adhere to diet No. 1 with an individual extension, or diet No. 5, depending on the condition. In any case, it is necessary to strictly adhere to the prescribed diet.

Diet 1 for stomach ulcers

Prescribed to patients with gastric ulcer at the stage of abating exacerbation or at the stage of recovery, the duration of the diet is up to 5 months. High-calorie food - up to 3000 kilocalories per day. This method of nutrition involves eating pureed foods that do not have a mechanical effect on the walls of the stomach. Products for diet 1 are boiled or cooked in a steamer. Meals should be taken every 2-3 hours. The ratio of carbohydrates-proteins-fats should be maintained within 5:1:1.

The diet menu includes the consumption of stale pastries, unleavened biscuits, lean boiled meat and egg whites. Milk and vegetable soups (except cabbage) seasoned with a small amount of butter or vegetable (refined) oil are welcome. Boiled pieces of lean meat, boneless and skinless fish cooked in a steamer are allowed. Side dishes include mashed cereal porridge, small vermicelli, vegetable puree or pudding. Milk, non-acidic cottage cheese and sour cream are a must in the diet. For dessert, you can bake or boil sweet fruits (apples, pears, strawberries), juices diluted with water, honey, marshmallows, non-acidic jam.

[ 20 ]

Diet 1a for stomach ulcers

A stricter version of diet 1. It is usually prescribed during an exacerbation of a peptic ulcer, with the obligatory condition of bed rest. Products that increase the production of gastric juice and irritate the mucous membrane are excluded as much as possible. When using this diet, food should be taken 6-8 times a day; the ratio of carbohydrates-proteins-fats is set within 2:0.8:0.8. The caloric content of the diet with diet 1a should not exceed 2000 kilocalories per day.

Bread consumption is completely excluded. Fruit soufflé, berry jelly and juices, jelly, and honey can be used in the diet. The basis of the diet should be cream soup, slimy soup, and porridge (from oatmeal, semolina, rice), possibly with the addition of eggs, lean fish and meat, milk, and butter. All dishes are rubbed through a sieve before serving to reduce trauma to the stomach walls.

Diet 5 for stomach ulcers

This diet is intended for the complete nutrition of the patient and creates favorable conditions for the restoration of the functions of the digestive tract. Diet 5 is prescribed after the relief of exacerbation symptoms, in the recovery stage. The diet involves taking complete balanced food, with the exception of foods rich in essential substances (onions, garlic, ginger), fried foods, fats (refractory), cholesterol-forming foods. The diet should contain enough fruits and vegetables. [ 21 ] Food is still boiled or cooked in a steamer or in the oven.

It is allowed to include bread (baked yesterday or dried), cottage cheese tarts, biscuits and crackers in the diet. The variety of soups has been expanded: cabbage dishes are allowed (cabbage soup, borscht, beetroot soup), spices such as caraway, cinnamon, and dill can be used. Mild hard cheese, jellied meat, caviar, low-fat ham sausages, and tongue are allowed. Coffee is also added to the list of permitted liquids, though natural and with added milk.

Mushroom dishes, sorrel, radishes, fried, hot and cold dishes are excluded.

It is recommended to drink tea or decoction of St. John's wort, chamomile, flax seed, linden blossom, yarrow. Plantain, fennel, marshmallow and licorice also help with ulcers.

[ 22 ]

Diet menu for stomach ulcers

The variety of the diet and the daily menu directly depend on the stage of the ulcer process. That is why all questions about permitted or prohibited dishes should always be discussed with the doctor who monitors the dynamics of the disease.

Let's consider some nuances of the diet depending on the stage of the process and the form of the disease.

Diet for open stomach ulcer

For the first 1-2 days after the discovery of an open ulcer, it is recommended to refrain from eating any food, replacing it with decoctions of medicinal herbs, flaxseed, carrot juice diluted half with water. After this, in consultation with your doctor, you can go on a diet. Most often, this is diet No. 1a. Meals should be frequent, fractional, complete, chemically and mechanically gentle.

An example of such a diet:

• Breakfast – rolled oats (mashed) in water and without salt, chamomile infusion;
• Snack – yogurt, cracker;
• Lunch – pureed vegetable soup (minimum salt), mashed potatoes with a small amount of butter, tea with added milk;
• Afternoon snack – steamed fish meatball, boiled rice, linden blossom infusion;
• Dinner: two soft-boiled eggs, oatmeal jelly, cracker;
• A cup of milk at night.

This gentle diet should be followed until the ulcer begins to heal, for 10-12 days.

Diet for acute gastric ulcer

Acute ulcerative process is accompanied by severe pain syndrome, therefore all food that enters the stomach should be of a soft, mashed consistency and have minimal impact on the stomach walls. Such food includes porridges mashed through a sieve or in a blender, pureed soups, diluted broths, milk soups, yogurt. All dishes are prepared with a minimum amount of salt (or better yet, without it), served neither hot nor cold. If desired, you can add a little honey or butter (natural homemade) to the porridge. [ 23 ]

For example:

• Breakfast – protein steam omelette, oatmeal jelly;
• Snack – yogurt;
• Lunch – barley soup, mashed potatoes and carrots, a piece of steamed chicken breast, tea with milk;
• Afternoon snack – milk rice soup;
• Dinner – oatmeal with butter, chamomile infusion;
• At night – tea with milk.

Diet for exacerbation of gastric ulcer

During an exacerbation of a chronic ulcer, the diet is the same as for an acute form of gastric ulcer. The diet combines chemically, thermally, and mechanically gentle components: a mucous consistency of soup, porridge (especially rice and oatmeal), vegetable puree, jelly, herbal decoction, dairy products (in the absence of milk intolerance). Over time, with the doctor's permission, the diet is gradually expanded.

Diet for bleeding stomach ulcer

In case of a bleeding ulcer, unless your doctor suggests otherwise, you should stick to a rather strict diet. These are strained, coarse-fiber-free soups and liquid porridges (preferably buckwheat, rice or oatmeal) in water or milk (not in broth!), egg whites (boiled or in the form of a steamed omelet), teas, herbal infusions, jelly, carrot and potato juice diluted with water. You need to eat LITTLE! Why is it necessary to eat liquid food? You need to let the ulcer (wound) heal, and for this, the stomach should avoid stress in the form of difficult digestion of food and overstretching from overeating.

[ 24 ], [ 25 ], [ 26 ]

Diet after perforated gastric ulcer

A perforated gastric ulcer is treated in a hospital setting by means of surgical intervention. The pre- and postoperative period usually includes a ban on eating any food at all: the patient is often transferred to parenteral nutrition.

[ 27 ]

Diet after gastric ulcer surgery

Already on the second or third day after the surgery, the patient can drink settled mineral water, weak herbal infusions or tea. With the doctor's permission, after a few days the patient is offered boiled egg white, strained mucous soup or rice, buckwheat, well boiled and chopped. You can drink diluted vegetable broths, carrot juice, soufflé from low-fat whipped cottage cheese.

A strict diet for gastric ulcer is recommended for 10-12 days after an exacerbation. Then you are allowed to eat vegetable purees (potatoes, carrots, pumpkin, zucchini), low-fat fish and meat cooked in a steamer. Bread is eaten no earlier than 30 days after surgery, in limited quantities and in dried form. Fermented milk products are included in the diet 60 days after surgery. [ 28 ]

The diet after a stomach ulcer should not be the same as before the disease. If the patient does not want to provoke the appearance of new exacerbations and the development of complications (bleeding, perforation, peritonitis), it will be necessary to adhere to certain rules of eating behavior constantly.

First of all, it is necessary to exclude rich bakery products, [ 29 ] offal (kidneys, liver, offal, lungs), smoked meats, pickled products, sausage. It is better to refuse cabbage, legumes, mushrooms, garlic, horseradish, mustard, onions. It is absolutely necessary to forget about alcohol, smoking, and drinking carbonated drinks.

The menu after recovery should be expanded gradually, and not earlier than six months after the acute period of the disease. Be sure to consult a doctor: very often the pain from an ulcer can subside only because the ulcer began to bleed. Visit the doctor after treatment to prevent recurrence of the disease and not to miss important symptoms and signs of pathology.

Diet recipes for stomach ulcers are varied, but do not make a decision on your own: if everyone says that you can have milk, and your doctor says that you can’t, then in your case it really can’t be consumed. Most diseases are individual in nature. Both treatment and dietary nuances are discussed separately for each patient.

Diet for stomach ulcers will not replace treatment, but without diet, treatment will not bring any effect. Nutrition plays a huge role in our lives, our health: in case of ulcer disease, it will speed up healing and prevent complications.