Medical expert of the article
New publications
Foods for diseases of the pancreas: list
Last reviewed: 03.07.2025

All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.

The pancreas performs extremely important functions: it produces the digestive substance pancreatin and hormones, without which metabolism is impossible. In order for the gland to properly perform its duties, it is necessary to protect it from the influence of harmful substances, infections, poor-quality food, alcohol and cigarettes. Products for the pancreas occupy an important place in both treatment and prevention.
Healthy foods for the pancreas
It is advisable to introduce healthy products for the pancreas into the diet before problems with this organ arise. That is, for preventive purposes. But if problems could not be avoided, and pancreatitis or another disease developed due to various reasons, then the therapeutic diet also cannot do without products for the pancreas.
A menu without fried and fatty foods, sour berries, strong teas, mushrooms, canned goods, figs, bananas, fresh baked goods, raw vegetables, coffee, fresh milk, grape juice, honey, and carbonated drinks will help relieve the organ and restore its normal functioning. If the gland could choose, it would categorically refuse smoking and alcohol.
What kind of food would the pancreas prefer, if it had its way? Nutritionists have long found the answer to this question and know that it likes the following food:
- Warm vegetable soups seasoned with vegetable oils.
- Dietary meat.
- Low-fat fish (pike, perch, cod, pike perch).
- Low-fat dairy products.
- Egg whites (steamed omelette, soft-boiled eggs without yolks).
- Sweet green apples (fresh, baked, dried).
- Non-acidic berries, nuts.
- Millet, buckwheat, oatmeal porridge.
- Dried fruit compotes, weak teas, rosehip infusion, diluted fresh juices.
- Pasta made from durum wheat.
Pure or slightly carbonated water at room temperature is very useful in a diet for the pancreas. But juices in their pure form are not recommended - due to the high concentration of active ingredients. Therefore, it is better to dilute them with water.
Products for the functioning of the pancreas
What is the job of the pancreas? The enzymes it produces neutralize gastric juice, protecting the intestinal mucosa from damage; break down incoming food to facilitate absorption; insulin reduces blood sugar levels. Dysfunction of the organ can lead to pancreatitis and diabetes.
To prevent inflammation and other problems, it is important to eat right. Products for the pancreas to work should be fresh, natural, easy to digest, without preservatives and food additives. The following food meets these criteria.
- Tomato soup.
- Stewed broccoli.
- Spinach.
- Onion, garlic.
- Red grapes, cherries, blueberries.
- The yogurt is unsweetened.
- Honey (if there is no inflammation).
- Yesterday's bread, without yeast.
- Steamed cutlets, omelettes without yolks.
- Herbal infusions of nettle, dandelion, lingonberry, elderberry, rose hips, mulberry, blueberry.
In addition to this food, the gland prefers processed fruits and vegetables: baked apples, soufflé of fish, meat, steamed vegetables, uzvar of dried fruits, diluted natural juices. These products for the pancreas should be present on the table every day in turn.
Meals should be regular, fractional, and end around 6 p.m. This is because it is at this time that enzyme production stops until tomorrow, and food consumed later is not digested, but rots, poisoning the blood and forcing the liver to work in an enhanced mode.
Products for the treatment of pancreatic diseases
In case of diseases, dietary products are used to treat the pancreas, which are particularly useful and "loyal" to this organ. The list is dominated by vegetables, cereals, medicinal decoctions, water and other healthy drinks.
- Brussels sprouts (stewed): soothes inflamed tissues, does not burden the diseased gland.
- Zucchini (baked, stewed): easily digestible, gentle on the digestive organs without irritating them.
- Pumpkin: the most useful vegetable for the gland. It has a soft structure and is able to neutralize hydrochloric acid.
- Oatmeal jelly, muesli.
- Porridges with fresh and dried fruits. The active substances of these products participate in the synthesis of insulin.
- Vegetable oils.
- Nuts: improve digestion, make a good dessert.
- A wide range of fermented milk products, good quality cheese.
- Vegetable soups, fish soup.
- Chamomile, rosehip, green and black teas (unsweetened).
Clean water plays an important role in the therapeutic diet. It is drunk at any time, without reference to food intake. Water of a comfortable temperature is useful – not hot and not icy.
It is equally important to chew food properly for the pancreas, since in a crushed form food is better absorbed, facilitating digestion and absorption of useful ingredients.
Products for pancreas restoration
Unlike, for example, liver cells, pancreatic cells are unable to fully recover. However, when consuming products to restore the pancreas, healthy cells of the organ work more actively and replenish the amount of enzymes needed to digest food. This happens with pancreatitis, when the gland becomes inflamed.
In a more complex case, diabetes mellitus, modern medicine is powerless: therapy for this disease consists of adjusting glucose levels using special medications.
If you have symptoms of pancreatitis, you should not self-medicate; you should see a doctor and follow his instructions. What you can do yourself is not to provoke the gland with spicy, fatty, fried food and alcoholic drinks.
A good way to reduce the tension of the inflamed organ is fasting. Refusal of food reduces the production of pancreatic juice and damage to the remaining, still healthy glandular cells.
- A somewhat unusual method of recovery is gaining popularity - with the help of such a product for restoring the pancreas as dates. They need to be eaten on an empty stomach, chewed thoroughly and washed down with clean water - from a spring or a well. The course is 2 weeks.
The scheme is as follows. Washed dates, placed on a white porcelain plate, are eaten in the morning, before breakfast. The maximum dose is 15 pieces, but an odd number is required. Half an hour later, you can have breakfast, without changing your eating habits and usual diet. Naturally, without fatty-spicy-fried dishes, which are always harmful, and not only with pancreatitis.
The date diet normalizes digestion, restores cells and functions of the gland. The "fruit continuation" of the diet helps to increase its effectiveness. This means that for three days in a row you need to eat only pears and nothing else. 3-5 fruits per day, depending on the size, cleanse the mucous membrane and ducts from dead cells and all the excess accumulated in the digestive tract, completing the process of restoration of these organs.
Products for cleansing the liver and pancreas
The methods and products for cleansing the liver and pancreas are different, they are recommended to be performed in a certain sequence: first cleanse the liver, then the pancreas.
- One of the simplest recipes uses bay leaves: 10 pieces per 300 ml of boiling water. The drink is infused in a closed thermos for a day, then filtered and consumed 50 g before each meal (half an hour before eating). The purification course is 2 thermoses.
- Another product suitable for cleansing the pancreas is potato juice mixed with water. The dosage is increasing: from a quarter to a full glass two or three times a day.
- An unusual mixture at first glance - kefir with buckwheat porridge, is also used as a product for cleansing the liver and pancreas. It is prepared as follows: a glass of peeled grain is poured with 0.5 l of kefir. After 12 hours, the swollen mass is eaten in two doses: at breakfast and two hours before bed. You can sweeten it with a spoon of honey. The course is twice for 10 days, with a 10-day break.
- Parsley rhizome boiled in milk is a somewhat extreme method of cleansing. 2 kg of root should be minced in a meat grinder, boiled for 1.5 hours in 3.5 liters of milk. You will get a gruel that should be eaten within 3 days. The extreme is that you cannot eat anything else. In addition, such a dish removes almost all the salt from the body; to replenish it, you need to drink a lot of mineral water for several days in a row.
- Brew sea buckthorn leaves with boiling water (a teaspoon per glass), drink half a portion after 40 minutes. Repeat 4 times a day, after meals. Recommended as a product for cleansing the liver and pancreas: the gland restores its function, the liver gets rid of excess bile.
Products for the spleen and pancreas
The spleen is not a vital organ; ancient Greek doctors even considered it completely useless. However, there is nothing superfluous in the human body, and the spleen still performs important functions - immune, hematopoietic, filtration, exchange. It is a blood depot, in which, in addition, used cellular elements are utilized.
Anatomically, inside a person, it is adjacent to the pancreas. What do these neighboring organs have in common? It turns out that they like the same products for the spleen and pancreas.
- Nuts.
- Fatty fish.
- Liver.
- Citrus fruits, pomegranates.
- Apples, avocado.
- Honey.
- Cabbage.
- Beetroot.
- Apple and carrot juices.
- Medicinal herbs.
Among the recommendations common to both organs are regular frequent meals in small portions, avoiding stressful situations, and giving up everything harmful. The pancreas and spleen also have the same unloved foods: alcohol, fast food, too sweet, fatty, spicy dishes, and preservatives.
Harmful products for the pancreas
In order for the digestive system to work efficiently and smoothly, it is necessary to exclude from the diet once and for all products harmful to the pancreas, which, as a rule, do not bring benefits to other organs. These are such common products and dishes.
- Flour confectionery, sweets, rye bread
Due to the abundance of sugar and other fast carbohydrates, these products can lead to diabetes; black bread causes severe gas formation.
- Alcohol
Causes vascular spasms, which leads to cell death and the development of diabetes. One of the most harmful products for the pancreas is beer.
- Salt
It retains fluid in the body, increasing blood pressure and damaging the gland's blood vessels.
- Coffee, Pepsi-Cola, lemonade, ice cream.
- Smoked meats.
They have an irritating effect on the gland and mucous membrane of the gastrointestinal tract.
- Vinegar, marinades, mayonnaise.
- Legumes, potatoes.
- Raspberries, strawberries, wild strawberries.
- Tomatoes, potatoes.
- Tobacco.
It is worth mentioning separately the dangerous ingredients, without which, unfortunately, modern production and trade in food products is impossible. These are food additives, in particular, modified starches E 1422, E 1442. They are used in canned goods, yoghurts, sauces and other harmful, and even dangerous, products for the pancreas.
The danger is that the gland is unable to break down such starch, which provokes pancreatitis, and in severe cases – pancreatic necrosis, which threatens a person’s life.
Heavy foods for the pancreas
Many doctors consider the pancreas to be the most important of the digestive organs, since the entire process of food processing depends on its condition. Rational nutrition and the correct regime are the key to its healthy functioning.
In this regard, there is a "black list" of heavy products for the pancreas, which should not be consumed under any circumstances. These products are harmful to the pancreas due to the content of substances that negatively affect the organ: artificial additives, excess salt, sugar, fats, calories. They are also contained in deep-fried, smoked, canned foods, alcohol, carbonated drinks, etc.
The following products top the list:
- Chebureki, pies, donuts.
- Chips, fries, croutons.
- Fried potatoes.
- Spreads.
- Sausages, hot dogs.
- Cakes, pastries.
- Mayonnaise, ketchup.
- Instant noodles.
- Bouillon cubes.
- Canned goods.
The body is healthy as a whole if all the organs are healthy separately. This largely depends on nutrition. An organ such as the pancreas primarily depends on a properly established regimen, as well as on the use of high-quality products for the pancreas. Ensuring this is quite within the power of every person who cares about their health and well-being.