Diet for gastritis

Gastritis is the name given to inflammatory processes in the gastric mucosa, which inevitably lead to digestive problems. A person begins to digest food poorly, as a result of which his health deteriorates and weakness and lethargy appear. According to statistics, approximately half of all residents of our country experience painful symptoms of gastritis to one degree or another.

Diet for gastritis

Many people wonder: what diet should you follow for gastritis? This is a very important question, since proper nutrition is a major part of the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases. If you have gastritis, you should always follow a gentle diet, and if your health improves, you can only return to normal eating habits gradually. In some cases, doctors prescribe a personal diet for gastritis.

It is also necessary to remember that with gastritis, enzymatic deficiency develops, so in some cases, along with a diet to improve digestion, it is worth using enzyme preparations such as Micrazim.

There are two types of gastritis: acute and chronic. In different people, these forms can be accompanied by both high and low degrees of gastric acidity. Acute gastritis is of the following types:

• fibrinous (aggravates with the appearance of infectious diseases);
• catarrhal (accompanied by a violation of the integrity of the outer lining of the stomach);
• phlegmonous (causes purulent inflammatory processes on the gastric walls);
• corrosive (one of the side effects of poisoning).

Chronic disease, in turn, comes in the following forms:

• superficial;
• hypertrophic;
• polyposis;
• bacterial;
• granulomatous;
• autoimmune.

Another form of chronic gastritis is typical for those people whose stomach walls are damaged due to systematic intake of alcohol in large quantities.

Key principles of diet for gastritis ailments

Remember that a proper diet for gastritis is the key to successfully overcoming symptoms. If the acidity of your gastric juice is increased, then you need to eat foods that help reduce its activity. Follow three rules:

1. Mechanical principle. Avoid foods that contain rough fiber. Such products include onion crops, veined meat, and bran. In addition, dishes cooked in oil are strictly prohibited.
2. Chemical principle. Avoid foods that can increase gastric secretion. This list includes alcohol, sparkling water, citrus fruits (including juices from them), coffee, black bread, cabbage and rich meat broth.
3. Thermal principle. Do not eat foods that are at very high or very low temperatures. They irritate the esophagus, and cold food, among other things, lingers longer than usual in the stomach.

What foods can you eat if you have gastritis?

Include lean meat (such as rabbit) in your diet. Duck, lamb and goose are not allowed, but chicken can only be eaten without the skin.

Other acceptable foods and dishes include:

1. River fish;
2. seafood;
3. egg white omelette;
4. oatmeal and buckwheat porridge;
5. milk;
6. zucchini, pumpkin, tomatoes, carrots, various greens;
7. berries with high sugar content;
8. boiled and pureed fruits.

What should be missing from the diet?

If you have been diagnosed with gastritis caused by the bacterium Helicobacter pylori, then it is not advisable to prescribe a diet for yourself. Be sure to consult with a gastroenterologist or nutritionist so that gastritis treatment is consistent and effective.

With this disease, the menu should not include:

1. Fresh baked goods, especially rye bread, as well as puff pastries. Instead, it is better to eat white bread, plain cookies and pies.
2. Soups with rich broth, including mushroom soup, cabbage soup and borscht. Such dishes should be replaced with light vegetable soups with potatoes, cabbage, carrots and onions.
3. Smoked dishes, as well as meat with fat and veins. Instead, it is better to eat dishes made from boiled or steamed meat (cutlets, meatballs). Allowed types of meat are chicken and lamb.
4. Hard-boiled eggs and fried omelettes. They should be replaced with soft-boiled eggs and steamed omelettes.
5. Any salty and seasoned dishes, marinades, chocolate, carbonated drinks, coffee and kvass.
6. Alcohol.

Diet for high acidity

With this form of gastritis, you should not overuse fruits and vegetables, as they can worsen your health. However, you shouldn’t completely remove these products from the menu. Avoid foods that can stimulate stomach acid production and opt for acid-reducing foods. By eating right, you are more likely to lose some weight than gain weight. Below is a table showing permitted and prohibited products:

Vegetables: carrots, pumpkin, potatoes, beets. Light vegetable salads. Tomatoes: ripe, chopped. Cucumbers without skin.	Greenery.
Fruits: non-acidic, ripe, without skin (banana, pear, apple). It is best to eat fruit not raw, but baked. Watermelons and melons - in very limited quantities.	Fried potatoes, pickled foods, sauerkraut.
Milk (from a cow or goat), cream, yogurt. Fresh cottage cheese.	Sour cream, kefir, hard cheese.
Soup with dietary broth.	Cabbage soup and borscht in a rich broth.
Pasta	Legumes
Boiled chicken or rabbit meat, lean river fish.	Smoked meats, fish and meats with a high fat content, canned foods.
Oatmeal and buckwheat	Dried fruits
Soft-boiled eggs.	Chocolate
Crackers, white bread (which has been sitting for a couple of days), dry biscuits.	Hard-boiled eggs, fried omelet.
Weak tea and coffee, cocoa with added milk.	Rye and freshly baked bread. Cakes, confectionery products with cream filling.

Low acidity diet

In such conditions, you need to eat differently than in the previous case. You need to eat foods that promote gastric secretion. The table below shows dishes that are suitable for remission. If you have severe pain in the stomach, then you need to exclude from the menu dishes that irritate the stomach tissue.

Vegetables: baked potatoes, tomatoes, greens, carrots, beets, pumpkin, pickles.

Diet for gastritis - general recommendations

Patients with gastritis should exclude spices used in the cooking process from the menu. You can improve the taste of food with fresh herbs (parsley, dill, celery). Greens will also help to add vitamins to your diet: try to season as many dishes that you eat with finely chopped greens.

You need to eat small meals, but avoid snacks; this way the stomach will not have difficulty digesting food. Chew your food thoroughly and eat slowly. Hastily eaten food can worsen your health and aggravate gastritis. Chew your food until it turns into an easily digestible paste.

Do not forget that proper and balanced nutrition is the key to treating gastritis. Many patients who followed a strict diet during treatment say that it helped them successfully overcome all the symptoms and pain associated with this disease within 4 weeks.

Important: before use, read the instructions or consult your doctor.

What to eat for gastritis of the stomach?

Every day the statistics on gastritis and gastric ulcers in children and adults is increasing. This also applies to other inflammatory diseases of the digestive tract. Patients experience constant pain, which affects their quality of life. It is necessary to contact a gastroenterologist in a timely manner to undergo a comprehensive diagnosis and identify the source of the lesion. With adequate and timely treatment, the risk of complications is reduced. It is important not only to take medications, but also to create the right diet under the supervision of your doctor and nutritionist. This is the basis of prevention and therapy.

Characteristics of gastritis

Gastritis is a chronic inflammatory condition of the stomach lining, leading to pain, loss of appetite and other symptoms. Of all the pathologies of the digestive tract, most patients suffer from this disease.

Many people underestimate the importance of timely diagnosis of gastritis and consider it a minor deviation that does not require treatment. They think that the disease will not cause any harm and will gradually go away on its own, without treatment. But if treatment methods and diet are not applied in a timely manner, the pathology can gradually develop into peptic ulcer of the stomach and duodenum, and malignant transformation.

Etiological factors

Many studies have been conducted, statistics have been collected, according to which the basis for the development of inflammatory pathologies of the stomach is Helicobacter pylori. This is a bacterium that attacks the walls of the stomach and duodenum. Most people are only carriers of the bacterium, but under the influence of negative factors it begins to actively multiply, causing pathology. It is Helicobacter pylori that over time can lead to the development of atypical cells of the mucous membrane, which will cause malignant degeneration.

Doctors have identified the main damaging factors that can cause inflammation of the stomach:

1. Eating poor quality food. It includes fatty, fried, spicy, smoked, and excessively salty foods. This type of food aggressively affects the walls of the stomach, causing an inflammatory process. Due to the damage, Helicobacter pylori begins to actively multiply.
2. Kurenie. Nicotine and smog during smoking spread into the respiratory tract and digestive system. It negatively affects the mucous membranes, causes irritation and increased inflammation.
3. Drinking large amounts of alcohol. This has a toxic effect on any tissue of the body, including the gastrointestinal tract. It leads to the occurrence or intensification of inflammation.
4. Stress. Great physical and psycho-emotional stress. These factors cause active production of cortisol. It leads to increased release of hydrochloric acid. If it acts on the walls of the stomach in the absence of a bolus of food, damage occurs.

If the patient is simultaneously affected by several factors, the disease develops faster.

Clinical signs

In the early stages, the patient and doctor may not notice visual signs. The more damage occurs, the more actively the inflammatory process develops. Therefore, over time, the following symptoms appear:

• pain in the epigastric region, aggravated by stress, eating, hunger;
• nausea, vomiting that occurs regardless of food intake;
• constipation, diarrhea.

There are signs that can be used to determine whether a patient has gastroenterological pathology.If a person exhibits more than 4 symptoms, it is recommended to contact a gastroenterologist:

• frequent occurrence of epigastric pain;
• point pain in the middle of the abdomen;
• heartburn;
• frequent belching;
• constipation, diarrhea;
• occasional nausea;
• vomiting for no reason;
• the presence of any gastroenterological diseases in close relatives;
• presence of bad habits (smoking, frequent drinking of alcohol, overeating);
• periodic use of a strict diet.

It is impossible to independently determine the diagnosis, since symptoms may be present in temporary disorders or other acute, chronic diseases. It is important to undergo examination and diagnosis by a doctor who will prescribe conservative or radical treatment, depending on the developing lesion.

Diet

The diet is prescribed by 2 doctors:

• gastroenterologist;
• nutritionist.

It is better if these doctors work together to provide quality treatment.But they first undergo an examination and diagnostic tests to determine the following factors:

• degree of damage to the mucous membrane;
• the degree of spread of the lesion to different parts of the gastrointestinal tract;
• reasons for the defeat.

After collecting complete information, a nutrition regimen is drawn up. This is one of the fundamental treatment methods that reduces the burden on the gastrointestinal tract.There are 2 diets for the development of inflammatory pathologies of the stomach:

• with high acidity;
• with low acidity.

Regardless of the type of diet chosen, the gastroenterologist should remind you of the fundamental principles of proper diet during illness.

1. Splitting up. The total volume of products that the patient should consume in 1 day is determined. It is divided into 6 parts, evenly distributing meals throughout the day. That is, the patient must eat food every 3 hours. You should not overeat or starve, as these factors negatively affect the condition of the stomach. One serving of food is approximately the volume of two palms.
2. Chewing. The food consumed begins to be digested in the oral cavity under the influence of saliva, which contains enzymes. Therefore, it is important to chew each piece for a long time.
3. Rest after eating. You need to sit and lie down for 30 minutes so that the digestive process begins without obstacles.
4. Temperature. If there is a suspicion of an inflammatory process, eat warm food. It should not be excessively hot or cold.
5. Water mode. Drink at least 2 liters of water per day to maintain a stable water-electrolyte balance and prevent dehydration from developing. Drink water little by little throughout the day.
6. Mandatory protein intake. Proteins are the basis from which the body is built. Thanks to them, damaged tissues recover faster after gastritis.
7. Prohibition of eating excessively rough food. It should not contain pieces that could injure the affected structure of the mucous membrane.
8. Proper cooking. It is boiled, steamed, baked. It is prohibited to fry or smoke.
9. Prohibition of alcohol consumption, caffeine, energy drinks, soda.
10. Maintaining vitamin concentrations. If they are normal, metabolism and metabolism improves, the nervous system and digestive tract are strengthened. If there are not enough nutrients, multivitamin preparations are used.

Application of these rules reduces the load on the stomach during treatment.

Fruits with high acidity

Gastritis, accompanied by normal or high acidity, requires special nutrition. It is necessary to monitor the temperature of food: it is not recommended to eat food with a temperature above 40-50 ⁰C. Fruits can be consumed pureed, steamed, boiled, baked or stewed, or in purees, mousses, jelly, jelly or compote. It is not recommended to consume fruits with a high content of organic acids (pomegranates, citrus fruits, fresh apricots), unripe or sour fruits. During an exacerbation, all fruits should be used only in pureed form. The rest of the time it is better to use:

• sweet varieties of apples;
• avocado.

Fruits with low acidity

For the opposite form of gastritis, when acidity is reduced, doctors recommend other fruits:

• citrus fruits - prevent the formation of malignant cells, keep acidity normal;
• pomegranate and its juice help restore the gastric mucosa;
• peaches - promote the production of gastric juice, but they can only be eaten by patients who are not allergic to the fruit.

Attention! For any gastrointestinal pathology, it is important not to overload the stomach and follow the diet prescribed by the doctor.

Diet for gastritis with high acidity

If a patient develops this type of stomach inflammation, the following processes are formed:

• excessive production of hydrochloric acid;
• increase in acidity of hydrochloric acid.

Normally, hydrochloric acid is intended to break down the contents of the stomach. But it must be within certain limits so as not to damage the body’s own tissues.If its pH increases, irritation of the stomach walls begins, which will lead to successive stages:

• inflammation;
• erosion;
• ulcer;
• perforation.

Gastritis can develop at different ages. A prolonged exposure to a damaging factor is sufficient for an inflammatory process to develop. If the acidity of gastric juice increases, you need to follow a certain diet that reduces these indicators.

Attention! Many patients know that taking antacids lowers the acidity of gastric juice. However, it is prohibited to take these drugs on your own. They have contraindications and side effects.

When using a diet, it is important to follow certain rules in order for success to occur.

1. Avoiding foods that cause or worsen damage to the stomach walls. This is a food containing fiber and solid elements. For example, cereals, buns, bran, stringy meat. All food should be as gentle as possible and easily digestible.
2. Refusal of any foods and drinks that cause an increase in the acidity of hydrochloric acid. For example, citrus fruits, canned food, coffee, alcohol, soda.
3. Eating food at a warm temperature. Do not consume boiling water, hot liquids or food. Cold foods are also unacceptable. The optimal limits are 25-35 degrees.

If a patient’s gastritis has become severely aggravated and causes unbearable pain, it is necessary to immediately begin a strict diet. This will help significantly reduce the inflammatory process and allow the tissues to recover. Already on the 3rd day a person will feel relief. But this is only possible with the help of additional use of medications prescribed by a doctor.

When prescribing a strict diet, the following foods and dishes are recommended:

• low-fat chicken or vegetable broth with crackers, which can be replaced with soft porridge (for example, oatmeal);
• pasta soup with milk (hard pasta is allowed);
• boiled young potatoes without cream, salt;
• milk with a reduced fat content, so as not to cause an increased load on the gastrointestinal tract due to the appearance of a high concentration of lactose.

If there is severe exacerbation and acute pain, each product is added gradually, in small portions. This will allow the digestive tract to get used to it and will not cause negative reactions. But if food causes nausea or increased pain, it is better to replace it with other types of food.

As soon as the acute period has passed, the diet is continued.It is expanded with the following types of products and dishes:

• boiled, baked eggs, they contain a high concentration of protein (the yolk can be removed to limit the amount of fat);
• lean meat of chicken, rabbit, beef, which can be baked, boiled, steamed (remove the skin before cooking);
• fish and seafood, which contain a large amount of omega-3, which has a beneficial effect on the digestive tract and nervous system;
• milk that needs to be boiled first;
• soups with added cereals (any cereal is allowed except semolina);
• vegetables that are sold in the store according to the season;
• fruits, which are recommended to be consumed between main meals, so as not to cause stress on the gastrointestinal tract, but not to leave the stomach empty;
• quality sausages;
• olive, sunflower oil;
• dumplings and similar products prepared at home from natural minced meat and a thin layer of dough;
• offal, of which the liver has the most positive effect, as it contains a large amount of microelements and vitamins;
• soft cheeses;
• honey, weak tea, herbal decoctions, dried fruit compote.

The following types of products are required to be limited:

• bakery products, muffins, fresh pastries;
• candies, chocolate;
• dairy products.

All of these foods increase stomach acidity. Carbohydrates negatively affect any part of the digestive tract, causing strong acidity. This is a favorable environment for the proliferation of Helicobacter pylori. Additionally, chewing gum is avoided, as during its use hydrochloric acid is actively produced. If there is too much of it, acid gastritis will intensify. This can lead to the formation of erosions and ulcers.

Diet for gastritis with low acidity

With this type of inflammatory process of the stomach, the concentration and acidity of hydrochloric acid is reduced. Therefore, food is digested poorly, large pieces of food enter the intestines, which leads to a heavy load on it. This negatively affects the entire state of the digestive tract. Typically, people aged 40 years and above suffer from such gastritis.

If the pathology is not treated in a timely manner and a diet is not used, the following complications arise:

• atrophic condition of the gastric mucosa;
• thinning of tissues;
• decreased parietal cell function.

Gastritis with low acidity is one of the most dangerous diseases that is difficult to treat. Therefore, it is important to start treatment at an early stage, before a precancerous condition develops.

To correct the pathology, you need to consume foods that will stimulate the production of hydrochloric acid in the stomach. You also need to increase its acidity so that the food bolus is processed.

Attention! It is necessary to simultaneously increase acidity and not put a strain on the gastrointestinal tract. Therefore, it is forbidden to use fatty, spicy, fried, smoked foods, fast food, and alcohol, regardless of the fact that they increase acidity.

In case of illness, gastroenterologists advise adhering to certain nutritional principles:

• before eating, drink 200 ml of slightly carbonated mineral water;
• chew food thoroughly, gradually consuming each piece; the entire meal takes at least 30 minutes;
• Between meals it is recommended to eat fruits that increase acidity; you can pre-bake them so as not to cause stress.

With the development of hypoacid gastritis, it is necessary to consume the following types of foods or dishes:

• lean types of meat - chicken, turkey, rabbit, young veal;
• any types of fruits and vegetables that do not have a coarse fiber structure (citrus fruits, white cabbage and cauliflower are recommended);
• vegetable and meat broths;
• a small concentration of carbohydrates in the form of sweets and baked goods;
• any types of fermented milk products;
• canned foods;
• herbal decoctions, tea, berry and fruit compote.

Since milk in any form reduces the acidity of gastric juice, it is prohibited to consume it when preparing a diet.

Gastritis is one of the most common digestive problems among the population. The disease can affect patients of any age. It can be prevented if you use the rules of prevention. But if the pathology has already developed, it is important to undergo a timely diagnosis and begin treatment in order to prevent complications from developing. The therapy is based on a correct and high-quality diet, improving lifestyle, and avoiding bad habits. The diet is selected individually for each patient, depending on the degree of damage and the acidity of gastric juice.