What you can eat with cholecystitis: a list of allowed products and a sample menu

In the article, we will consider what you can eat with cholecystitis.

Almost any disease requires compliance with certain nutritional rules. This is not a whim of doctors, but involves helping the body to restore and eliminate pathology. Special dietary nutrition is especially necessary for diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, since the effectiveness of treatment and rehabilitation directly depends on compliance with the doctor’s instructions for a balanced meal.

Pathology Description

Cholecystitis is an inflammatory process in the gallbladder. This is a pathology that can occur in a chronic or acute form. The most common clinical picture in which acute cholecystitis is converted to a chronic form. The diet in this case is observed for a long time, and relaxation is practically not allowed.

What you can eat with cholecystitis is interesting to many.

Features of nutrition in acute cholecystitis

In the early days of exacerbation of cholecystitis, doctors recommend giving up food and observing therapeutic fasting. This will help minimize the burden on the digestive system. Many do not need to give such recommendations, since exacerbation of cholecystitis causes severe pain and loss of appetite. If the patient cannot starve, it is recommended to drink the following drinks:

• Juices from fruits and berries, prepared independently. Canned foods are not acceptable.
• Still mineral water.
• Weak sweet tea.
• Rosehip broth.

What else can you eat with cholecystitis?

After the acute phase

After the acute phase has passed, that is, after a few days, the patient is allowed to add jelly, liquid cereals, mashed soups, crackers from white bread to the daily diet as an addition to sweet tea.

A few days later, provided that there is no pain, the patient is given permission to eat boiled fish, low-fat cottage cheese and meat. Everything should be in a wiped form.

What you can eat on a diet with cholecystitis, the doctor should tell in detail.

Remission period

As a rule, a week after an acute attack of cholecystitis begins a period of remission. Nevertheless, experts do not recommend starting the usual diet, as this can lead to a new exacerbation. Doctors advise to follow a diet for a month in order to achieve a stable remission.

What foods can be eaten with cholecystitis, it is important to find out in advance.

Nutrition in the chronic form of cholecystitis

During an exacerbation of chronic cholecystitis, nutritional recommendations are identical to the acute form of the disease. In the period of remission of chronic cholecystitis, dietary advice is different. Features of nutrition with this type of disease are:

1. For the day you need to eat at least five times in small portions. This diet will reduce the impact on the functioning of the gallbladder.
2. For a day, a patient with cholecystitis needs to consume at least 3.5 kg of food, this also includes all the fluid consumed per day.
3. The patient should have three main meals and several snacks, which are recommended to use cookies, fruits and kefir.
4. It is important to know the exact list of allowed products and be able to cook them correctly. Specialists are allowed to eat only dishes prepared by boiling and steaming. If the duration of remission is more than a year, the patient is allowed to start eating baked dishes of meat, fish and vegetables. At the same time, the addition of excess oils and fats to the products during cooking is not allowed.
5. It is strictly forbidden to use vegetable oils in cooking, as they have choleretic properties. However, it is allowed to add oil to salads.
6. Dishes should not be hot or cold. The temperature of the products should be optimally comfortable for the stomach.
7. Each meal should include stewed, boiled or raw vegetables. Modern doctors recommend patients with cholecystitis to use avocados every day, even in small quantities.
8. Fish and meat contain extractive substances that irritate the gallbladder. That is why these products should be steamed or boiled.
9. Meat or fish broths in the first month of remission are not recommended. Poultry meat must be freed from the skin.

So, what can you eat with cholecystitis?

List of allowed products

The main goal of dietary nutrition for cholecystitis is to reduce the burden on the digestive system, as well as eliminating the inflammatory process and liquefying bile. To achieve these goals, the patient must clearly understand which products are allowed to him and which are strictly prohibited. The following foods can be consumed:

1. Non-acidic fruits, vegetables and greens. It is these products that are considered the main suppliers of vitamins and minerals, which have a strengthening effect on the immune system. An important point of the daily diet is the use of one sweet pear, which will help reduce the density of bile.
2. Bread can be consumed only in dried form and not wheat varieties. It is better to opt for grain and bran bakery products. You can also eat inedible cookies or biscuits. What else can you eat with cholecystitis? The list of products is not limited to this.
3. As drinks, you need to give preference to weak black tea, a decoction of rose hips, non-acidic compotes and coffee with milk. Beetroot juice is also well established. It can be included in breakfast and dinner half a cup, which will reduce the likelihood of exacerbation of cholecystitis. A drink from chicory is no less useful for the gallbladder.
4. Sausage should be only premium. You can also supplement the diet with lean meats and fish. Seasoning or adding sauces to dishes is not recommended, especially spicy.
5. Boiled quail and chicken eggs. Omelets should be made from protein.
6. Low-fat yogurts, cottage cheese and sour cream without additives, flavorings and flavor enhancers.
7. As a dessert, it is allowed to eat marmalade, marshmallows and jam. Cocoa and chocolate should not be consumed or their quantity should be significantly limited.

What fruits can I eat with cholecystitis? Banana, pomegranate, apple.

Also among the allowed fruits and berries are: watermelons, melon, strawberries, avocados, papaya.

What vegetables can be used for cholecystitis?

Among vegetables, there are practically no restrictions, that is, you can use any vegetables. Caution should be taken on raw white cabbage, if the patient does not suffer from pancreatitis, then in small quantities raw cabbage can be eaten, but if there are pancreatic dysfunctions, it can only be eaten in boiled, baked form, if you like sauerkraut, then it should not be very acidic. You can peas, carrots, beets, pumpkin, potatoes, zucchini. As for legumes, according to diet No. 5 they are excluded, but during a period of remission in a very limited amount, their use is possible.

Is it possible to eat tomatoes with cholecystitis? They can be eaten without exacerbation, but only without peel, in moderation, pickled and salted are excluded.

Turmeric is considered to be a useful seasoning for cholecystitis, which dilutes bile and helps to accelerate its removal from the body.

Now it is clear what you can eat with cholecystitis. What is not possible is presented below.

Prohibited Products

In addition to acceptable products, a patient with a diagnosis of cholecystitis needs to know the dishes that must be discarded. The following products are prohibited for patients with this disease:

1. Legumes including lentils, peas and beans. These products can cause flatulence, which can trigger an exacerbation of cholecystitis.
2. Garlic, onions, spinach and radishes. These vegetables contain specific essential oils that can irritate the mucous membrane of the stomach and gall bladder. Moreover, the ban applies to the use of these vegetables in their raw form. After heat treatment, you can eat them and even need them.
3. Canned foods. It can be fish, meat or homemade canned food, including pickles and marinades.
4. Mustard and horseradish. These products have a positive effect on the production of gastric juice, which can cause excessive production of bile. An inflamed gallbladder cannot cope with such a flow and stagnation and exacerbation of cholecystitis occur.
5. Kidneys, liver and other offal, fatty meat or fish.
6. Sour fruits and berries, mushrooms.
7. Fried foods, as well as smoked meats, broths on fish and meat, hot sauces, vinegar and spices.
8. Ice cream, chocolate, cocoa, pastry.
9. Strong coffee without milk.

Patients often ask if it is possible to drink with cholecystitis? Alcoholic beverages are prohibited.

The amount of salt during the period of remission should not exceed 10 grams per day, and the permissible amount of sugar consumed per day is 9 teaspoons.

Is it possible to honey?

Many patients with cholecystitis often ask about the possibility of using honey. Doctors consider honey a useful and necessary product for such patients. For those who have violated the diet, it is recommended to make a mixture of honey and warm water, which must be drunk on an empty stomach and lie on the right side. You need to lie down for about three minutes, but this will help to remove the accumulated bile from the ducts. The procedure is repeated for five days.

It is not recommended to self-medicate. This is due to the fact that even if there is a small stone in the gallbladder or ducts, the honey mixture is able to force the withdrawal of fluid and provoke an exacerbation. Often, such frivolity leads to emergency surgical intervention.

Approximate menu for the treatment of cholecystitis

To organize proper nutrition, a person with cholecystitis needs to consider an approximate daily or weekly menu. So he will learn to understand the principles of nutrition, the schedule and the allowed products. I must say that the menu is quite diverse and will not make a person feel hungry, especially since you will have to eat at least five times a day. The approximate daily diet of a person with cholecystitis looks something like this:

1. Breakfast. Cottage cheese pudding or sugar-free dumplings prepared in a "lazy" way. You can also prefer buckwheat porridge in milk and weak tea without adding sugar.

2. Lunch. Snack apple sweet varieties.

3. Lunch. Lean cabbage soup, boiled lean meat with milk sauce, boiled carrot salad with sour cream, stewed fruit.

4. An afternoon snack. Crackers made of white bread, rosehip broth.

5. Dinner. Low-fat boiled fish with herbs and cream sauce, a vegetable cutlet, a glass of low fat kefir.

This is a very approximate menu, you can make adjustments and changes to it. For example, if a person goes to bed late, then it is recommended to add a second dinner and then the frequency of meals will be 6 times.

When remission lasts more than a year, you can allow yourself some “forbidden” sweets or even dishes prepared on the grill. Before going to bed, you can drink a glass of yogurt or fermented baked milk, which will eliminate hunger and minimize digestion.

Conclusion

Nutrition during the treatment of cholecystitis is important, both during exacerbation, and during remission. It is not worth ignoring the doctor’s recommendations on diet, as this can lead to exacerbation and the absence of periods of remission. None of the drugs will help to cope with cholecystitis in the same way as proper nutrition and compliance with the regime for a long time. Therefore, it is necessary to find out in detail from the gastroenterologist the rules of nutrition and permitted foods, and then organize a diet.

We examined what can be eaten and what cannot be done with cholecystitis.