Diet taboos for diarrhea

Don’t touch foods that are hypertonic, highly stimulating, or high in fiber. As long as you don’t feel any obvious discomfort after eating other foods, there is no need to overly restrict them. There is no need to follow the old rules of "you can only drink white porridge" and "you must be hungry for three days". On the contrary, it is easy to slow down the recovery speed due to insufficient nutrition.

The first pitfall that many people fall into is sweet, hypertonic foods. When they have diarrhea, they want to supplement their nutrition or coax themselves to drink more water, so they drink freshly squeezed juice, honey water, or full-sugar milk tea. On the contrary, the more they drink, the worse their diarrhea becomes. The essence is that the fructose and sucrose content in this type of food is too high. After entering the intestinal tract, it will absorb all the water from the surrounding tissues into the intestinal lumen. The already dehydrated state will make the feces thinner and the frequency of defecation higher. A while ago, I heard from a doctor friend at a community hospital that a child had diarrhea and refused to drink plain water, so his parents coaxed him to drink freshly squeezed orange juice. The symptoms were supposed to be cured in two days, but it took four days to stop. Here is a sports drink that everyone often asks about. There is indeed a view that it can replenish electrolytes, but the sugar content of most sports drinks on the market exceeds the standard. If you really want to drink it, it is best to dilute it with half warm water, otherwise it will have the opposite effect. It is much more reliable than drinking oral rehydration salt directly, or adding half a spoon of salt and a little sugar.

You have to keep your mouth shut when it comes to sweet things, and you have to endure the harsh things even more. Low-temperature foods such as iced cola and iced watermelon will directly stimulate rapid intestinal peristalsis. The capsaicin in spicy hot pot and chopped pepper fish heads will aggravate intestinal mucosal edema. High-fat foods such as fried chicken and ham will greatly increase the digestive burden of the gastrointestinal tract. If the gastrointestinal tract is already in a state of stress, being stimulated in this way can easily aggravate inflammation. I once read a true sharing from a netizen. He had just stopped having diarrhea due to acute gastroenteritis. His friend asked him to eat butter hot pot. He thought he would just replenish his health. However, he became dehydrated in the middle of the night after eating and went to the emergency room to get fluids. The gain outweighed the loss. By the way, let me talk about a topic that has been controversial for a long time: Can you eat garlic when you have diarrhea? Many people in the older generation firmly believe that garlic can kill bacteria and that eating it will make you feel better quickly. In fact, raw garlic is extremely irritating. Eating it directly will only aggravate the damage to the intestinal mucosa and make diarrhea worse. ； But if it is cooked garlic, added to the dish and eaten in small amounts, and there is no burning sensation after eating it, there is no need to completely avoid it, and there is no need to be too dogmatic.

There is another type of food that is usually touted as "healthy food". It is best to stay away from it when you have diarrhea, which is high-fiber coarse food. For example, celery, leeks, dragon fruit, prunes, apples with skin, etc., usually have a good laxative effect when constipated. However, when you have diarrhea, these thick and hard fibers will repeatedly rub the already sensitive intestinal wall and promote intestinal peristalsis, which is equivalent to stepping on the accelerator for the already "hurrying" intestines. The last time my mother had diarrhea after eating something bad, she was still thinking of eating more vegetables to "cleanse her bowels", so she fried a large plate of celery and ate it. As a result, she had diarrhea three times a day and had to run to the toilet three more times on the same day after eating. It took two days to recover.

Some people may want to ask, you can't eat this or touch that. Is it true that you can only drink white porridge? It’s really not the case. The saying of the older generation of “resting your stomach and intestines when you are hungry” has actually been outdated for a long time. The current consensus among gastroenterologists is that as long as you can eat, you can eat some steamed eggs, soft boiled noodles, minced lean meat, peeled steamed apples, etc. If you have enough nutrition, you will recover faster. Drinking white porridge for two or three days will make you feel bloated, which is not conducive to recovery. There is another question that has been debated for many years: Can I drink milk if I have diarrhea? This really depends on the individual. If you are usually lactose intolerant and get bloating and diarrhea after drinking milk, then of course don't touch it. But if you usually have no reaction at all when drinking milk, drinking warm pure milk will not be a problem at all. You don't have to throw away all dairy products at once. Room temperature sugar-free yogurt can actually help regulate intestinal flora, so it is recommended.

After all, the taboos for diarrhea are really not as complicated as the dozens of taboos listed on the Internet. The core thing is not to burden the already uncomfortable stomach. Everyone's gastrointestinal tolerance is different, so you don't have to impose other people's standards. For example, some people can relieve diarrhea by eating a steamed apple, while some people have worse diarrhea after eating it. It is most suitable for you to eat it comfortably and without any discomfort. If you have too many bowel movements, are accompanied by fever or bloody stools, don't think that it will be cured by adjusting your diet. The more important thing is to go to the hospital as soon as possible.