Hemorrhoids is a chronic disease that is currently very widespread. At an early stage of development, he usually does not bother the patient, reminding himself of only a little discomfort in the anus. However, if the course of the disease worsens, multiple unpleasant symptoms may appear. Prevention of the development of the disease and its exacerbations largely depends on adhering to a special diet.
The Importance of Proper Nutrition
The nutritional factor plays a key role in exacerbating the disease. This is due to the fact that the use of certain foods can cause an increase in blood flow to the organs of the small pelvis and perineum. Often it is overflow of the venous system that leads to swelling and prolapse of hemorrhoids. Also, the goal of the diet is the effective prevention of constipation. The latter can be not only the root cause of hemorrhoids, but also a significant aggravation of its course.
General principles
Nutrition for hemorrhoids should be balanced. It is important that it helps to eliminate and prevent constipation. Also, under no circumstances should irritation of the intestinal walls and expansion of the veins be allowed. You need to take these factors into account when deciding what kind of nutrition for hemorrhoids is appropriate in order to form the right habits.
You need to learn how to eat in a comfortable environment, without too much haste and talking. While eating, you should not watch TV, work at a computer, and so on. If we distract from the process, this will lead to insufficiently thorough chewing of food products.
It is recommended to stew, cook, or steaming food predominantly. It is best to refuse fried foods. They worsen digestion processes and adversely affect the condition of the rectum.
If hemorrhoids has been diagnosed, nutrition and diet should determine not only the choice of products, but also the amount of water consumed. Doctors recommend drinking at least 1.5-2 liters of fluid per day. Its deficiency leads to the formation of excessively dense feces, which hardly moves through the intestines.
How to eat?
Following a diet for hemorrhoids does not mean that a large number of products will have to be excluded from the menu. As much as possible vegetables and fruits, as well as cereals, should be added to the patient’s diet. When it comes to nutrition for hemorrhoids, a properly structured menu will improve intestinal motility and prevent constipation.
Vegetables can be consumed both raw and boiled. Their number is not limited. However, in the case of constipation, it is best to give preference to vegetables that have a laxative effect (beets, cabbage, carrots). This also applies to fruits (raisins, dried apricots).
Cereals are the basis of nutrition for hemorrhoids, and the patient's menu should include buckwheat, pearl barley, oat and barley groats. Bread from coarse flour, from cereals and with bran is also allowed.
Dairy products are not prohibited. Proper nutrition provides the opportunity to consume them in unlimited quantities. It is recommended to give preference mainly to natural yoghurts and kefir.
Meat and fish are also allowed, but low-fat varieties should be chosen. They can be cooked, baked and steamed. Suitable loin, turkey, rabbit; from fish - hake, cod, pike. With a favorable course of the disease, you can start adding various sauces to the dishes, but exclusively natural ones.
From drinks it is allowed to use homemade juices and fruit drinks (mainly from dark berries), as well as weak tea. For digestion, it will be useful to drink one glass of boiled water at room temperature on an empty stomach (before breakfast).
Prohibited Products
Proper nutrition for hemorrhoids requires a complete rejection of certain dishes. We are talking about food that irritates the walls of the gastrointestinal tract, and also has a “fixing” effect on the feces. From your diet should first of all exclude all spicy, salty, fatty, fried and pepper dishes. You also need to abandon confectionery (with the exception of the simplest non-butter biscuits), fast food and all types of legumes. Some vegetables (radishes, onions, garlic and others) not only digest for a long time, but also irritate already weakened intestinal walls.
With drinks, too, not everything is so simple: you can not any kinds of soda, alcohol, milk, strong teas and coffee, as well as jelly. Despite the fact that some of them are not contraindicated in healthy people, patients with hemorrhoids should be discarded. So, for example, strong tea or jelly can cause flatulence or disrupt the tone of the intestinal walls.
Even some cereals can be not only not useful, but also dangerous. So, for example, rice and semolina, as you know, absorb a very large amount of water. This leads to compaction of feces and constipation.
With hemorrhoids, it is strictly forbidden to eat fatty meat and rich broths. They provoke a rush of blood to the intestines, thereby exacerbating inflammation.
Sample menu
Simplified diet for one day:
- Breakfast: porridge and weak tea.
- Lunch: 30 grams of cheese.
- Lunch: vegetable soup, casserole of meat or potatoes.
- Snack: cottage cheese with dried fruits.
- Dinner: steamed fish cakes, vegetable salad.
- A few hours before bedtime: a glass of kefir.
Diet
It is recommended to eat at least five to six times a day, but in small portions. This must be done at the same time, so that a clear regime of the gastrointestinal tract is developed. This aspect is especially important for those patients who suffer from frequent or chronic constipation.
The diet for hemorrhoids during an exacerbation of the disease involves several meals a day. Breakfast is better an hour after waking up. Dinner should be no later than two to three hours before bedtime. In addition, full snacks are required. It is very important to prevent a feeling of tangible hunger.
Drinking regimen is also very important. If there are no contraindications, then you can use slightly salted mineral water (consultation with your doctor is required). When the fluid enters the body in sufficient quantities, the stool softens and moves faster through the intestines. It also facilitates the act of defecation. Due to the fact that a person strains less during emptying, the risk of aggravating the course of hemorrhoids and the appearance of anal fissures is reduced.
Diet to help exacerbate
The development of the disease is influenced by many factors. Nutrition during exacerbation of hemorrhoids is aimed at normalizing bowel function and softening the stool. In this condition, during the first days after inflammation, it is better not to eat food at all, but to drink a large amount of water. On the second day, you can carefully enter porridge (oat, buckwheat, barley) into the diet. They should be boiled in water, eat without oil and in small portions. It is also permissible to use mashed potatoes and soups on vegetable broth. Three days later, you can add dairy products, a small amount of vegetables and fruits to the diet, and then meat and fish. Nutrition for hemorrhoids during periods of exacerbation involves the supply of boiled dishes or steamed.
With cracks in the anus
Hemorrhoids often cause multiple complications. The most common of these are anal fissures. They arise due to the fact that hemorrhoids are injured during bowel movements. This weakens the walls of the intestine and creates the prerequisites for subsequent ruptures.
Nutrition for hemorrhoids and fissures involves a complete rejection of smoked, pickled, fried, peppered and excessively salty foods. Also, alcohol is included under a complete ban. The above foods and drinks cause increased blood flow to the intestines. This leads to the expulsion of hemorrhoids outward and trauma to the membrane.
In such a situation, it is worth drinking a large amount of water throughout the day, abandoning small snacks and “dry tumblers”. Nuts, chocolates and sweet cakes in the intestine turn into an excessively dense feces, which, when constipated, bursts into it, while provoking the formation of an anal fissure.
In case of bleeding
Inflammation of the hemorrhoidal nodes and cracks is accompanied by very unpleasant symptoms. In such cases, bleeding is not uncommon. Often it appears at the very first serious exacerbation of the disease. Nutrition for hemorrhoids with bleeding involves the complete disposal of the intestines from any overstrain. On the first day of exacerbation, you should abandon solid foods, you can only drink (water, juices, kefir, green tea). The diet should be restored in stages. Dishes should be mainly boiled or steamed.
Periodic bleeding due to anal fissures can cause anemia. That is why nutrition for hemorrhoids, accompanied by serious complications, should contain foods rich in iron. Allowed: turkey meat, buckwheat, green vegetables, fruits (apples, beets, prunes).
After operation
Treatment of hemorrhoids often ends with its surgical removal. After surgery, it is imperative that the intestines are not exposed to the aggressive effects of hard stools. In this regard, you need to choose a menu that would contribute to the thinning of feces.
Nutrition after hemorrhoids cured by a surgical method should be well absorbed. It is important to achieve a balanced intake of BZHU, as well as to prevent a deficiency of vitamins. In order for the body to be saturated with important trace elements, it is worth eating cereals (millet, buckwheat). To soften the stool, you need to eat vegetables (carrots, broccoli, zucchini), but it is better to refuse fruits for the first time. Do not neglect fermented milk products that saturate the intestines with beneficial bacteria and other microorganisms. You can eat lean meat only after some time in the absence of complications.
Physical exercise
The secret to successful treatment of hemorrhoids is nutrition that meets all medical requirements, and sufficient physical activity. Physical activity, coupled with the right menu, is an excellent prevention of constipation. Simple gymnastics aimed at strengthening the muscles of the pelvis, peritoneum and buttocks, significantly improves blood circulation in these areas. It also helps restore muscle tone of the rectum and anus. Physical activity prevents blood stasis, which is very important in the treatment of hemorrhoids. A great choice would be walking, swimming or jogging. However, during periods of exacerbation of the disease only walking is permissible.
During pregnancy
Hemorrhoids are a frequent companion of many women awaiting the birth of their child. This is due to the fact that the pelvic organs are under great pressure, since the uterus is constantly increasing in size. The disease occurs from increased blood flow to this area.
In this case, nutrition for hemorrhoids has its own characteristics: you need to abandon foods that provoke constipation. It is also worth refraining from dishes that enhance blood flow to the digestive tract. On the forbidden list: legumes, grapes, spices and smoked meats, turnips and radishes. For the rest, you should adhere to the principles of proper nutrition and drink plenty of fluids.
Conclusion
In the treatment of hemorrhoids, the diet plays not the last role, but one of the most important. That is why it is so important to choose the right diet in full accordance with the recommendations of the attending physician. It depends on how quickly relief and recovery comes. A diet for hemorrhoids should not become a periodically necessary necessity, but part of a familiar lifestyle.