diverticulitis

I was diagnosed with diverticulosis a couple of months ago, and was only told "it's rare in people under 40", and wasn't given any advice as to what makes it worse, or better. So I know nothing about our condition really

Hi! I'm not sure this will be entirely helpful, but I figured I would share my experience with diverticulosis/diverticulitis.

I'm 26 and was in the hospital for a week (in October) with diverticulitis (inflamed diverticulosis). I had no idea that I had diverticulosis (it is really uncommon in people under 40), but there you have it. I've been counting calories since March and lost 35 pounds BUT I guess I wasn't getting enough fiber--that's supposedly a major cause of diverticulosis. Once you develop diverticulosis, I'm pretty sure you have it forever. When you eat nuts and seeds, they can get stuck in the diverticula and become inflamed or infected. Pretty much what happened to me--I started feeling pretty horrible the day following the consumption of popcorn!

Following the stint in the hospital, where they had me on antibiotics for a week, I finally felt better, but had to stay on a low residue/low fiber diet (all refined flour foods, no fruit with skin or seeds, barely any veggies, etc.) for a month until I could visit my GI for a colonoscopy. She said all is well now but I need to stick to a high-fiber diet pretty much forever. And no popcorn (EVER), and minimize my intake of nuts and seeds.

Trust me, my hospital bill was over $20,000 before insurance, $5000 after, so believe me, it's not worth caving to the crave and eating what you shouldn't. My suggestion is double checking with your gastroenterologist (and nutritionist is you have one) that you're in the clear to begin a high fiber diet. Once you are, you CAN have corn (NOT dried/popped/corn nuts) and green beans; cucumber is also fine as long as you remove the seeds first (same with tomatoes).

Since you're a meat and potatoes person, how about trying things like mashed cauliflower instead of potatoes? You can mix half potato and half cauliflower to ease into it! It may sound funny but it's awesome. I also made some awesome soup that's all vegetable, super high fiber, and diverticulosis-friendly. I blended it so it's thicker and more chowder-y. Also a good way to mask vegetables that you don't like. haha Oatmeal is also an awesome way to get fiber in your diet--try making it with cinnamon and honey (natural antiseptics and immune boosters), or unsweetened cocoa powder and tried cherries (no seeds, unlike cranberries!) for a dessert-for-breakfast version. It certainly helps if you start incorporating more salads and fresh fruits into your diet, but anything is a start!

Good luck, and let me know if you have any questions! I had a hard time finding the information I wanted about managing diverticulosis/diverticulitis while dieting, so I know what you're going through!

piper1721 wrote: »

I have diverticulitis and need to loose about 25 more pounds. I have lost around 20 so far this year using this tool. Without a lot of exercise. I know I need to get out and exercise more - just have NO time! I know I need to drink more water - but it is SO HARD, it has no taste and I struggle with the water. I will grab a diet pepsi or flavored latte before anything else. But most importantly I have diverticulitis. I can't have anything with seeds, kernels, nuts. It's killing me! I am a VERY picky eater but I did love cucumbers, strawberries, corn, green beans, kiwi, popcorn - all of which I can not have. I'm not a big veggie eater (I will only eat peas and beets now and occasionally carrots if cooked right). I grew up on meat and potatoes and that's what we eat now and pasta. Need help!! Need ideas!! Need motivation!! Please help!

A few comments:

1. Pepsi and lattes have water in them, and count towards water consumption. That said, these are high in calories and if your goal is weight loss, you should reconsider this choice (or at least make sure that the rest of your diet is high in nutrients to balance these "empty" calories). Consider calorie-free water additives like Crystal Lite if flavor is the problem.

2. This nonsense about not eating seeds and popcorn is a bunch of crap. I am a surgeon who treats diverticulitis. Do you know how many times I've operated on somebody and found seeds and popcorn in their diverticuli? ZERO. This advice you've been given was common 40 years ago and is generally regarded as nonsense today. Don't take my word for it though, here's a paper from JAMA (A-list journal) on 47000 people with diverticulosis showing that seed intake is not associated with disease flares.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18728264

3. Your meat and potato diet is harming you. Diverticulosis is caused by a western low fibre diet, and there ain't no fibre in what you're eating now. You can either eat your fibre or supplement it with things like Metamucil, but you need to improve your fibre (and water) intake if you want to improve your chances with this condition.

I have diverticulitis. ....The best thing I ever did was stop anything fizzy