12 Foods That Help To Manage Crohn’s Disease

Crohn’s disease is a type of IBD or Inflammatory Bowel Disease, which can cause problems when it comes to choosing what you drink and eat. This condition results in an inflammation of the digestive tract and causes several uncomfortable symptoms. Crohn’s disease can also result in specific long-term consequences which include malnutrition. Some specific foods can help you in managing your Crohn’s disease. If you want to know about the foods that help to manage Crohn’s disease, then keep reading further.

A Crohn’s disease flare-up can trigger and even worsen symptoms like bloating, diarrhea, nausea, abdominal cramping and pain, and loss of appetite. This loss of appetite and diarrhea can result in dehydration and malnutrition.

Grains, especially the whole grains are known for offering dietary benefits since they are rich in nutrients and fiber. Research has suggested that a high-fiber diet might reduce your risk of developing IBD or Inflammatory Bowel Disease.⁽¹⁾ So, grains would surely help people with Crohn’s disease. Let us take a look at some more foods that help to manage Crohn’s disease.

Nuts are one of the best foods to manage Crohn’s disease. Nuts are wonderful versatile ingredients. All types of nuts are filled with a lot of healthy monosaturated and poly-saturated fats, and also contain tremendous anti-inflammatory properties. You can add any variety of nut in your daily diet.

Many people having Crohn’s disease are lactose intolerant. Fortunately, there is a great alternative for dairy, the almond milk, which is made from almonds and can be fortified to contain as much calcium as regular milk contains.

Almond milk is also known to contain Vitamin D and Vitamin E, but has no cholesterol or saturated fat in it, and also has fewer calories than cow’s milk.

Lentils and beans are great foods that manage Crohn’s disease. Lentils and beans are a great way to add proteins in vegetarians who cut meat from their diet. You can cook lentils and beans and add them to your diet. You can use lentils in salads. Canned beans can also work, though they are not rich in molybdenum or folate and are usually high in sodium content.

Berries are loaded with antioxidants, which can help in fighting inflammation in your body. So, they can be an excellent food to manage Crohn’s disease. You can have a handful of berries in yogurt or can add them as toppings on porridge.

Carrots are packed with provitamin A carotenoids, such as beta carotene and alpha-carotene, and are known to have anti-inflammatory properties.

Our body can convert provitamin A into vitamin A since carrots or other plant-based-foods do not contain preformed Vitamin A.

You can grate a carrot and add to your morning porridge or can chop them finely and sneak them into dishes and sauces that you have every day, especially if you suffer from Crohn’s disease.

Patients with Crohn’s disease might think they should avoid fruit, but even during a Crohn’s disease flare tropical fruits like bananas are nutritious and also easy-to-digest.

Mango and papaya are rich in nutrients and easy to digest.

Papaya contains Papain, or an enzyme, which helps our body digest proteins. This fruit is also loaded with Vitamin A, vitamin C, and potassium. Moreover, it is available round the year.

Garlic is good food for people with Crohn’s disease. This has a wonderful taste and it gives a great taste to your dish. Garlic is also a prebiotic food, which means it feeds healthy gut bacteria. For people on a low FODMAP diet, one can use garlic-infused oil for retaining the flavor of garlic without risking symptoms.

Avocados are smooth, soft fruits packed with good fats, vitamin E, vitamin B, and potassium. So these should be on your diet menu if you have Crohn’s disease. They are also one of the fruits that contain digestion-friendly and soluble fiber along with the insoluble type.

Bananas are a great option to be added to your porridge or consumed as a portable snack. Bananas can also be baked into some gluten-free bread.

One of the richest nutrients in bananas is the Potassium. This nutrient makes bananas an excellent choice for people with chronic loose stools. So, bananas are one of the best foods that manage Crohn’s disease.

Peas are an excellent powerhouse of nutrients. These are easy to digest and also can be added to several dishes. peas are packed with complex carbohydrates and protein, which might help in keeping your energy up during Corhn’s disease flare-ups or during periods of unintentional loss of weight.

Patients with Crohn’s disease can be benefited from drinking green tea.

Results of a study conducted in the year 2018 indicate that epigallocatechin-3-gallate, or a chemical present in green tea helps combat inflammation in laboratory-cultured human intestinal cells.⁽²⁾ But, researchers have yet to test this in people.

Green tea could also be a healthy alternative to coffee and sugary drinks, which might aggravate symptoms of Crohn’s disease.

Many yogurts have probiotics or the healthful bacteria that might help in reducing inflammation in the gut.

However, some studies have suggested that highly concentrated probiotics can give mixed results.⁽³⁾

Moreover, dairy products are packed with calcium, and manufacturers might fortify them with Vitamin C and Vitamin D.

So it would be good to take yogurt if you have Crohn’s disease.

But again, some yogurt contains lactose or a type of sugar, and doctors recommend eliminating this lactose from the diet.⁽⁴⁾ So, you should look for lactose-free yogurt and other dairy products.

Crohn’s disease can cause symptoms of abdominal pain, diarrhea, and loss of appetite; which can lead to dehydration and malnutrition. Thus, you should take healthy foods and also drink plenty of fluids to ease symptoms and promote healing. You should always talk to your doctor before making any significant dietary changes if you have Crohn’s disease.

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