Recently, the number of patients with pancreatitis is increasing. Doctors and nutritionists assure that it is necessary to adjust the diet to improve health. The question arises, which diet for pancreatitis helps to heal? How to eat properly with this disease? Are there foods that can make the condition worse? What should you eat to improve your health?
Basic nutritional rules for pancreatitis
Diet is mandatory for those suffering from pancreatitis, otherwise no medicine will help.
Experts have developed rules that must be followed:
- if the disease is acute, the diet should begin with fasting, lasting from 2 to 4 days;
- you need to eat often at the same time;
- portions should be small;
- avoid overeating;
- reduce the amount of confectionery;
- meals should include pureed products that do not irritate the mucous membrane;
- the daily norm of fat is not more than 80 g;
- reduce the amount of salt to 10 g;
- minimize sugar intake.
Based on these rules, the daily menu is drawn up.
How to eat with acute pancreatitis
Acute pancreatitis is a dangerous disease, so comprehensive measures are needed to improve the condition. It should be remembered that dietary requirements are mandatory, otherwise this condition may lead to surgical intervention.
At the first stage of treatment, you should fast for several days. The period of abstinence from food is from 2 to 4 days.
Only liquids are allowed. At this time, you can drink tea that is not strong, you can prepare decoctions of hips, still mineral water is suitable.
The next step is diet number 5. The food has a low calorie content, salt and fat are prohibited, which can lead to a new attack. All food is cooked in liquid form. You can add a little.
When designing a menu, it is better to keep a list of useful and harmful products in front of the sections.
If you do not follow strict nutritional rules, the patient's condition will not improve.
How to eat with chronic pancreatitis
Nutrition in this disease should help to normalize the work of the diseased body. You should listen to the advice of diet number 5.
Dietary recommendations for chronic pancreatitis:
- food and liquids entering the body must be warm;
- plan at least 5 meals a day;
- avoid overeating;
- do not take long breaks between meals;
- reduce the amount of sugar;
- take out fresh bread.
All food prepared by frying is strictly prohibited.
To create a proper diet, you need to know the list of products that will help restore or worsen your health.
List of permitted and prohibited products:
- bakery products: crackers, dried yesterday's bread, biscuits;
- porridge cooked in water with a little milk;
- meat, steamed, baked, boiled chicken, turkey, lean beef;
- low-fat fish, mashed, chopped;
- first dishes: lean, vegetable, mashed soups;
- dairy products: all non-acidic, fat-free;
- vegetables: coarse without fiber;
- non-acidic fruits;
- no more than 1 egg per day;
- butter not more than 30 g per day;
- vegetable oil no more than 2 spoons;
- non-acidic juices diluted with water;
- tea is not strong, it is possible with lemon, milk;
- bakery products: fresh bread, cakes, puff pastry products;
- soups cooked in strong broth;
- fatty meats;
- high-fat dairy products;
- sauces;
- spices;
- oily fish;
- fried eggs;
- coarse fiber vegetables;
- mushrooms;
- legumes;
- carbonated drinks;
- alcohol;
- coffee;
- chocolate.
If you have questions, it is recommended to discuss the use of certain products with your doctor.
Diet for pancreatitis in children
Parents often have a question, what diet does a sick child need for pancreatitis? The diet that helps to improve the baby's condition is little different from the adult menu. However, there are some features that should be considered when feeding children.
Children's nutrition rules:
- give food and drink warm, feed more with chopped dishes, for example, mashed potatoes;
- the diet should contain all components necessary for normal growth and development;
- even after an acute condition has been eliminated, it is important to adhere to dietary restrictions;
- forbid children to drink carbonated drinks;
- fast food meals.
If the sick child is not yet 3 years old, then it is recommended to wipe and grind the food. Any citrus fruits, freshly squeezed juices should be excluded from the diet. Berries with small seeds and rough skin should not be given to children. Fresh vegetables are not required.
A child over 3 years of age goes to children's educational institutions and communicates with peers. First of all, you should pay attention to nutrition in school and kindergarten. To do this, talk to a medical worker, inform a teacher, tutor.
The most difficult thing is to protect the child from soda, chips and other dangerous foods. When attending birthday parties and children's parties, care should be taken not to disturb the child's diet. The baby should explain the need to limit food.
7-day menu for patients with chronic pancreatitis
It is recommended for patients to prepare a menu in advance, this will allow them to eat a balanced diet, their health will improve significantly.
Menu selection for the week:
1 day
- chicken meat, rose water;
- oatmeal, tea;
- pumpkin puree soup, steamed fish, jelly;
- a container for baby food;
- baked zucchini, carrots, chicken fillet from the oven, juice;
2 days
- rice porridge, tea with honey;
- pumpkin puree, compote;
- vegetable soup puree, chicken meatballs, jelly;
- tea, crackers;
- semolina pudding and jelly;
3 days
- oatmeal porridge, jelly;
- baked apple with cottage cheese, rose water;
- vegetable soup puree, steamed fish, compote;
- cottage cheese, tea;
- boiled fish, tea;
4th day
- rice porridge, crackers, rose water;
- pumpkin puree, tea;
- vegetable juice, a piece of boiled fish, mashed potatoes, compote;
- tea with honey, biscuit;
- rice pudding, jelly;
Day 5
- oatmeal, tea;
- cottage cheese, baked apple, rose water;
- vegetable soup, chicken meatballs, compote;
- tea, dry biscuit;
- fish baked in the oven, hip juice.
6th day
- semolina, tea;
- baked apple, rose water;
- a piece of beef, vegetable puree, vegetable juice with compote;
- tea, crackers;
- steamed omelet, jelly;
7th day
- rice porridge, crackers, rose water;
- cottage cheese with chopped apples, tea;
- vegetable soup puree, chicken meatballs, jelly;
- cottage cheese, tea, biscuits;
- semolina pudding, jelly.
Knowing the basic requirements for food, you can prepare your own menu.
Recipes for pancreatitis
Knowing the basic rules of the diet, you can make changes in the menu. With food restrictions, you want to treat yourself to something delicious. Nutritionists have developed special foods that can be consumed with pancreatitis.
Recipe for baked apples:
- Remove the core from washed apples, being careful not to puncture the bottom of the fruit.
- Put honey on an apple.
- Add cinnamon on top.
- Bake in the oven.
- Come to yourself, calm down.
Beet salad recipe:
- Boil 1 medium-sized beet, cool, grate.
- 2 apples of sweet varieties, peeled, cut into small cubes.
- Grind the walnuts on a grater, you need about a spoon.
- Combine all components, mix, add a little salt.
- Fill with olive oil.
Recipe for semolina pudding with berry jelly:
- Prepare thick semolina porridge in water, pour it into deep molds, cool.
- Pour the strawberries with a small amount of water, boil, remove, chop, put back in the broth.
- Pour sugar, heat to a boil.
- Prepare the starch, mix it with cold water, carefully pour it into the strawberry broth, do not let it boil. Remove from heat, cool.
- When serving, cut the condensed semolina pudding into pieces and pour the jelly on top.
If you want, any diet can be supplemented with tasty healthy food.
We recommend a video about permitted and prohibited foods for pancreatitis:
Pancreatitis is a common disease that requires a strict diet for treatment. For this, it is necessary to know which foods can be consumed and which cannot be accepted. You must follow the rules of cooking, general recommendations on nutrition.
Types of pancreatitis
The most common classification of pancreatitis is based on the nature of the course of the disease: acute attack or long-lasting chronic pancreatitis with periodic relapses. The two forms differ in the severity of symptoms and require different approaches to treatment.
Acute pancreatitis
In acute pancreatitis, the inflammatory process develops very quickly and is always accompanied by severe pain. In most cases, the disease occurs against the background of alcohol abuse or after consuming a large amount of fatty foods. Sometimes exacerbation precedes an attack of acute hepatic colic.
Symptoms of acute pancreatitis:
- Severe pain in the left hypochondrium, spreading to other organs. The pain attack lasts from about half an hour to an hour. The pain is especially strong when lying on the back. The attack is aggravated after eating, especially fried and spicy, and after any alcoholic drinks.
- Vomiting is often violent, bilious and bitter. Persistent nausea that does not go away after vomiting.
- Subfebrile or high temperature.
- Yellowing of the whites of the eyes is sometimes observed due to a violation of bile flow, very rarely - yellow color of the skin.
- In some cases, the pain syndrome is accompanied by heartburn and swelling.
An attack of acute pancreatitis requires immediate medical attention. Painkillers only bring temporary relief, but do not affect the cause of inflammation. In the absence of qualified help, the risk of serious complications increases rapidly: infection, necrosis and abscess in inflamed tissues.
In the severe stage, acute pancreatitis can lead to shock and multiple organ failure.
Chronic pancreatitis
After an attack of acute pancreatitis, if a person does not follow the recommendations of doctors and continues to drink alcohol and eat unhealthy foods, there is a high probability that the disease will become chronic. Chronic pancreatitis develops with significant damage to the pancreas during the first episode of the disease.
The disease is characterized by gradual pathological changes in the structure of pancreatic cells. Over time, it begins to lose its main function - the production of enzymes necessary for the digestion of food. Exocrine deficiency is manifested by:
- diarrhea
- swelling,
- a change in the nature of feces - due to the large amount of fat in it, it acquires a sticky consistency and is poorly washed from the walls of the toilet bowl.
Chronic pancreatitis can be asymptomatic for a long time: acute pain appears when significant pathological changes have already occurred in the pancreas. During an attack, chronic pancreatitis is acutely manifested by the same symptoms:
- severe back pain,
- nausea,
- vomit,
- intestinal disorders.
Diagnosis is made on the basis of ultrasound, computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging. During research, narrowed pancreatic ducts are usually detected due to the formation of stones - calcifications. Hardware methods also make it possible to detect cysts at the site of atrophied tissue. Laboratory blood tests for chronic pancreatitis are not very informative.
Deficiency of pancreatic function is determined by stool analysis. If they contain a specific enzyme - pancreatic elastase, "chronic pancreatitis" is diagnosed.
Importance of enzymes in digestion
The activity of the human body is provided by a complex system of interconnected and interdependent biochemical reactions. Thanks to special protein compounds - enzymes or enzymes, all these reactions are accelerated, fast metabolism is ensured. The action of enzymes is very selective: each of them is able to initiate, accelerate or slow down only one reaction.
Digestion is based on the work of digestive enzymes. Their main task is to make the energy absorption process fast and efficient. Enzymes break down food components (proteins, fats and carbohydrates) into substances that can be absorbed. At the same time, the amount of enzymes produced depends on the quantity and quality of food eaten.
Digestion of food begins in the mouth. Food broken up by the teeth is mixed with saliva, which contains the enzyme alpha-amylase. The better we chew food, the easier it is for salivary gland enzymes to convert starch molecules into soluble sugars and facilitate further processing.
After primary processing, food enters the stomach through the esophagus, where the gastric enzymes pepsin and hydrochloric acid begin to work. These substances produce gastric juice, which:
- provides antibacterial protection of the body;
- stimulates the production of pancreatic hormones;
- regulates gastric motility;
- breaks down fats and performs a number of other functions.
In addition to pepsin, which is responsible for breaking down large protein molecules, other enzymes are also produced in the stomach, such as:
- gelatinase - a solvent for collagen, gelatin and other connective tissue proteins;
- lipase - an enzyme that breaks down certain fat molecules into fatty acids and monoglycerides;
- chymosin - starts the digestion process of milk protein.
Bile plays an important role in the digestive process. It contains bile acids that stimulate the production of pancreatic secretions.
The food bolus from the stomach is emptied into the duodenum, where the main process of food digestion takes place. It is provided by more than 20 pancreatic enzymes. Enzymes are found in pancreatic juice, which is produced by the gland in a volume of about two liters per day.
Functions of pancreatic enzymes:
- proteases - breakdown of proteins into amino acids;
- nucleases - affect DNA nucleic acids;
- amylase - breaks down starch into simple sugars;
- lipases - break down fats into higher fatty acids and glycerol.
The entire organism is unbalanced due to the disruption of the function of the production of enzymes by the organs of the digestive system, especially the pancreas. This imbalance leads to nausea, diarrhea, flatulence, and then anemia and malnutrition.
What should be taken with food with a lack of pancreatic enzymes
With pancreatitis, the process of production of digestive enzymes by the pancreas is disrupted, as a result of which a person suffers from discomfort and pain in the stomach. In this case, replacement therapy can be prescribed after a complete examination.
The task of treatment with enzyme preparations is to compensate for their deficiency in the body by reducing the load on the damaged organ. In some cases, such therapy is prescribed for life.
It is important!The action of all enzyme preparations begins 20-30 minutes after eating, so you must drink them strictly before eating in the dose prescribed by your doctor!
Modern pharmacology offers a large number of different enzyme preparations of animal and plant origin. Some of them are aimed at filling the deficiency of only one enzyme, for example, it breaks down lactose or fats. There are also complex remedies prescribed for the deficiency of several enzymes in various organs of the digestive system.
Pancreatic enzymes are obtained from the organs of cows or pigs. The composition of the drugs includes the main pancreatic enzymes - amylase, lipase and trypsin. In addition to pure pancreatin, polyenzymatic preparations may contain bile acids, adsorbents or other enzymes. All drugs are selected strictly individually, taking into account the nature of the course. disease and severity of symptoms.
What is the diet for pancreatitis?
In the process of treating pancreatitis, nutrition plays a lesser role than drugs. The main goal of the prescribed diet is to restore the functions of the pancreas and normalize the production of digestive enzymes.
Foods that are difficult to process increase the load on the inflamed organ. After a feast rich in fatty fried foods, the pancreas begins to intensively produce enzymes for digestion. If the ducts of the gland are narrowed, pancreatic juice produced in an extreme mode collects in the gland, aggravates the development of the disease - the affected pancreas begins to digest itself.
Signs that your gland is overactive include:
- heaviness in the abdomen after eating,
- heartburn,
- don't belch
- attacks of pain in the stomach.
Of course, it is not always easy to follow a strict diet, especially at home. People with severe dietary restrictions are forced to cook for themselves and resist the urge to eat anything fried or spicy.
It is important to understand that a violation of the diet can lead to an attack of acute pancreatitis with all the subsequent consequences: severe pain, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. A single failure can negate all efforts to maintain long-term remission.
Dietary rules number 5: what you can and cannot eat with pancreatitis
The diet for pancreatitis has many restrictions regarding both the allowed foods and the method of their preparation. One of the founders of local dietetics and gastroenterology, Professor I. I. Pevzner, prepared diet table No. 5, especially for people with problems with the pancreas.
But before getting acquainted with the specific provisions of this diet, it is necessary to consider the general principles of nutrition for pancreatitis:
- you need to eat 5 times a day in small portions;
- exclude fried and pickled foods;
- in the acute stage of the disease, food should be crushed or removed;
- animal proteins should prevail in the diet;
- the amount of fat per day should not exceed 50 g;
- sugar is also strictly limited - no more than 30 g per day;
- products that increase flatulence are prohibited - sweet carbonated drinks, any legumes, sweet apples and grapes, sweet cakes and others;
- salt intake is minimized - no more than three to five grams.
It is important!With pancreatitis, you can eat slow carbohydrates, but at the same time you need to control the ratio of nutrients in the dishes. Do not be fooled by the fact that sugar can be replaced with honey, its consumption should also be controlled. First, you will definitely need a calculator. It is necessary to immediately calculate the daily calorie intake and the balance of proteins, fats and carbohydrates based on the body mass index. This information is easy to find on the Internet on sites dedicated to proper nutrition and a healthy lifestyle. There are various mobile apps available for counting calories and nutrients.
All these principles are taken into account in diet number 5, which is available in basic and advanced versions.
The main option is indicated for relapses of chronic pancreatitis and the acute nature of the disease. In the acute phase, the diet is stricter with many restrictions. It is aimed at emptying the pancreas and eliminating the symptoms of acute inflammation. During the first 3 days of the acute phase, the patient is advised to fast so that the pancreas can rest. In addition, carbohydrate foods are allowed in small portions with short breaks for 3-7 days. During these days, the caloric content of the diet should be reduced, and food is consumed only in puree or semi-liquid form.
It is important!A rich broth, especially chicken stock, is believed to help with any digestive problem. Fat-rich broths are strictly contraindicated with pancreatitis, gall bladder diseases and other pathologies of the gastrointestinal tract! An excessive amount of animal fat significantly increases the load on the pancreas and prevents the normalization of the condition.
The diet includes cereals in water and vegetable soups with various cereals, except for millet and corn, boiled or steamed mashed vegetables. From drinks, weak tea, jelly, dried fruit compote are allowed. Bread is allowed only white and slightly dried, you can eat crackers and biscuits like cookies.
On the third day of the carbohydrate diet, protein products are gradually introduced:
- it is desirable to cook lean meat soup, broth from veal, turkey or chicken breast, the meat from the broth should be passed through a meat grinder or chopped in a blender;
- steamed omelette or soft-boiled eggs;
- steam cutlets from lean meat or low-fat fish;
- cottage cheese casseroles and souffle from cottage cheese with a minimum fat content.
Diet number 5 is considered to protect the pancreas as much as possible, which needs complete rest in the acute phase. Allowed and prohibited foods for the basic diet are shown in Table 1.
It is important!Predominance of protein foods in the diet can cause constipation. In this case, you should add more raw vegetables and fruits than the allowed list. With gout, vegetable proteins or sea fish are preferred.
Can chronic pancreatitis be treated?
So far, no drugs have been developed to stop and reverse the processes that occur in the pancreas during chronic inflammation. Therefore, treatment is aimed at slowing down the course of the disease and preventing exacerbations. In the later stages, when there is a significant decrease in pancreatic function, therapy is supplemented with agents to normalize digestion and blood sugar levels. To achieve remission of chronic pancreatitis, proton pump inhibitors, antispasmodics, pain relievers, enzyme preparations are used, their choice depends on the individual and the clinical picture of the disease.
An important area of prevention is the timely treatment of diseases that lead to the development of chronic pancreatitis.
How to eat with chronic pancreatitis?
Adherence to a therapeutic diet is an effective, scientifically proven means of preventing flare-ups. There are several modifications of therapeutic diets for the phase of exacerbation and remission. The diets used are based on the elimination of products that stimulate the secretion of the stomach and pancreas. Rest for the pancreas is very important to reduce inflammatory activity. In the acute phase, a deleted version of the diet is used, and when going into remission, a version without porridge is used.
In chronic pancreatitis, it is important to provide the body with a sufficient amount of protein, the diet includes 110-120 g of protein per day, which slightly exceeds the physiological norm. At the same time, 60% of this amount should be animal proteins. The menu includes dishes made from lean meat, poultry, fish, cottage cheese and egg white. But fats and simple carbohydrates, on the contrary, are limiting.
In chronic pancreatitis, feeding should be regular and fractional - in small portions 5-6 times a day. More about nutrition for pancreatitis