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How to manage Bland Diet

What is a bland diet? It is a diet specially set to treat certain gastrointestinal or stomach problems such as heartburns, ulcers and gas.

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An answer to a question, what is a bland diet, is that it is a simple treatment for people suffering from any one or more gastrointestinal disorders such as chronic gastritis, ulcer, esophagitis and dyspepsia.

Bland diet is a dietary regimen for people suffering from stomach disorders. Hence, it is quite understood that ingredients of a bland diet are soft food items, which are easy to digest with a capacity to keep the acidity to low levels. Questions about diet may be asked to your physicians and he/she can suggest the diet or recommend a dietician to do it.

Diet medical questions may include the queries about the food stuffs to eat and food stuffs to avoid during the time while a person experien ces any gastrointestinal disorders. However, before a dietician could decide the bland diet for a person, he/she needs to seek answers to several medical questions related to the person such as any food allergies or irritations associated with any food items and emotions medical questions of people.

Bland Diet:

The diet prescribed as a bland diet will include food items that are easy to digest and low in fiber and acid contents. Even giving up alcohol and smoking is advised while patient is on bland diet. Also a patient is advised to have 4 to 6 light meals after regular interval to avoid heavy and large meals.

Chewing food properly and eating slowly helps in the digestion of the food. Adequate sleep, avoiding smoking and controlling anxiety are supportive treatments for the standard treatment of the problem.

Allowed Food Items:

• Dairy Products
Milk, cheese, yogurt with low-fats and other dairy products are easily digested and hence, can be included as a part of bland diet. However, there is no restriction on ice-creams and one may consume even ice creams during bland diet, but it should not have any product such as nuts that are not allowed in bland diet.

• Fresh Fruits and Vegetables
Fresh vegetables and fruits are allowed to a bland dieter. However, while carrot, squash, green peas are good to eat in a bland diet, broccoli, onions and green peeper should be avoided as it forms gas. In fruits, oranges, grapefruits, and bananas are allowed.

• Proteins
Protein requirement of the body, while on a bland diet should be met with soy products and meat. Fried chicken and greasy hamburgers are not allowed to be consumed, while grilled and baked chicken is allowed.
Low-fat peanut butter and eggs are also efficient to meet the body’s protein requirement in a bland diet.

• Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are contained in whole grain breads, pasta, oatmeal, corn flakes, white rice and sweet potatoes. All these food items are allowed.

Bland diet is designed for treating certain medical circumstances such as gastrointestinal problems. Hence, to answer what is a bland diet, we can say that this is a diet that aims at improving the digestion with the help of a timed-routine diet and soft to digest food items. Once the problem is controlled patients can return to their normal diet.

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Some foods make my arthritis worse… is it my imagination?

For centuries, the effects of food on arthritis symptoms have been discussed both in the scientific literature as well as in lay writings. Food allergy has been reported to play a role particularly in RA.

In a study published in 1980, 22 patients with RA consumed a diet that excluded common allergens. Twenty patients (91%) experienced an improvement in symptoms, and 19 found that specific foods repeatedly exacerbated their symptoms. The mean time on the elimination diet before improvement occurred was 10 days, and the longest time was 18 days. The mean number of food sensitivities per patient was 2.5; the most common symptom-provoking foods were grains, milk, nuts, beef, and egg. (Hicklin JA, McEwen LM, Morgan JE. The effect of diet in rheumatoid arthritis. Clin Allergy 1980;10:463.)

In a later study, 53 patients with RA were randomly assigned to consume a diet that excluded common allergens, or their usual diet (control group) for six weeks. After one week, the patients on the exclusion diet began reintroducing one food at a time; any foods producing symptoms were removed from the diet. The hypoallergenic diet group fared significantly better than the control group for each of 13 different parameters of disease activity. The patients in the control group then underwent the same elimination-and-challenge procedure that the diet group had, and experienced similar, though somewhat less impressive, improvements (Darlington LG, Ramsey NW, Mansfield JR. Placebo-controlled, blind study of dietary manipulation therapy in rheumatoid arthritis. Lancet 1986;1:236-238).

Long-term follow-up of 100 patients who underwent dietary therapy in this study revealed that one-third remained well on diet alone, without any medication, for up to 7.5 years after starting treatment (Darlington LG, Ramsey NW. Diets for rheumatoid arthritis. Lancet 1991;338:1209).

While the possibility of placebo effect needs to be considered, the long-term benefit experienced by these patients is noteworthy. Also, while there was some weight loss noted in the treated patients, there was no significant correlation between weight loss and clinical improvement in RA symptoms.

In another double-blind controlled study, 94 patients with RA were randomized to one of two diets for four weeks, followed by a return to their usual diets for another four weeks. One diet (“allergen free”) was free of common allergens, additives and preservatives. The other diet (“low allergen”) was similar to the allergen-free diet, but contained milk allergens and azo dyes. Seventy-eight patients completed the study. The effects of food elimination and re-challenge varied considerably among patients. Nine patients (11.5% of the total; 6 in the allergen-free group, 3 in the low-allergen group) had a favorable response to the elimination diet, followed by marked disease flare during re-challenge. In these patients, subjective improvements were confirmed by improvements in objective parameters of disease activity (Van de Laar MA, van der Korst JK. Food intolerance in rheumatoid arthritis. I. A double blind, controlled trial of the clinical effects of elimination of milk allergens and azo dyes. Ann Rheum Dis 1992;51:298-302). The small number of patients exhibiting changes is an argument against significant benefits associated with a diet manipulation. Nonetheless it appears that there is a subset of patients for whom diet is an important component of their symptom complex.

A smaller study looked at eleven RA patients. Two of the 11 RA patients showed a favorable response to an elimination diet and experienced worsening after eating offending foods. In that study, the elimination diet did not exclude certain common allergens (wheat, corn, egg whites, sugar, and coffee). It could be argued that the response rate would have been higher if the elimination diet had been more restrictive (Panush RS, Carter RL, Katz P, et al. Diet therapy for rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Rheum 1983;26:462-471). Small numbers in this study make comprehensive validation impossible.

These studies seem to imply that avoidance of allergenic foods might benefit a subset of patients with RA, although the proportion of patients responding to dietary change varies a lot from one study to the next. The difference in response rates may be related in part to the patient populations studied. Some authorities feel that younger patients (under the age of 40) with less aggressive RA respond best to avoidance of allergens. Older patients and those with relatively severe RA may not respond to dietary manipulation as well. The divergent results in published studies may also be explained in part by strictness of dietary restriction and/or compliance. Finally, RA is a spectrum of diseases; not all therapies work for all patients. This divergence of effect has been noted even with biologic therapies.

The possibility of food allergies accounting for RA symptoms makes the use of food allergy testing a viable weapon in the arsenal of the clinical rheumatologist. In our clinic we use food allergy testing in patients where symptoms don’t seem to respond to conventional therapies.

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5 Diet Plan Saving Tips !

Guilty and frustrated from cheating on your diet plan? These diet plan saving tips will keep you on track!

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It’s nine thirty at night and you have followed your new diet plan perfectly to a tee all day. A pizza advertisement comes on the commercial break of your favorite show and you notice it is close to your next mealtime.
Up to the kitchen you go to eat your next meal. When in the fridge pulling out your nicelyprepared diet plan meal, you notice some left over Fettuccini Alfredo your wife or roommate brought home. Sure looks good you think as you catch a little bit of saliva about to drip on your shirt!

“Just a little taste won’t hurt my diet plan,” you justify…

“ I’ve stuck to my diet plan all day……”

A little taste and before you know it you tell yourself the extra carbs and calories will be a good boost to your workout tomorrow!

An hour later your gut is stretching and Indigestion plagues you from cheating on your diet plan!!

“I should have stuck to my diet plan!” is going through your head as you lay down to have nightmares of a fat ass! “Tomorrow I’ll stick to my diet plan “, you chant in your head!But you fall from your diet plan only a day or two later!

The occasional stray from your diet plan can really add up!And billboards,tv’s, radios and people are everywhere pushing fast foods and junk to sabotage your diet plan!

Here are five diet plan saving tips to arm yourself against the onslaught of the Cheating War!

Diet Plan Tip #1 – Eat Slowly – Take your time when you sit down to eat.

The chances you will stuff yourself or overeat diminish and you will reach the point of satiety much more quickly if you eat slowly!

The more you are satisfied with what you have eaten the less likely you will continue to think of food. That chocolate Black Forest cake won’t be as tempting either!

Diet Plan Tip #2 – Have Delicious Meals That Fit Your Meal Plan Prepared Ahead Of Time.

Having meals prepared ahead of time makes it convenient to eat according to a plan and on schedule.

You can make it more convenient to stick to your diet plan than it is to eat that bag of candy by having your diet plan meals prepared and available when it is time to eat– and when you gethungry.

Diet Plan Tip #3 – Get Used To Eating For Your Purpose Instead Of For Your Taste Buds.

Satisfying your taste buds when you get the urge to gorge down a Big Mac will never develop a healthy, lean, muscular physique! Keep in mind you are eating to develop a lean, healthy muscular physique every time you open your mouth! The temporary taste satisfaction of a jelly-filled donut will be gone real fast but the empty calories you just devoured can defeat a whole day’s worth of bodybuilding effort!

Diet Plan Tip #4 – Be creative with your cooking to make sticking to your diet enjoyable.

Ideally, with proper preparation and some reciperesearch you can create delicious mouth watering meals that meet your diet plan criteria. Learn to cook. Employ spices from other parts of the world. India and China are twocountries with interesting choices to really spice up your diet plan. When you don’t have to force feed yourself with your nose plugged the chances are much higher you can stick to your diet plan more easily!

Diet Plan Tip #5 – Drink Water.

Drinking water between meals can help to reduce your hunger pains temporarily by giving a sense of fullness. For those of you that sabotage your diet plan munching here and there,keeping a water bottle with you wherever you go can really help.Just sip away when its oral satisfaction rather than hunger driving you.

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