During a diverticulitis flare-up, avoid raw lettuce and tomatoes (especially skins/seeds); opt for cooked/softened vegetables and smooth tomato puree; but once healed, high-fiber foods like these can help prevent future issues, though seeds in tomatoes are generally considered safe by modern advice. Always follow your doctor's advice, as dietary needs shift from low-fiber during a flare to high-fiber long-term.
Foods to Avoid During Diverticulitis
Raw vegetables: Carrots, celery, tomatoes, bell peppers. Leafy greens: Lettuce, spinach, kale, arugula, and Swiss chard. Beans: Lentils, black, garbanzo, kidney, and pinto beans.
The UCSF noted that it is safe for people living with diverticulitis to eat nuts, popcorn, and seeds, including pumpkin and sesame seeds. Experts also say that it is OK to eat the seeds in tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, strawberries, and raspberries.
Complications can happen as a diverticulum gradually enlarges over time, which increases the risk of food getting stuck in it. You might feel this as a lump in your throat when you swallow, or it might become infected and sore.
But some foods can worsen diverticulitis symptoms, including pain, gas, and bloating. Avoid high-fiber fruits and vegetables, legumes, beans, and whole grains during a diverticulitis flare. You can eat these foods again once your flare-up resolves.
Diverticulitis Recovery Timeline
Recovering from a flare-up of diverticulitis could take as long as two weeks. 1 The first few days of recovering from uncomplicated diverticulitis at home will include following a liquid diet, resting, and using recommended medications for pain relief.
While no specific foods are proven to trigger diverticulitis attacks, a diet rich in high-fiber foods can help maintain digestive health and reduce the risk of complications. High-fiber foods soften waste, decreasing pressure in the digestive tract. Examples include: Fruits.
Diverticulitis. The most common symptom of diverticulitis is belly or abdominal pain. The most common sign that you have it is feeling sore or sensitive on the left side of your lower belly. If infection is the cause, you may have fever, nausea, vomiting, chills, cramping, and constipation.
The pain is sometimes worse when you move. Other symptoms include fever, chills, bloating, and gas. You may also have diarrhea or constipation. Symptoms can last from a few hours to several days, or longer if not treated.
Diverticulitis Diet: What Not to Eat
Tomato puree or tomato sauce is fine, as long as it does not have any added meat, mushrooms or chunks that may disrupt digestion. Watch for pips, the small, hard pieces of the tomato, and stick to smooth sauces.
Grilled Chicken in Coconut Milk with Spices
Foods such as nuts, popcorn hulls, and sunflower, pumpkin, caraway, and sesame seeds should be avoided. The seeds in tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, strawberries, and raspberries, as well as poppy seeds, are generally considered harmless.
It may take two to four days for your diverticulitis symptoms to improve. At this point, you can gradually add fiber back into your diet at a rate of 5 to 15 grams per day. 2 It may take a week or longer until you return to your regular way of eating.
Colovesical fistula is a common complication of diverticulitis. Pneumaturia, fecaluria, urinary tract infections, abdominal pain, and dysuria are commonly reported.
During episodes of diverticulitis, it is helpful to eat a relatively bland diet avoiding irritant foods. These are high fibre foods such as onions, fruit and vegetable skins, seeds and nuts. Therefore, a low fibre diet should be followed temporarily until symptoms subside.
Recurrent attacks of acute diverticulitis carry the risk of gradual scarring and fibrosis with the sequela of forming a stricture. Diverticular disease rarely causes complete obstruction.
As you recover from a diverticulitis flare-up. As you start feeling better, your healthcare professional likely will have you slowly add low-fiber foods. This way of eating can help the digestive tract heal from a flare. You can eat canned or cooked fruits and vegetables without peels, skins or seeds.
Diverticulitis is diagnosed primarily with a CT scan (often with contrast), the most precise tool to see inflammation and complications, along with a doctor's review of your medical history, physical exam (checking for tenderness), and blood tests for infection. Other tests, like colonoscopy (to rule out cancer), ultrasound, or X-rays, might also be used to confirm the diagnosis and check for other issues.
When diverticulitis leads to sepsis, look out for these specific symptoms:
Diverticulitis perforation is a medical emergency with symptoms like sudden, severe abdominal pain (often lower left), high fever, chills, rapid heart rate, nausea, vomiting, and a rigid, tender abdomen, as bowel contents leak into the abdominal cavity (peritonitis). It requires immediate medical attention, with signs of worsening infection like difficulty breathing or confusion signaling sepsis.
Straining to pass stools increases the pressure in the colon or intestines, which may lead to the formation of these pouches. In some cases, one of the pouches can become inflamed and a small tear develops in the lining of the intestine. This can lead to an infection at the site.
Stage I: Diverticulitis with phlegmon or localized pericolic or mesenteric abscess. This means there are inflammatory masses or abscesses in the fat surrounding the colon or the folds of the small intestine. Stage II: Diverticulitis with walled-off pelvic, intra-abdominal, or retroperitoneal abscess.
Treatment may consist of measures including: Taking painkillers to reduce discomfort. These may be over-the-counter pain medicines such as paracetamol or stronger medicines that require a prescription. Taking Buscopan may help with cramping abdominal pain.