Foods to eat, avoid when battling stomach ulcer

If you’re a stomach ulcer patient reading this article right now, this might be the sign you’ve been waiting for to take better care of your health.

Before we go deeper, let’s take a quick look at what stomach ulcers are. Stomach ulcers are open sores found on the stomach lining which occur when acids from digested food damage the stomach walls.

Stomach ulcers can also be called gastric or peptic ulcers. This disease affects both young and old people as well as males and females.

Stomach ache and discomfort caused by bloating are common symptoms of stomach ulcers.

A good diet for an ulcer patient is one which promotes the healing of the ulcer wounds as well as medication that helps soothe the pain.

To better manage the disease, patients with stomach ulcers are usually placed on a not-so-strict but careful diet. A no-brainer is for patients to avoid foods that trigger their ulcer pains as well as foods containing high amounts of acids.

Unfortunately, some patients with stomach ulcers fail to follow recommended diets or meal plans. And the consequences of this could result in the worsening of their condition over time.

Some of the foods stomach ulcer patients should include in their diets are;

Fruits and Vegetables

I guess a good place to start from is to point out that not all fruits should be included in the diet of an ulcer patient as some contain high amounts of acid. For instance; lemons, limes, plums, grapes, grapefruits, and blueberries.

Fruits like apples and berries contain fiber and antioxidants which are good for the body. On the other hand, vegetables like broccoli, leafy vegetables, and red vegetables are also packed full of antioxidants and vitamins like; Vitamin A, B, and C. infarct, some vegetables are healing agents perfect for an ulcer patient.

Vitamin A-rich vegetables like potatoes are excellent for the diet of ulcer patients. This is because these foods help increase mucus production in your gastrointestinal tract.

If you notice that peppers cause you discomfort, best avoid them as well as products made with them.

Fibre-Rich Foods

Foods like nuts and oats are highly rich in fiber and just as we’ve established in the preceding paragraph, fibers are great for ulcer patients.

Not only are these foods good for your health, but they also help prevent the development as well as bloating of ulcers. Fiber-rich foods sound like action figures combating ulcers right? Well, they are able to do this by lowering the amount of acid in the stomach.

Proteins

It should be noted that the kind of protein which ulcer patients should include in their diets are those rich in low fat. Foods like eggs, fish, peas, are excellent examples of low-fat protein. Fish like; sardine, and salmon very rich in Omega 3 fats are super good foods to also include in your diet.

Omega 3 fatty acids are essential nutrients which the body cannot produce by itself but can be obtained by eating fatty fish like salmon or even by taking Omega 3 supplements.

Herbs

Herbs like ginger and garlic are super rich sources of antioxidants. You may have noticed that antioxidants are a common component in the foods recommended for ulcer patients.

In addition to being antioxidants, some of these herbs are anti-inflammatory which are not only beneficial in healing the ulcer but help prevent more drastic diseases.

Just as there are foods recommended for ulcer patients, some foods should be avoided.

Caffeine and alcohol are common foods that should be avoided. I’ve also spoken to ulcer patients who mentioned that spicy foods are banned from their diets by their medical consultants. While some of these patients swear that milk helps soothe their refluxes temporarily, some others say the opposite.

Below are foods that may make acid reflux worse:

• alcohol
• caffeine
• coffee
• chocolate
• spicy food
• acidic foods, such as citrus and tomatoes