10 Foods To Avoid When You Have Diarrhea | Gastrointestinal Disorders slideshows | Body & Health Conditions center

Citrus Fruit

Lots of us start the day with a big glass of orange juice. Or maybe you like to eat half of a grapefruit to get your daily vitamin C. Or maybe you use lots of lemon juice in cooking. The problem with frequent consumption of citrus fruit if you have chronic diarrhea is food intolerance. Some of us have sensitive immune systems that treat some of the proteins that occur in citrus fruit as if they were disease-causing microorganisms trying to invade the body. If you get diarrhea after eating citrus fruit just once, the problem probably is food poisoning, but if you get diarrhea nearly every time you consume citrus, chances are that you need to avoid it altogether.

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Photo courtesy of John Morgan by Flickr : www.flickr.com/photos/aidanmorgan/6753209915/
www.rxlist.com/diarrhea_digestive_problem_food_slideshow_pictures/article.htm

Fried Food

Greasy fried food can cause bloating, gas, and runny stools, particularly if you are on a cholesterol-lowering medication. Why? The liver releases cholesterol in the form of bile salts to dissolve fat digested from food. If the liver doesn't make as much cholesterol, it cannot send as many bile salts in the small intestine, and fat begins to float while it is still traveling through the gut. The result is runny, greasy stools that, if they are formed at all, float to the top of the toilet bowl and are difficult to flush, or a slimy, greasy, smelly stool that is likewise hard to flush away. If this happens to you, cut out fried foods for a while to see if the problem improves.

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Photo courtesy of Steven Depolo by Flickr : www.flickr.com/photos/stevendepolo/6490085003/
Mehal JM, Esposito DH, Holman RC, Tate JE, Sinden LL, Parashar UD. Risk Factors for Diarrhea-Associated Infant Mortality in the United States, 2005-2007. Pediatr Infect Dis J. Mar 9 2012

Beans

Beans are a well-known source of gas that can cause flatulence, or if the flatulence cannot escape the colon, bloating. Gas in the colon can cause frequent trips to the bathroom, diarrhea with or without runny stools. The reason beans cause digestive upset is they contain protective plant chemicals known as lectins. Grazing animals--and humans--eating beans with particularly high lectin content develop digestive upset. This works to the plant's advantage by discouraging the eating of beans so that more beans survive to sprout during the next season. Some lectins in some beans can cause skin irritation, mouth irritation, and even breakdown of red blood cells, but these lectins are only found in raw beans. Soaking dry beans before cooking them removes some of their lectins, but it is important not to cook beans in the same water in which they are soaked, and never to eat raw beans.

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Photo courtesy of Alpha by Flickr : www.flickr.com/photos/avlxyz/502000983/
Alexbaran, MA, et al. How to Avoid Food Poisoning from Undercooked Beans, Wikihow, Accessed 20 August 2013.

Cabbage

What is it about cabbage that in some people causes upset stomach? Cabbage eaten in small amounts seldom causes a problem, although some people can smell the sulfur compounds in cabbage and related vegetables (such as kale, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and cauliflower) and the smell makes them sick to the stomach. Cabbage eaten in large amounts contains a great deal of soluble fiber, and when cabbage is eaten in the form of soup, as it is by people on a cabbage soup diet, the combination of large amounts of soluble fiber and large amounts of water can cause diarrhea. A few people are allergic to cabbage in all its forms, including pickled cabbage (sauerkraut).

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Photo courtesy of Jeanette Irwin by Flickr : www.flickr.com/photos/jeanetteirwin/526540850/
Buckner, D. Cabbage Soup and Diarrhea. Livestrong, 6 September 2011, Accessed 20 August 2013.

Fructose In Drinks And Food

Fructose is the sugar that naturally occurs in fruit and grain. High-fructose corn syrup doesn't create fructose that isn't already there, it just changes the ratio of fructose sugar to glucose sugar so that the resulting product is sweeter. High-fructose sugar is used in processed foods of all kinds. It is also used to sweeten soft drinks in the US and Canada but not in many other parts of the world. Eating fructose or drinking beverages sweetened with fructose in large quantities can cause diarrhea because the sugar draws water into the stool. Watery stool leads to rapid and sometimes uncontrollable bowel movement. If you don't want this problem, limit your consumption of fruit to 1 or 2 pieces per day and your consumption of soft drinks sweetened with any kind of sugar to an occasional treat.

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Photo courtesy of amanda by Flickr : www.flickr.com/photos/pinprick/4456377034/
Hyvonen, L., & Koivistoinen, P (1982). "Fructose in Food Systems." In Birch, G.G. & Parker, K.J. Nutritive Sweeteners. London & New Jersey: Applied Science Publishers. pp. 133–144

Spicy Food

People who have irritable bowel syndrome sometimes simply can't eat spicy food. The reason is that, for them, spicy food causes painful spasms of the muscles lining the lower digestive tract along with gas and diarrhea. If a food contains chili peppers that activate nerves in your nose and eyes enough to make you cry, chances are that it also contains enough of the active chemical capsaicin to cause irritation in the lining of the small intestine and colon. There is almost no chance that eating spicy foods will cause any kind of permanent damage to your digestive tract, but you may have to avoid them if you have frequent or chronic diarrhea.

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Photo courtesy of goodmami by Flickr : www.flickr.com/photos/goodmami/1292597980/
Baker, M. Why Do Some Spicy Foods Cause Diarrhea? Livestrong, 28 June 2011, accessed 20 August 2013.

Dairy Products

Except for people of northern European descent, adults all over the world tend to get diarrhea when they consume dairy products. That is because about 90% of people in the world don't have active genes for digested the lactose sugar in milk products after early childhood. Because lactose doesn't break down, it attracts water into the stool, and the watery stool causes diarrhea. When human enzymes don't digest milk sugar (lactose), sometimes pathogen bacteria do. In the process of feeding on lactose they emit hydrogen gas that can cause flatulence or burping. This gas can also force the watery contents of the intestine to come gushing out in diarrhea.

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Photo courtesy of UGA College of Ag by Flickr : www.flickr.com/photos/ugacommunications/5707458159/
Vesa TH, Marteau P, Korpela R. Lactose intolerance. J Am Coll Nutr. Apr 2000
19(2 Suppl):165S-175S

Peppermint

Peppermint tea is a great way to relieve headache. It is even better for relieving heartburn. It can soothe the muscle spasms induced by an attack of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and it can help fight the overgrowth of yeast and unfriendly bacteria in the lower digestive tract. In some situations, peppermint tea actually relieves diarrhea--when the diarrhea is part of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). If your diarrhea is caused by food poisoning, however, peppermint tea may not be your best bet. The tea not only reduces the growth of the bacteria that cause diarrhea. It can also stop the growth of friendly bacteria that stop diarrhea. Unless you have IBS, save peppermint tea for times you don't have runny stools.

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Photo courtesy of rsaxvc by Flickr : www.flickr.com/photos/40925843@N03/6536287839/
WebMD, Peppermint,. http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-705-PEPPERMINT.aspx?activeIngredientId=705&activeIngredientName=PEPPERMINT, Accessed 20 August 2013.

Artificial Sweeteners

A group of artificial sweetners known as the sugar alcohols add a sweet taste to food that is labeled as zero-calorie, but it turns out that they aren't quite as calorie-free as advertised. Sugar alcohols such as xylitol, erythritol, and maltitol don't break down in the lower digestive tract right away, so they are often labeled as zero-calorie. These artificial sweeteners actually do break down into sugar after about 24 hours, however, and they have two undesirable effects. One is that they actually do eventually release their sugars and can raise blood sugar levels and lead to weight gain. The other is that during the long period it takes them to break down, sugar alcohols absorb water and make the stool runny, increasing the likelihood of diarrhea. These artificial sweeteners with chemical names that end in -ol usually also cause gas.

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Photo courtesy of Kevin Krejci by Flickr : www.flickr.com/photos/kevinkrejci/4125849450/
Arrigoni, E.
Brouns, F.
Amadò, R. (Nov 2005). "Human gut microbiota does not ferment erythritol.." Br J Nutr 94 (5): 643–6

Low-Fiber Foods

Fiber is a well-known cure for constipation. It is also a well-known cure for diarrhea. Fiber swells with water to add body to the stool, keeping it from being quite so runny, slowing down its transit time through the colon. Fiber also serves as food for probiotic bacteria that fight the pathogenic bacteria that cause food poisoning. Conversely, low-fiber foods, contrary to what many might think, make diarrhea worse. Munching on crackers or chips when you have nausea, motion sickness, or (if you happen to be a woman in the first trimester of pregnancy) morning sickness is OK, but when you have diarrhea, eat something with fiber to slow down the passage of food through your intestines. Just don't eat too much.