04/03/2009 - Articles
Light, Digestible, and Nutritious!
By: The Swiss Association for Nutrition (SAN)
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In this article, the Swiss Association for Nutrition has tackled the selection of foods that are readily digested and yet provide good nutrition and energy.
Foreword
Patients with gastrointestinal diseases can experience abdominal pressure, flatulence, feelings of fullness and nausea after meals. Such complaints can be very distressing and severely affect everyday life. A solution for such disorders is naturally sought in diet. However, strict dieting is for the most part not required; it may carry the risk of unbalanced nutrition which may cause nutritional deficits.
A light, full diet is based on the recommendations for a healthy diet from a nutrition and energy viewpoint. The only difference is that foods are avoided, and preparation methods are changed, if they are demonstrably capable of causing such symptoms. Toleration of foods varies from person to person and depends on numerous factors. This means using one's personal experience in replacing foods and preparation methods that cause problems. The basic rule for the light full diet is: whatever's tolerated is allowed.
Gastrointestinal diseases can't be cured with a light but nutritious diet. It is possible, however, to lessen symptoms by relieving stress on the digestive system.
Practical tips
- Preparation methods that use a lot of fat, such as deep frying, breading, and fatty marinades and sauces are hard to digest. The following methods are recommended: stewing, steaming, grilling, bag broiling, and poaching. Heavily seared and baked foods can cause digestive symptoms.
- Heavily spiced foods may cause digestive problems. Therefore, use spices moderately and increase the proportion of well-tolerated herbs.
- Frozen foods and hot foods may cause digestive problems. It helps to use moderately spicy foods.
- The amount consumed also has an effect on the digestibility of a meal. Smaller amounts are often better tolerated. Eat 5-6 small meals spaced throughout the day - 3 main meals and 2-3 snacks.
- Anger, stress, and excitement can affect your tolerance to food. Eat only when you have peace and quiet and are relaxed. Then you will eat more slowly and chew your food better, which in turn helps with digestion. Remember the saying: Well chewed is half digested!
As we have said, food tolerance varies with the individual. The following list of values, which is based on wide experience, can serve as a guide. However, your own personal experiences with food tolerance and preparation methods are important. You may at times tolerate foods that do not qualify as easily tolerated; you can include these foods in your personal food plan.
| EASILY DIGESTED | HARD TO DIGEST |
| Soups | |
| Lowfat bouillon with added meat, soups thickened with bread, corn, rice, oats, sago, barley. Lightly-creamed vegetable or potato soups |
Fatty soups, soups from bloat-causing vegetables or legumes, bouillon with cheese croutons, corn dumpling soups. |
| Meat/Poultry | |
| Lean meat including veal, beef, pork, skinless poultry, lamb, and wildfowl. Lean and raw ham, dry-cured and smoked meat. |
All types of fat and breaded meat, heavily spiced meat products, fat-smoked pork, bacon, pigs trotters, marrow, peppered wildfowl, mutton, duck, goose, meat baked in dough, or in cheese and eggs. |
| Sausage Products | |
| Mild sausages in small amounts: bologna, veal sausage, bratwurst, Vienna sausage. |
Blood and liver sausage, pork sausage, Terrine, Pastete, meat and sausage products such as mortadella, salami. |
| Offal | |
| Liver, kidney without fat, sweetbreads, tongue, tripe (at most once a month). | |
| Fish/Seafood | |
| Lean fish such as flounder, cod, hake, trout, whitefish, Egli, sole, fresh salmon, ungarnished tuna (in salt water), shellfish. | Eel, herring, mackerel, carp, smoked salmon and trout filet, sardines and tuna in oil, anchovies, breaded or deep-fried fish, prepared fish dishes, calamari. |
| Sauces | |
| Lowfat meat, fish, or vegetable stock. Lowfat white sauces. Mild curry, pepper, herbal sauces. |
Hollandaise, Bernaise, mayonnaise (regular or light), sauce tartare, curry or pepper sauces, vinaigrette sauce. |
| Eggs | |
| Scrambled eggs, French omelet, boiled eggs, beaten egg and milk, 3-minute-eggs, crêpes, fried eggs. | Hard boiled eggs, corn omelet, Russian eggs, devilled eggs. |
| Milk/Milk Products | |
| All types of milk, yogurt, whey, buttermilk, Quark, ricotta, Greyere, mild cheeses such as Emmentaler, Tilsiter, Edamer, Brie, Camembert, Gala, Gervais, Havarti, Petit Suisse, mild melted cheese, cottage cheese. In small amounts coffee cream, half-cream, sauce and sour half-cream. |
Cheeses such as Appenzeller, Pepper, and nut-shredded cheese, Bergkäse, Roquefort, Gorgonzola. Melted cheeses as in fondue, raclette, sliced cheese soufflé. Cheese cake, cheese topping for baking.Whipped cream, full cream, sour cream, fresh cream, sauce cream. |
| Legumes | |
| Tofu, blanched soy sprouts, soy milk, soy yogurt without nuts or dried fruit, soy meal, soy flakes. | Soy beans, raw soy tips, soy granules, fried and hot-spiced soy products. All legumes such as lentils, chickpeas, yellow and green dried peas. Dwarf, black, kidney, and Mungo beans. |
| Vegetables/Salads | |
| Eggplant, artichokes, pale celery, radishes, cauliflower and broccoli crowns, chicory, summer peas, fennel, Cucumbers (peeled and cooked), squash, carrots, small sugar peas, bunch celery, tart kohlrabi, cabbage stems, lettuce, cabbage, turnips, canned corn, white beets, spinach, asparagus, celery spears, tomatoes, zucchini. | Beans, purple cabbage, beer radishes, cauliflower and broccoli stalks, dried beans, large peas, garlic, leeks, horse radish, peppers, all mushrooms, rhubarb, Brussels sprouts, pickled beets, sauerkraut, white cabbage, Savoy cabbage, onions, gherkins, pickled cucumbers, mixed pickles. |
| Leaf Salads/Vegetable Hearts/Sprouts | |
| Cabbage, Nüssli, endive, chopped salad, iceberg salad, red chicory, alfalfa sprouts, blanched soy sprouts. | Water cress, arugula, mustard green hearts, red soy sprouts. |
| Potatoes | |
| Boiled potatoes, potatoes with skins, mashed potatoes, potato purée, Duchess potatoes, oven-baked potatoes, bouillon potatoes, potatoes au gratin (slightly gratineed). | Fried potatoes, potato chips, potato pancakes, German fried potatoes, croquettes, potato salad, heavily gratineed potatoes. |
| Cereals/Grain Products | |
| White rice, whole rice, corn, oats, millet, barley, wheat, buckwheat, white flour products, whole-wheat products. Gnocchi, Spaetzli, tortellini and ravioli with light filling, semolina, cornflakes, wheatmeal, oatmeal. |
Grain dishes prepared with a lot of fat and other unsuitable ingredients e.g. gratins, soufflés, fresh corn porridge. Cornflakes or other flakes mixed with dried fruit, nuts, and seeds. |
| Bread/Baked Goods | |
| In general, baked goods are better tolerated if they are not oven-fresh! | |
| Graham bread, corn bread. Wheat bread twist loaves, French sticks, Weggli, grissini, knäckebröd, biscuits, rice waffles, corn biscuits (natural style). Light yeast and cookie products, cakes without nuts, cookies such as Milanos, sablés, spoon biscuits, petit beurres. Cooking dough in small amounts and well baked. |
Fresh, badly-baked bread. Coarse bread types such as nut, coarse grain, pumpernickel bread, gipfeli, fruit breads (e.g. banana), sourdough. Yeast products with nut and marzipan fillings, very sweet and fat baked goods such as butter and cream pies, puff pastries, cream-filled pastries, Berliners. Pizza, cheese and onion cakes. |
| Sweet Snacks/Desserts | |
| Cremes, puddings, fruit ice creams, preserves, jellies, molasses, honey. Marroni purée in small amounts, lowfat cocoa powder, frappés, shakes, müesli. |
Chocolate in large amounts, marzipan, pralines, nougat, brittle, caramelized sugar, ice cream, sorbets, caramel, sugar substitutes |
| Fruit | |
| Select well ripened fruit only! | Unripe Fruit! |
| Apples, pineapples, apricots, pears, bananas, blackberries, strawberries, fresh figs, grapefruit, raspberries, blueberries, black and white currants, chestnuts, persimmons, kiwi fruit, cherry sauce, lichee, mandarins, mangos, melons, nectarines, papayas, peaches, pomelos, oranges, watermelons. | Dates, dried fruit, dried figs, candied fruit, red currants, cherries, mirabelles, plums, cranberries, greengages, rhubarb, gooseberries, grapes, damsons, glazed chestnuts. |
| Nuts, Kernels, Seeds, Oily Fruits | |
| None | Tree nuts, hazel nuts, coconuts, peanuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, avocados, olives. |
| Fats | |
| No highly heated oils! | |
| Butter, margarine. Superior vegetable oils such as canola, sunflower, thistle, and corn oils such as olive and peanut oils. |
Brown butter, herb butter, fatty and sharp-spiced sauces, pork lard/fat, mayonnaise, light mayonnaise, cold fatty sauces, cocoa fat. |
| Vegetables | |
| Fresh or dried cooking herbs, mild cooking spices (e.g., saffron, mild peppers), mild mustard (in small amounts), vinegar, lemon juice, soy sauce, meat and yeast extracts, tomato puree. | Onions, garlic, leeks, spices such as cayenne pepper, chili pepper, peppercorns, hot peppers, curry. Tabasco, Worcestershire sauce, hot spice mixtures for meat, fish and salad, capers, hot mustard, horse radish. |
| Beverages | |
| Weak café au lait, herb tea, fruit tea, black tea. Mineral water and drinking water with little carbonation, syrup, mild fruit juices, vegetable juices, milk-mix beverages. |
Strong coffee, strong tea, apple juice,highly carbonated mineral water. Sauerkraut juice. |
Nutritional recommendations for a light diet
Many factors affect our nutritional behavior: individual needs and wants, daily moods, social environment, physical activity, current selection of available foods, advertising, etc. In addition, each person has individual food requirements. The following recommendations - in the form of a balanced and varied diet - ensure an adequate supply of energy and nutritional and protective elements, and therefore represent a healthy eating pattern. They are directed at the "average person", that is, an adult with normal physical activity and therefore average energy and nutritional requirements. Exceptions occur with other groups of people (children and adolescents, professional athletes, pregnant women, etc.). Likewise, the listed amounts and portion sizes are averages. They do not have to be followed precisely every day.
Fats and Oils
Daily consumption: 2 teaspoons (10 g) high-quality vegetable oil such as unheated olive oil, canola oil, thistle oil, or sunflower oil, e.g., for salad dressings.
Daily consumption: at most 2 teaspoons (10 g) grease or cooking oil, e.g., peanut oil or olive oil for meal preparation.
Daily consumption: at most 2 teaspoons (10 g) spreadable fat for bread, e.g., butter or margarine.
Sweet Snacks
Use in moderation - many contain hidden fat. At most eat 1 small portion of sweet snacks daily (e.g., 1 bar chocolate).
Meat, Fish, Eggs, Legumes
Weekly consumption: 2-4 meals, one portion of meat (1 portion = 80-120 g, about 3-4 oz). More is unnecessary, less is no problem.
Weekly consumption: at most one meal of cured meats, such as ham or sausage, in place of meat.
Monthly consumption: at most one meal of offal such as liver, kidney, tripe, sweetbreads (1 portion = 80-120 g).
Weekly consumption: 1-2 portions of fish (1 portion = 100-120 g, or 3½ -4 oz).
Weekly consumption: 1-3 eggs, including processed eggs, e.g., in baked goods, soufflés, or cream sauces.
Milk and Milk Products
Daily consumption: 2-3 portions of milk products (1 portion = 0.2 L or 6 oz milk, or 1 cup yogurt, or 30 g [1 oz] hard cheese or 60 g [2 oz] soft cheese).
Cereal Products and Potatoes
Daily consumption: at least 4-5 portions of starchy foods such as bread, potatoes, rice, cereals, or pastas, preferably whole-grain products. The portion size depends on the amount of physical activity performed.
Fruits
Daily consumption: 2-3 portions of fruit, raw if possible (1 portion = 1 apple, 1 banana, 3 plums or a bowl of berries).
Vegetables
Daily consumption: 3-4 portions of vegetables, one of which should be raw, e.g., as a dip vegetable or a mixed salad (1 portion = 100 g [3½ oz] raw or 150-200 g [5-7 oz] cooked vegetables, 50 g [1½ oz] leafy green salad or 100 g [3 oz] mixed salad).
Alcoholic and Nonalcoholic Beverages
Drink at least 1.5 liters (50 oz) of liquid per day, preferably unsweetened nonalcoholic drinks.
Alcohol: Healthy adults should not drink more than 1-2 glasses of wine or beer daily.
A light diet checklist
- Observe the recommendations for healthy nutrition and don't engage in unnecessary strict dieting
- Avoid the foods and types of preparation that have caused problems
- Eat 5-6 small meals in a calm, relaxed environment
- Eat slowly and chew thoroughly
Source
Schweizerische Vereinigung für Ernährung / The Swiss Association for Nutrition (SAN). Merkblätter zur Ernährung, Vol. II. Main Editor: Herr Hansjörg Ryser, Bern.Website at : http://www.sve.org/english/index.html
Links
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Created on: 07/21/2003
Reviewed on: 04/03/2009
Reviewed on: 04/03/2009
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