Stoma Diet

Stoma diet

        From the moment that you have been diagnosed with a health problem that can be resolved through a stoma surgical procedure, you have to be ready to adjust and modify pretty much every aspect of your previous life style. And every aspect does mean just that: from the way you sleep to the way you eat and dress. Nothing stays the same. The most important and hard to adjust to thing that a stoma patient has to change is their way of eating.

       A stoma diet can be a bit tiresome and even, in some cases, completely lacking in anything that tastes good. However, it does have its purposes. Firstly, the stoma diet helps you live with your stoma apparatus. Keep in mind that your anus and rectum are no longer functional, thus making the elimination of wastes more difficult than ever. The stoma does not work in the exact same way as the anus, it does not have muscles to help the solid excrements leave the body. Thus, the wastes must be slightly more liquid than your normal feces to allow them flowing into the stoma pouch and not being pushed into it.

        The second rather obvious purpose of the stoma diet is the fact that it has to keep you healthy. The healthier, the better. Since, basically, your digestive system has been by - passed quite harshly, your body must be able to keep up with the changes and modify its chemistry very fast. To do that, it has to have from where to get the resources for these modifications. This is where the stoma diet comes into play.

       The interesting fact about the stoma diet is that it is not standard issued. Not every stoma patient will eat the same foods and drink the same beverages. There are some people that cannot, under any circumstances, drink coffee. Others have no problem with the desired brew, but cannot touch butter. Nobody really knows why these particulars exist, but they do. That makes the creation of a stoma diet a very experimental process. Of course, there are some basic things that a patient is warned against, but many find that the warning does not apply to them. One thing that they all have in common is the fact that they have to keep hydrated. To some, it might look like these people must be over - hydrating all the time. In truth, the stoma diet includes large amounts of liquids, usually bottled water. An eighty kilograms adult male should drink about four liters of water, tea or coffee every day. Obviously, the coffee should be served only in the morning and in very limited quantities: not more than a cup. Everything else, though, is game.

       There are foods that tend to loosen your wastes and make them slightly more liquid and foods that just block your digestion for a period of time. From the first category, the following foods can be mentioned without any sort of additional problems: raw vegetables, spicy foods, green leafy vegetables, alcohol, fresh fruits, fried foods and fresh fruit juice. Do not go on believing that if these types of foods loosen your stool, then you must eat them all the time. No, nothing like that. For example, alcohol, though useful, should be avoided at all costs. You never know with what it might interfere. Also, try not to eat too many spicy foods, too often, since they tend to cause excessive bowel movement which leads to pain. On the other hand, vegetables in any shape or form are good for you. Try to eat at least two different types of vegetables every day.

       The second category of foods that block your digestion is smaller than the first one, but much more specific: nuts, raw fruit skin, sweetcorn, coconut (and everything containing coconut), fibrous fruit and vegetables and thick marmalade. All of these are to be consumed as rarely as possible, since they tend to block the stoma.