Interstitial Cystitis Diet: Confident Choices®: October 2019

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

An Interstitial Cystitis Elimination Diet: Eight Ideas for Keeping It Simple

If you are newly diagnosed with interstitial cystitis, or find yourselves in a flare with a painful bladder you can't quite get control of, it is important to stick with the bladder friendly column of the IC Food List, keeping your meals as plain and simple as possible. It is much harder to filter out which food is causing your bladder symptoms to flare if you are eating foods with many ingredients such as casseroles, soups, or stir-fries. Of course, keeping your foods simple is only part of it, and sometimes you are in so much pain or you are so frustrated that you can't think straight.

Trust me; I have been there. I know it takes a lot of energy to plan meals, shop for ingredients, cook the meals, and clean up. You have to consider not only your condition, but the schedules of your family members, and their food preferences. So I have come up with a short list here with some hints for keeping it simple at this stage:

Make IC menu planning a family affair. Consulting with other family members about menu choices can increase their understanding of your condition and the foods you can and cannot have.

Consider including foods that might be triggers for you, but that your family can eat. It was nearly a year before I realized that I had not been buying strawberries for my family just because I couldn’t have them!

Stick to your grocery list. Often people walk through the grocery store waiting for inspiration to strike. A list insures that you have all the ingredients that you need for the week and helps prevent impulse buying, which can be tough on the wallet.

Recycle your weekly meal plans like institutions do. Hospitals, schools, and nursing homes use “cycle menus” to simplify planning. Once you have developed a few weeks of menus that you and your family enjoy, go ahead and reuse them. Save the grocery lists, too.

Do your grocery shopping from your computer. For a small charge, many stores now allow you to send a grocery order to a professional shopper who brings your order directly to your car or even to your house. This can be a great time and energy saver.

Make two batches of a meal and freeze one for later. Everyone has days when they are too busy or too tired to cook. It is nice to have something available that you can quickly reheat.

Involve everyone in mealtime activities. Establish this as a special time to spend with individual family members. Assign days when each person has a chance to help with breakfast or dinner. Have all the ingredients out for people to pack their own lunches. Even small children can help to set the table, measure ingredients, or stir batter.

Simplify cleanup. Use disposable plates and utensils on days when symptoms flare or energy is limited. Line baking dishes with aluminum foil or bake food in foil pockets. Use a slow cooker to bake a one pot, complete meal of meat, potatoes, and vegetables.

For more tricks and tips on how to implement the IC diet, see Customizing the Interstitial Cystitis Diet: A Confident Choices® Book.

PS: Thank you so much to all of you who are making your Amazon purchases though the Confident Choices links. Here are some of the purchases people have made that help support this newsletter and other projects of ours!

Julie Beyer, MA, RDN

Author, Speaker, Patient Advocate

www.ic-diet.com

Need Some Guidance? Want More Recipes?

For step by step guidance for creating your own personal interstitial cystitis meal plan, see: Confident Choices^®: Customizing the Interstitial Cystitis Diet.

For some basic, family-style, IC bladder-friendly recipes, see: Confident Choices^®: A Cookbook for Interstitial Cystitis and Overactive Bladder

For health care workers: Interstitial Cystitis: A Guide for Nutrition Educators

Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Interstitial Cystitis Diet: No Citrus? No Strawberries? No Problem!

One of the most common concerns that I hear from my IC patients is how can they consume a balanced diet with interstitial cystitis and the limited, fruit selection on the IC Food List. The answer is simple! Many other bladder friendly fruits and vegetables are full of the same vitamins and antioxidants that a person might find in orange juice or berries.

In fact, even on an IC Diet, you can get a lot of vitamin C from foods that are not citrus. Check out this list of bladder friendly, high vitamin C options (all vitamin C amounts are for 100 g. servings):

Red bell peppers (nearly 200 mg!)
Parsley (130 mg)
Broccoli (90 mg)
Green bell peppers (80 mg)
Brussels sprouts (80 mg)
Kale (41 mg)
Cauliflower (40 mg)
Raspberries - if tolerated (30 mg)
Spinach (30 mg)
Cabbage, raw (30 mg)
Butternut (winter) squash (21 mg)
Spaghetti squash (20 mg)
Potato (20 mg, but you usually eat more than 100 g of potato)
Zucchini (19 mg)
Yellow (summer) squash (17 mg)
Blueberries (10 mg)
Banana - if tolerated (9 mg)

Some IC patients can also take an alkalized Vitamin C supplement or a sustained release formula which keeps the excess Vitamin C from spilling into the bladder all at once, which is what causes the pain. One way or another, with just a little planning, you should be able to get plenty of C in your diet!