Our ancestors ate lots of fiber and had healthy colons to show for it. But as the American diet began moving toward processed foods, fiber consumption faded, and so did our ability to avoid digestive disorders like diverticulitis.
Diverticula are bulging pouches that develop in the side of the large intestine and are usually associated with aging. They’re mostly found in people over forty. They don’t usually cause issues unless they become inflamed or infected. A condition called diverticulitis caused when undigested food or a hard piece of stool gets trapped in a diverticula allowing bacteria to proliferate and cause an infection. A diet for diverticulitis can help to avoid food entrapment and the resulting infection.
In this excerpt from the book The Green Pharmacy Guide to Healing Foods by James A Duke and Bill Gottlieb, CHC the authors discuss the benefits of diet in preventing diverticulitis although they note that once an attack of diverticulitis occurs you should follow your doctors recommendations to resolve the attack, and then shift to the diet for diverticulitis to prevent a recurrence.
Our ancestors ate lots of fiber and had healthy colons to show for it. But as the American diet began moving toward processed foods in the early 1900s, fiber consumption faded, and so did our ability to avoid digestive disorders like diverticulitis.
Diverticulitis involves little pockets or pouches known as diverticula that form in the wall of the colon. These pouches can become inflamed or infected, and an array of unpleasant symptoms can occur, including chronic lower abdominal pain, cramping, gas, bloating, and alternating bouts of diarrhea and constipation.
Diverticulitis can be a particularly miserable condition, but it’s rare in parts of the world where diets remain rich in fiber, such as Africa and Asia. In the United States, unfortunately, it has become far too common. Today, about 10 percent of Americans over age 40 and about half of people over age 60 have diverticulosis—a precursor of full-blown diverticulitis (“-itis” means inflamed or infected).
So how do those nasty little colon pockets happen? Again, the answer is in the diet. People who most often develop diverticulitis often eat and drink processed, unhealthy foods and beverages and overall have less than healthy lifestyles. These folks tend to eat very little fiber and often experience constipation and difficult bowel movements with hard stools. All the pushing and straining to “go” causes the walls of the colon to become weak and develop diverticula. These pockets then trap food particles that ferment and decay, causing all kinds of gastrointestinal trouble.
The good news: Diverticulitis is quite preventable if you eat right, and high-fiber foods are the secret to keeping your colon healthy. Eating lots of fruits, vegetables, beans, and whole-grain cereal and bread every day is the trick. And drink lots of water, which is important to keep all that great fiber moving on through. Remember: If you’re avoiding constipation, you’re avoiding diverticulitis.
However, if you have a diverticulitis attack, you’ll want to scale back on fiber to give your colon time to heal. Try a low-fiber diet and clear liquids for a few days. Then ease yourself back into fiber by eating 5 to 15 more grams of fiber each day to let your colon slowly readjust.
Apples. An apple a day may keep the diverticular doctor away. Consuming soluble and insoluble fiber (a 10-ounce apple can have six grams of fiber), which keeps the digestive system working well, may prevent both constipation and its sequel, diverticulitis. My good friend James Joseph, PhD, also champions the colorful apple for diverticulosis in his book The Color Code.
Chamomile. It smells like apple, and chamomile (called manzanilla, or “little apple,” in Spanish) may be as helpful as the apple. Super phytotherapists Simon Mills and Kerry Bone, in their book Principles and Practice of Phytotherapy, describe chamomile more for prevention than for cure.
David Hoffman, a British-trained medical herbalist, suggests sipping on chamomile or peppermint tea throughout the day as an anti-inflammatory approach. He regards peppermint as an antacid. You might think that the salicylates (aspirin-like compounds) in chamomile would be contraindicated for diverticulitis, but Hoffmann says it has a specific value in diverticulitis as well as colon trouble in general. Loaded with the COX-2 inhibitor apigenin and several calming compounds, chamomile may also ease the pain of an attack. Its anti-inflammatory action is especially welcome in the digestive system, where the infusion releases soothing oils. His recipe suggests infusing two teaspoons of herb for 5 to 10 minutes in water that has reached a boil and drinking it after meals.
Flaxseed. In their beautifully illustrated book, Natural Geographic Desk Reference to Nature’s Medicine, Steven Foster and Rebecca L. Johnson recommend flax (and I’d add crushed flaxseed) as a safe and gentle laxative for chronic constipation, diverticulitis, and irritable bowel syndrome. Commission E, the expert panel that decides on the safety, effectiveness, and dosage of medicinal herbs for the German government, approves using one to three tablespoons of crushed flaxseed two or three times a day—with lots of water—to treat diverticulitis. Flaxseed is very high in fiber, the key to a healthy colon.
Equally important, it’s a good vegetarian source of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), one of the omega-3 fatty acids.
In The Omega-3 Phenomenon, by Donald O. Rudin, MD, and more recent publications, omega-3’s in proper ratios with omega-6’s can probably help more than 50 ailments, including diverticulitis. Most of us have bad omega-3 to omega-6 ratios, and since it seems clear that omega-3’s can help with inflammation, restoring the balance between the two may help prevent diverticular flare-ups. Other good sources of ALA include chia, chiso, hemp, inca peanut, and walnut seeds.
Hemp seed. Beside me, I have a package of organic shelled hemp seed, rich in omega- 3’s from Nutiva, a California-based company. The label says that three tablespoons (30 grams), the recommended serving, contains 8.1 grams of omega-6’s and 3.3 grams of
omega-3’s. The seeds are tasty with cereals, salads, and soups. I calculate that the shelled seed cost $13 a pound. My fish oil runs closer to $20 per pound, so you do the math. You can order the product online from Nutiva.com.
Peppermint. While so far this plant only has folkloric evidence for its effectiveness in treating diverticulitis, it has approval for dyspepsia from the German Commission E, a German government agency that evaluates the safety and efficacy of medicinal herbs. With more than a dozen anti-inflammatory compounds, painkillers, and sedatives and a half-dozen carminatives, peppermint has good phytochemical rationale. As mentioned earlier, David Hoffman recommends sipping the tea for diverticulitis.
Prunes. Prunes have lots of fiber and are considered the most effective food remedy for constipation, the biggest risk factor for diverticulitis. They also contain a substance called dihydroxyphenyl isatin, which stimulates the contractions in your intestines that you need for regular bowel movements. Prunes contain a natural sugar called sorbitol, which, like fiber, soaks up large amounts of water in your digestive tract to keep things moving.
Thyme. As a rich source of fiber, plus dozens of analgesic, anti-inflammatory, andantispasmodic compounds, thyme seems like a good choice for your antidiverticulitis arsenal. Try using it to season sauces, soups, and salads.
Turmeric. It’s strange to think that spicy Indian food would help with diverticulitis, but it does. Turmeric, the main ingredient in curry, is truly a powerful anti-inflammatory that’s been used as a natural medicine for thousands of years. India’s traditional Ayurvedic doctors used it for all kinds of swelling, and it’s believed to have a number of gastrointestinal benefits, including reducing the swelling of colon pockets in diverticulitis.
Curcumin, the most active ingredient in turmeric, has great medicinal power. Jonny Bowden, PhD, a nutrition and health expert and author of The Most Effective Natural Cures on Earth, praises curcumin for its enormous power as an anti-inflammatory and says it’s a great help for swollen and inflamed diverticula. If you have diverticulitis, I suggest eating more curry loaded with turmeric.
Wheat bran. Wheat bran has long been seen by doctors and nutritionists alike as the safest, cheapest, and most effective way to prevent and treat constipation and therefore diverticulitis. Neil Painter, MD, the British researcher whose groundbreaking 1972 study suggested that diverticular disease might be due to a dietary fiber deficiency, estimated that wheat bran contains five times more fiber than whole-wheat bread does, making it a fiber power food. You can’t go wrong with wheat bran.
When I use it, I sometimes take a slippery elm and peppermint tea, sweetened to a syrup-like consistency, with 15 grams of bran flakes in it. To make the syrup, bring a handful of slippery elm bark and two handfuls of fresh peppermint barely to a boil in just enough water to cover. Take the mixture off the heat and thicken it with honey. Then refrigerate it and use as needed with the wheat bran flakes.
For additional advice on proven natural remedies for common health conditions, purchase The Green Pharmacy from Bottomlineinc.com.
