Diet for Ulcer Patients

Stomach ulcers are a painful and persistent condition brought on by excess acidity in the stomach. Ulcers are a fairly common medical condition, affecting several million individuals in the United States alone. While ulcers can certainly be treated with medicine, symptoms resulting from an ulcer can also be minimized through adherence to a rigorous dietary plan.

Stomach Ulcers

Ulcers typically occur in the normally protected lining of the stomach. As stomach acid eats away at part of your digestive tract, a small hole forms. This hole can cause symptoms such as burning or chewing in the abdominal area, which can last anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours. The bacteria helicobacter pylori is thought to play a role in the formation of ulcers.

Diet and Ulcers

As consumption of certain foods (and food types) can trigger a flare-up of an existing ulcer, a proper diet for ulcer patients will seek to minimize this likelihood, providing the best possible environment for the healing process to begin. While there are usually some individualized triggers that you must discover for yourself, many of the foods affecting ulcers are common irritants, making avoidance prudent in any effective diet.

Dietary Suggestions

As part of a diet to treat ulcers, you should avoid the following food groups: caffeinated beverages, alcohol, spicy foods, fried foods, foods containing tomato and foods containing excess fat. These are the most common trigger foods affecting ulcer patients. Foods to consume include whole grains, non-citrus fruits, eggs, fish, meat and dairy.

Borderline Foods

Certain foods present a problem for some individuals but not for others. Some of these "borderline" troublesome foods include spicy meats like sausage, rice, cabbage, whole dairy products, gravies, pastries and any foods that are flavored strongly, such as with barbecue sauce or peppers.

Customizing Your Diet

The best way to determine which foods affect you specifically is to keep a food journal listing the foods eaten throughout the day along with resulting symptoms. Over time, you should be able to identify associations between symptom flare-ups and specific trigger foods to avoid. So while the aforementioned items can give you a ballpark idea of which foods might affect your ulcer, keeping a food journal can help narrow things down further, resulting in the optimal diet for your particular condition.