A low residue diet is an eating plan designed to reduce the amount of undigested material that passes through your large intestine, minimizing digestive workload and supporting healing of the gastrointestinal tract. This diet is often recommended for people with digestive conditions or those who are preparing for medical procedures, like a colonoscopy. It limits high-fiber foods and other ingredients that add bulk (or “residue”) to stool, aiming to reduce bowel movements and decrease irritation in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract.
What is a Low Residue Diet?
A low-residue diet - also known as a low-fiber diet - is essentially a change in food consumption that strategically limits or avoids foods that are high in fiber. Fiber is the part of fruits, vegetables, and grains not digested by your body. Dietary fiber includes cellulose, hemicellulose, polysaccharides, pectins, gums, mucilages, and lignins - and the human body cannot fully digest these dietary fibers.
When is a Low Residue Diet Recommended?
A low-fiber diet may be recommended for several conditions or situations. These include:
- Narrowing of the bowel.
- Preparing for a colonoscopy. Follow this diet for 3 days in preparation for your colonoscopy
- Undergoing treatment that damages or irritates your digestive system.
- Managing symptoms of conditions like IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease), Crohn’s disease, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), ulcerative colitis, or other digestive conditions.
Low-fiber diets are usually temporary.
How Does it Work?
The intent behind a low-residue diet is to give the bowels and colon time to rest or become less inflamed. By limiting the intake of fiber, the diet reduces the amount of undigested food (or “residue”) left in the bowel.
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General Guidelines for a Low Residue Diet
- Read food labels: When eating a low-fiber diet, be sure to read food labels, as foods you might not expect can have added fiber. For example, yogurt, ice cream, cereal, and even some drinks may have fiber.
- Prepare foods tenderly: Prepare all foods so that they're tender. Good cooking methods include simmering, poaching, stewing, steaming, and braising.
- Stay hydrated: You may have fewer bowel movements and smaller stools on a low-fiber diet. To avoid constipation, you may need to drink extra fluids. Make sure you have plenty of water.
- Eat small, regular meals: Eat small meals regularly every three to four hours and try to keep your weight stable. A small meal is one that fits in a mug. The size of a side plate is about the right size for a small meal.
- Consider supplementation: Multivitamin and mineral supplementation may be necessary.
Foods to Include and Avoid on a Low Residue Diet
The following is intended as a guide and includes suggestions. They are not tailored to individual needs or intolerances and are based on product nutritional guides by the manufacturers or Australian Food Composition Database (January 2019). Weights and measures of food and reactions may vary in individuals.
Vegetables
- Foods allowed: Tender, well-cooked fresh, canned, and frozen vegetables without seeds such as peeled carrots, green beans, and beets, strained vegetable juice, strained tomato sauce. Cooked vegetables are easier to digest than raw.
- Foods to avoid: All raw vegetables, such as lettuce, onion, celery, cucumber, mushrooms, scallions, etc., vegetables with seeds, and tough, fibrous cooked vegetables such as artichokes, asparagus, broad beans, broccoli and cauliflower, brussel sprouts, celery, corn, cucumber, eggplant, mushrooms, onion peas (green peas), sauerkraut and cabbage spinach, tomatoes, zucchini, summer squash, winter squash.
Milk & Dairy
- Foods allowed: Milk and milk products, cow’s milk, ice cream, yogurt, cheese, cream. Dairy is okay in moderation.
- Foods to avoid: Fruited yogurt, any ice cream or cheese with nuts or seeds, any milk products if you are lactose intolerant.
Meats & Proteins
- Foods allowed: Cooked, tender fish, poultry, beef, lamb, pork, ham, veal, organ meats, eggs, cheese, tofu, tuna fish, smooth peanut butter, and other smooth nut butter. Animal products generally do not have any fiber, so there are no meat restrictions. You should aim to stick to lean, tender meats if possible. Yes, plain canned or cooked tuna is allowed.
- Foods to avoid: Non-tender meats, gristle, hot dogs, salami, cold cuts, meat substitutes made with whole grains, nuts, or seeds, dried beans, peas, lentils, crunchy style peanut butter, and other crunchy nut butters.
Beverages
- Foods allowed: Coffee and tea, carbonated beverages, apple juice, strained juice, bottled water, tomato juice, fruit drinks without pulp, such as fruit punch, Kool-Aid or Hi-C (without red dye), nutritional supplements without added fiber, such as Boost or Ensure. Water, clear juices, broths and certain herbal teas are usually allowed. Drinking liquids when decreasing or increasing fiber in your diet is important for a healthy transition.
- Foods to avoid: Any beverage containing pulp or seeds, such as orange or grapefruit juice, prune juice, nutritional supplements that contain fiber.
Fruits
- Foods allowed: Canned or cooked fruit without skins or seeds (peaches, pears, apricots, apples), applesauce, ripe bananas, jellied cranberry sauce. There are certain fruits you can eat, and others you should aim to avoid - the ones you can eat include bananas, cantaloupe, avocado, etc. Always remove skins, seeds, and fibrous parts from fruits and vegetables.
- Foods to avoid: Raw fruits (bananas are okay), dried fruit, all berries, all melons. Raw fruits with skins (e.g. apples, pears) should be avoided.
Breads, Cereals, and Starches
- Foods allowed: Refined white breads, rolls. You should aim to look for refined or enriched grains like white bread and crackers (plain). Hot and cold cereals that have less than 2 grams of dietary fiber in a single serving. Yes, white rice is low residue.
- Foods to avoid: Cereals are generally higher in fiber.
Fats and Sweets
- Fats: When it comes to dieting, most people associate the term with reducing fats, but this is not always the case.
- Sweets: Similar to fats, one of the first things someone thinks of with the word diet is sugars and sweet, but with low-residue diets, it is all about amount and types. In small amounts, plain chocolate is generally tolerated.
Sample Low Residue Diet Meal Ideas
- White bread wrap with sliced chicken, Dijon mustard, sliced Lebanese cucumber, and a slice of cheese.
- Skin an eggplant and layer spaghetti Bolognese meat with sauce, with lasagne sheets and bake.
Special Considerations
- Diabetes: Low-fiber diets may not be suitable for diabetics. Fiber assists blood glucose levels to remain stable and is at the core of a diabetic diet.
- Individual Variation: The ability to digest food varies from person to person. A healthcare professional may recommend a diet that is more or less limited depending on the reasons it is being used.
- Potential for Nutritional Deficiencies: Because a low-fiber diet limits what you can eat, it can be difficult to meet your nutritional needs. If you must continue eating this diet for a longer time, consult a registered dietitian.
- Constipation: Eating a low-fiber diet will limit your bowel movements. To avoid constipation, you may need to drink extra fluids.
Additional Tips
- Write a food diary: Some foods may make your symptoms worse.
- Address soreness: Talk to a health care professional if you are experiencing any soreness internally or externally. There are gentle washes and creams that can be applied externally if there is redness and stinging.
- Manage watery motions: If your motions are watery you may need to add Psyllium husk or Metamucil to bind the watery flow.
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