Should people with diverticulosis avoid nuts, seeds, and popcorn?
Diverticulosis and Nuts
4.3/5 - (71 votes)
Still, nuts are the best source of fat—but what if you have diverticulosis? Doctors typically tell patients with diverticulosis that they should avoid nuts.
Diverticulosis is a disease caused by inadequate dietary fiber intake. Just as if you don’t get enough vitamin C, you can develop scurvy, if you don’t get enough fiber, you can develop diverticulosis—which are outpouchings from your colon. When we don’t eat enough fiber every day to soften and bulk up our stool, we may have to strain during a bowel movement. And after a lifetime of straining, you can literally blow out these pockets from your colon.
More than half of older Americans have diverticulosis, because people don’t eat enough plant foods—the only place fiber is found. This is what they look like on the inside. This is what they look like on the outside. This should be a smooth round tube. If one of these offshoot blow-out tunnels gets inflamed, it looks more like this, and this. You don’t have to be a doctor to realize that’s not what our colon should look like. And if we keep it up, it can eat right through, and we can blow a hole in our colon and, die—all because we ate too many refined foods and animals, and not enough whole plants.
But, back to the original question, though. Sometimes, on autopsy, you can find nuts, seeds, or pieces of corn or popcorn stuck in those pockets—which led to this theory that they may be what triggered the inflammation. So the conventional wisdom has been to tell elderly folks to stay away from these foods. But at the same time, the lack of plant foods caused the whole problem in the first place—so do we really want to tell people to cut down?
Well, what does the latest research show? Stay away from these foods: fact, or fiction?
According to a landmark new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, not only fiction, but those with diverticulosis eating nuts and popcorn had lower rates of inflammation.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
Still, nuts are the best source of fat—but what if you have diverticulosis? Doctors typically tell patients with diverticulosis that they should avoid nuts.
Diverticulosis is a disease caused by inadequate dietary fiber intake. Just as if you don’t get enough vitamin C, you can develop scurvy, if you don’t get enough fiber, you can develop diverticulosis—which are outpouchings from your colon. When we don’t eat enough fiber every day to soften and bulk up our stool, we may have to strain during a bowel movement. And after a lifetime of straining, you can literally blow out these pockets from your colon.
More than half of older Americans have diverticulosis, because people don’t eat enough plant foods—the only place fiber is found. This is what they look like on the inside. This is what they look like on the outside. This should be a smooth round tube. If one of these offshoot blow-out tunnels gets inflamed, it looks more like this, and this. You don’t have to be a doctor to realize that’s not what our colon should look like. And if we keep it up, it can eat right through, and we can blow a hole in our colon and, die—all because we ate too many refined foods and animals, and not enough whole plants.
But, back to the original question, though. Sometimes, on autopsy, you can find nuts, seeds, or pieces of corn or popcorn stuck in those pockets—which led to this theory that they may be what triggered the inflammation. So the conventional wisdom has been to tell elderly folks to stay away from these foods. But at the same time, the lack of plant foods caused the whole problem in the first place—so do we really want to tell people to cut down?
Well, what does the latest research show? Stay away from these foods: fact, or fiction?
According to a landmark new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, not only fiction, but those with diverticulosis eating nuts and popcorn had lower rates of inflammation.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by veganmontreal.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
Republishing "Diverticulosis and Nuts"
Terms
You may republish this material online or in print under our Creative Commons licence. You must attribute the article to NutritionFacts.org with a link back to our website in your republication.
If any changes are made to the original text or video, you must indicate, reasonably, what has changed about the article or video.
You may not use our material for commercial purposes.
You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that restrict others from doing anything permitted here.
If you have any questions, please Contact Us
Title
Diverticulosis and Nuts
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Content URLDoctor's Note
Check out these videos for more on diverticulosis:
More Than an Apple a Day: Combating Common Diseases
Uprooting the Leading Causes of Death
Say No to Drugs by Saying Yes to More Plants
And check out my other videos on fiber.
For further context, also see my associated blog posts: Bowel Movements: the scoop on poop; Cholesterol Lowering in a Nut Shell; Optimal Phytosterol Dose and Source; and Best Treatment for Constipation.
If you haven't yet, you can subscribe to our free newsletter. With your subscription, you'll also get notifications for just-released blogs and videos. Check out our information page about our translated resources.
Previous Video
Next Video
