Men's Health Guidelines in Diet for Chronic Enteritis and Constipation

How Should Patients with Chronic Enteritis Eat?

Chronic enteritis mainly includes chronic ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, and chronic enteritis that develops from incompletely cured acute enteritis. Its main symptoms include abdominal distension and pain, loose stools with mucus, sometimes even containing small amounts of pus and blood, and increased bowel movements, 2-3 times or more per day.

Chronic enteritis often recurs, with fluctuating severity. Due to its long course, it leads to significant nutrient loss, causing considerable strain on the patient's body. In severe cases, dehydration and electrolyte imbalance can cause collapse. Untreated chronic enteritis can lead to malnutrition and even nutritional anemia, significantly impacting health. Therefore, patients with chronic enteritis need to not only treat the underlying cause but also carefully manage their diet.

A low-fat, low-fiber diet is recommended. Foods high in fat are not only difficult to digest, but their laxative effect often worsens diarrhea. Therefore, patients should avoid fried, deep-fried, raw, cold, and high-fiber foods. They can choose easily digestible foods such as thin noodles, stewed noodles, wontons, tender leafy vegetables, fish, shrimp, and bean products to allow the intestines to rest.

If chronic enteritis patients experience dehydration, they can drink some lightly salted water, vegetable soup, rice water, fruit juice, or rice porridge to replenish water, salt, and vitamins.

Chronic enteritis patients are often weak and have poor resistance, so they should pay more attention to food hygiene, avoiding raw, cold, hard, and spoiled foods, alcohol, and strong spicy seasonings.

When chronic enteritis patients experience excessive flatulence and bowel sounds, they should reduce their intake of sucrose and gas-producing fermenting foods such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, white radishes, pumpkin, milk, and soybeans.

Apples contain tannins and fruit acids, which have astringent and antidiarrheal effects, making them suitable for patients with chronic enteritis to eat regularly.

Dietary Recommendations for Constipation Patients

Constipation is a common ailment among middle-aged and elderly men, often triggering hemorrhoids. Many middle-aged and elderly men suffer greatly from constipation. Those with hypertension and coronary heart disease are particularly anxious about the inability to defecate regularly and smoothly.

Constipation is divided into acute and chronic constipation. We can only adjust our diet after understanding the causes of chronic constipation, so we will first introduce some causes of constipation for male friends. Here, we mainly discuss chronic constipation.

① Excessively refined food. Dietary fiber gives stool a certain volume, which stimulates the rectum and sends regular signals to the brain to defecate. The brain directs intestinal peristalsis, propelling stool to the rectum in a shorter time. Excessively refined food results in stool remaining in the intestines for a longer time, increasing toxin absorption.

② Insufficient water intake. The colon receives approximately 1500 ml of electrolyte-containing fluid daily, 95% of which is reabsorbed. Insufficient water intake doesn't reduce the colon's reabsorption capacity, leading to dry stools.

③ Unhealthy dietary habits. Eating too little at each meal, or reducing food intake, especially skipping breakfast, easily leads to constipation. Some people are not used to defecating in public, suppressing the urge to defecate, which can also cause constipation.

④ Lack of physical activity. Lack of physical activity easily leads to weight gain, especially abdominal fat accumulation, causing decreased abdominal muscle contraction strength. Combined with reduced intestinal peristalsis, this makes defecation difficult.

Therefore, patients with chronic constipation should pay attention to the following:

A balanced diet, including a mix of meat and vegetables, and refined and unrefined grains, to cultivate a diverse dietary habit.

Adequate water intake, at least 1500 ml daily.

Reduce the intake of spicy foods.

Avoid prolonged standing, sitting, or lying down.

Establish a regular bowel movement habit.