Distinguish between "fasting" and "eating" when having diarrhea

Diarrhea is a very common minor ailment. There are only a few reasons, such as catching a cold, having an upset stomach or something else. If the condition is not serious, just bear with it. If it is slightly serious, you can take a few pills and it will be fine. But no matter whether the diarrhea is mild or severe, we still have to eat. During this period, some things can be eaten and some cannot be eaten. It is better to know these little things.

Be careful about what you eat if you have diarrhea

1. Don’t “fast”, but “eat”

Some people say that you should fast when you have diarrhea to allow your intestines to empty. This statement is too self-deprecating and will lead to dehydration and anemia. When you have diarrhea, the water and food in your stomach are lost without being fully absorbed, so the body needs to immediately replenish the lost water and energy. This is not about "fasting" but "eating".

You can choose water, sugar and other nutritious and easily digestible foods, such as juice, porridge, etc. If you drink sugar water, the sugar content should not be too strong, because high concentrations of sugar will absorb a large amount of water from the blood and aggravate the severity of diarrhea.

2. Drink yogurt instead of milk

Can't drink. Unless you drink milk or yogurt with added lactase.

Chinese people generally lack a type of enzyme called lactase. Even in normal times, it is easy to develop lactose intolerance and cause diarrhea due to drinking milk. If you already have diarrhea, wouldn't drinking milk make it worse?

Yogurt does not contain lactose and can replenish water and nutrition. You can't drink milk when you have diarrhea, but you can drink yogurt.

3. Don’t drink coffee

Not recommended. Although coffee will not directly harm the stomach and intestines, it will indirectly act as an accomplice in causing diarrhea.

The caffeine in coffee is a stimulant that speeds up bowel movements. Under normal circumstances, it helps digestion. However, when you have diarrhea, the intestines' ability to absorb food is already weak. At this time, drinking coffee to "speed up" the stomach and intestines will actually speed up the rate at which food is excreted from the intestines, resulting in more and faster energy loss.

4. You can drink porridge

I can't drink milk or coffee, but porridge is a good choice. However, vegetable porridge is not recommended. The plant fiber in vegetables, like coffee, has the function of accelerating intestinal motility and aiding digestion. Likewise, this normally beneficial effect can backfire when you have diarrhea.

Vegetables like leaves and stems are high in plant fiber and should be avoided. You can choose softer vegetables such as radishes and potatoes. It is best to make them into mashed radishes or mashed potatoes, which is easier to digest.

5. Don’t drink sports drinks

We have heard that when we have diarrhea, the body loses a lot of electrolytes, which can cause electrolyte imbalance. Sports drinks contain rich electrolytes, which sounds like a good solution.

In fact, this is just taken for granted. In fact, doctors and experts do not recommend drinking sports drinks when you have diarrhea. The reason is that commercially available sports drinks contain too much sugar, and high concentrations of sugar will absorb water from the blood and aggravate the symptoms of dehydration.

In fact, sports drinks are not originally intended to cause diarrhea. Their real function is to replenish physiological consumption after exercise and eliminate fatigue. If you have diarrhea, the doctor recommends: You can go to the hospital to buy special electrolyte oral solution.

6. “Sesame paste and sugar” don’t work

The old man said: Sesame paste and white sugar are folk remedies that can cure serious diseases. This means mixing sesame paste and white sugar (some say brown sugar) with a small amount of water and eating it, which is believed to cure diarrhea.

In fact, these ingredients have no therapeutic function. However, this way of eating is in line with the principle of "replenishing water and sugar" and has the effect of auxiliary treatment. Then there is liquid food. Eating less will not increase the burden on the stomach and intestines. In fact, it’s good to eat it as a snack (if you don’t mind getting fat).

Similarly, there is a folk remedy that says dipping old eggs (eggs that have been cooked longer) just out of the pan in mahjong can stop diarrhea. In fact, it is mainly for the sake of comfort, and has no therapeutic effect.

However, it is not advisable to eat too much sesame paste, because the fat content in sesame paste is high, which acts as a "lubricant" in the intestines. Eating too much will aggravate diarrhea.