A list of potential foods that can irritate your bladder

[daylight]

My wife and I generally follow a mediterranean diet and last night over dinner decided to put together a list of preferred foods to focus on in normal diets; in creating the list, we talked about foods that can lead to bladder irritation, inflammation that we want to consider reducing or eliminating. I mentioned that there are foods we (I) enjoy that whilst knowing their negative effects I still want to include - in lower quantities of course. So, I thought I would share this list and a short intro on why certain items were included.

Cheers

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Foods that are acidic (decrease pH), have diuretic effects, or are high in Arylalkylamines. These types of food are known to irritate or overwhelm the bladder and pelvic floor. This list includes foods known to irritate or cause flare ups in people with incontinence and/or Interstitial Cystitis (IC). Note gluten-based foods are included for those that may have a non-celiac intolerance to gluten which, has been suggested can irritate the bladder.

In addition to determining your sensitivity to the below foods, it is recommended that you drink high amounts of water. This is to reduce the concentration and acidity of urine which, can cause irritation. Secondly, a reduction in water can lead to constipation that puts pressure on the bladder. However, too much water or in large servings can increase frequency and overwhelm the bladder. It is best to stay hydrated consistently through the day.

To test your sensitivity to a food(s), remove one or a group of items from your diet for at least 10 days. Then slowly reintroduce them to verify effects. This list is composed from multiple sources that are known to irritate bladders, cause flare ups, or other issues relating to bladder and pelvic floor health. This is not inclusive nor ordered.

General
Alcohol
Acidic foods and drinks
Coffee (including decaf)
Caffeine
Tea (herbal okay)
Tobacco products
Carbonated drinks
Spicy foods
Sugar (including honey, corn, fructose, sucrose, lactose)
Sugar substitutes (aspartame, saccharine, acesulfame potassium)
Chocolate (all forms)
Sports drinks
Honey
MSG and nitrates
Soy Sauce
Dairy (all forms)
Carbohydrates
Gluten (non-celiac intolerance)
Nuts
Beans (Fava, Lima)
Lentils
Vinegar
Sourdough and rye breads
Brewer’s yeast

Fats and Oils
Omega 6 fatty acids (corn, safflower, sunflower oils)
Hydrogenated (Trans) Fats/Oils (margarine, processed foods, shortening)
Saturated Fats (butter, coconut oil, cheese, red meat)

Fruits and Vegetables
Plums (including prunes)
Nectarines
Cantaloupe
Guava
Cranberries
Strawberries
Peaches
Grapes
Apples and apple juice
Pineapple
Citrus (Grapefruit, Lemons, Oranges, etc.)
Raisins
Tomato-based foods
Onions (raw)
Peppers
Avocados

Meats
Red Meat
Processed Meat (bacon, spam, sausages, etc.)

Vitamin Supplements
B Complex
C
Buffered with aspartame

 

[KitsuneFox]

Is there anything *NOT* on that list ?

Everything except cooked fat-free meat is on there .... I'm not even joking .

 

[MarcusP]

Citric acid can be bad for a lot of people. That comes from fruit. I tend to eat a more carnivorous diet for health reasons, and it is the one diet that doesnt irritate my bladder.

 

[mickdl]

THX for this list. Some of them I didn’t know - I will try it out

 

[ltaluv]

I had a list from my urologist ok my fridge for a long time, but I don't know what I did with it when I took it down. Ill get a new copy at my appointment this week and post it. It had a lot of the items that daylight posted, but it also had a list of foods that we're ok to eat.

When my urologist gave me the list, she told me it was a list of everything I liked to eat that I couldn't anymore. Over time, I've been able to experiment and see what irritates my bladder; citrus is the only thing I've found that will trigger an interstitial cystitis flare, and make of them don't increase my pain even when I'm already flaring so I don't worry about them.

The point of the list is to tell you foods that you should never eat. It's too give you ideas about which things you're eating that might be contributing to bladder pain and urgency. If you found that you could cut out a few items from your diet and go from daily accidents to weekly accidents, would you?

 

[daylight]

Yeah, we were taken back a bit by the number of foods that you have to weight. Again, it is not like you must exclude everything of these foods. It provides someone a place to start understanding how diets affect bladder continence. Mainly, I've try to manage the alcohol, acidic, diuretic, and caffeine.

Also, it a combined list for incontinence, celiac, and Interstitial Cystitis (IC) where overlapping symptoms can exist therefore, something to consider. In thinking about it, IBS should be included and the items in the list should intersect which of the five (incont., etc) that it mostly and possibly applies. This way one can make informed decisions.

 

[mickdl]

I think the trick is to change to basic nutrition. How ever, this can be difficult if you are on a journey and need to eat outside. In general vegetables like fresh cucumber, soybean sprouts, endive, avocado, red radishes, soy nuts and even potatoes are basic and a natural antagonist of the foods that contain or produce problematic acids (a lot of them where mentioned in the list). I learned that at last 75% of the food intake shall be basic to avoid greater problems. How ever it’s exactly like Italuv wrote - you have also to figgure out the no - goes and find alternatives. Just simple changes can have great effects. For instance Coffee. If I drink filtered coffee I can wait for the pain. If I drink _one_ espresso it‘s not that problematic. I can‘t drink orange juice - but I can drink water with lime juice. Fresh Tomatoes are not a problem but ketchup and concentrated tomatoes are problematic. Yeas Products and white bread are also problematic for me - so I skip the toast and the rolls and try to get wholemeal bread.

There is a lot of things that I learned and that helped me all-ready a lot. How ever I’m sure there is room for improvement because its often still a bit like lottery. Even if I’m lucky and have only two or three accidents in a week - this means that I can’t go without protection and for the nighttime I still have no clue how to improve the situation.