Or How to aggravate those annoying lumps no end ! Or How to feed your friends and loved ones so they’ll possibly never come back ! Or How to get back at people without really trying and still appear to be nice.

Jokes aside, you can find information in a lot of places about the benefits of a hemorrhoids diet and good foods that you should eat. However, a comprehensive listing and explanation of foods to avoid with hemorrhoids is often a bit harder to find. Naturally, if you’re going to cure hemorrhoids and avoid hemorrhoids in the future, knowing what foods to avoid when you or a loved one has hemorrhoids is a very good idea.

The first key to figuring out what foods to avoid with hemorrhoids is to pay attention to what your body is telling you.

If you eat a particular food and your hemorrhoids flare up or you always get constipation or diarrhea, then it’s a sign that that’s one of the foods to avoid with hemorrhoids. If you have no idea what foods cause problems for your hemorrhoids or your gastrointestinal tract, then it’s high time to start paying a lot more attention when you eat. Most adults have bowel movements every day to every three days. You probably should start trying to keep track of yours and what they’re like. This will give you both a better idea of what foods to avoid with hemorrhoids and about your overall gastrointestinal health.

 

Binding Foods To Be Avoided When Hemorrhoids are Present

The first category of foods to avoid with hemorrhoids are those foods that bind up the intestinal tract and cause constipation. Constipation can be caused by a couple of different things. Alcohol and narcotics can have a direct chemical effect on the nerves of the gastrointestinal tract and cause it to move slower, which can cause constipation. However, some of the foods to avoid with hemorrhoids just absorb a lot of water and move very slowly through your large intestine.

Some of these foods to avoid with hemorrhoids that are listed below, are normally good for most humans, but may have a constipating effect on you in particular.

• Dairy products are particular culprits in this regard. Low fat dairy products are often a vital part of many people’s weight loss plan, but an excess of dairy is one of the foods to avoid with hemorrhoids because of the constipation it can cause. Foods with a lot of iron in them also tend to be constipating, so things with lots of iron or that are iron fortified are probably foods to avoid with hemorrhoids.

• High fat foods in general are one of the foods to avoid with hemorrhoids because of their ability to slow down the gastrointestinal tract. A part of this effect is something of an inverse problem. High fat foods tend to be low in fiber, and low fiber is one of the leading causes of constipation. Of course, high fat foods should usually be avoided in general, but because of their capacity to interfere with normal digestion they qualify as one of the biggest categories of food to avoid with hemorrhoids.

• Overly processed foods are yet another category of foods to avoid with hemorrhoids. Refined grain, such has white bread and white pasta, has usually had any nutrient value and dietary fiber sucked right out of it by the bleaching and refining process. This sort of processing creates a large mass of unadulterated starch that just hits your colon like a proverbial freight train. It becomes very gluey and miserable for your large intestine to try and process, which leads to constipation. So, bleached and processed grains are definitely one of the biggest foods to avoid with hemorrhoids. While on the subject of overly processed foods, refined sugar definitely counts as one of the foods to avoid with hemorrhoids. Whether it’s in the form of granulated white sugar or as high fructose corn syrup added to other processed foods, refined sugar is a terrible culprit for causing gastrointestinal upset. That’s not to say that you can’t ever have any sugar ever again, but most people eat far too much of it between the sugar they know about and all the stuff they don’t in processed foods. When it comes to foods to avoid with hemorrhoids, sugar may just about take the cake.

 

Irritating Foods To Avoid With Hemorrhoids

Of course, constipation isn’t the only culprit when it comes to causing hemorrhoids. Diarrhea and anything that irritates the large intestine can cause serious problems too. If a food causes you stomachaches, heartburn, nausea or other gastrointestinal misery, then it’s probably one of the foods to avoid with hemorrhoids. If you really love one of these foods, then you might be able to have it in extreme moderation, but these foods should not comprise a large part of your hemorrhoids diet.

• The first and most obvious set of irritating foods to avoid with hemorrhoids are those that you’ve got even a mild allergy to. Of course, people usually won’t eat things that they’ve got serious allergies to, but foods that you’re mildly allergic to can be tempting. However, considering that you will always have an inflammatory reaction to even mild allergies, these are definitely foods to avoid with hemorrhoids considering that you probably can’t afford an inflammatory response.

• The next set of foods to avoid with hemorrhoids are excessively spicy foods. These can be good in moderation, but in excess they tend to tear up the lining of your stomach and intestines. Again, if they irritate the lining of your stomach or intestines, the inflammation and increased blood pressure can reach all the way to your hemorrhoids. So, no matter how tempting that Mexican or Indian food might be, if you know that it’s going to give your stomach misery, it’s one of the foods to avoid with hemorrhoids.

• Another set of irritating foods to avoid with hemorrhoids is nuts. For some reason, a few people just have digestive systems that don’t handle nuts of any kind very well. Maybe it’s the high protein content, maybe it’s the fat content, or maybe it’s because nuts are one of the foods that most people are likely to have a mild allergy to. Any which way, if you’re trying to eliminate all of the foods to avoid with hemorrhoids, nuts should definitely be on the list.

• The last set of irritating foods to avoid with hemorrhoids is processed meats. This category includes hot dogs, Vienna sausage, cooked ham, salted pork of all kinds, and canned meat. Processed meats are generally very high in fat, high in salt, high in sugar, and have a number of chemicals in them that aren’t particularly good for you. These qualities mean that processed meats can cause all kinds of problems with your digestive system, including diarrhea, constipation, and inflammation. If you can’t live without them, then you might be able to have them as a rare treat once your hemorrhoids are gone, but they definitely qualify on multiple fronts as foods to avoid with hemorrhoids.

 

Dehydrating Foods To Avoid With Hemorrhoids

• The last set of foods to avoid with hemorrhoids are those that pull too much water from the system. These foods don’t work on the water content of the intestinal tract directly like the binding foods do, but rather to pull water out of the system overall. Though they’re classified as foods to avoid with hemorrhoids, in reality many of this classification are common drinks. High levels of salt tend to pull water out of the body, as do caffeine and alcohol. Caffeine can also be called mateine and guaranine when extracted from yerba mate and guarana plants, respectively. So, to eliminate all of the foods to avoid with hemorrhoids, get rid of caffeine, alcohol, and sharply reduce your salt intake if necessary.

 

Foods To Avoid With Hemorrhoids: In Conclusion

Of course, biological systems like the human system aren’t as cut and dried as we would like them to be sometimes. Creating a hemorrhoids diet that includes good hemorrhoids foods and eliminates all of the foods to avoid can sometimes be difficult. In reality, there is a continuum of foods, with some being healthier than others. Of course, you should eliminate entirely the extreme end of the foods that you know is definitely not good for you. For other things, though, use common sense. Fresh vegetables are best, of course, but if you can’t get them then frozen is better than canned, which is better than none at all. Healthy nuts are better than a cake made with lots of fat, lots of sugar, and bleached flour. Try to pick the best possible foods, but do the best with what you have when it comes to avoiding foods that can aggravate hemorrhoids.

When it comes to foods to avoid with hemorrhoids, treat these guidelines as just that, guidelines. Your hemorrhoids won’t come raging back if you have a small slice of cake once a month. If you enjoy any of the foods you should be avoiding, just plan to reintroduce them as rare treats once your hemorrhoids are gone. However, while your hemorrhoids are still present, then you probably want to eliminate as many of the foods as you possibly can. The more efficient you can make your diet and lifestyle, the quicker the hemorrhoids will vanish for good.

 

Got Hemorrhoids? Then avoid these Foods | References:

Banov L, Knoepp LF, Erdman LH, Alia RT (1985). “Management of hemorrhoidal disease”. J S C Med Assoc 81 (7): 398–401.

Lorenzo-Rivero S (August 2009). “Hemorrhoids: diagnosis and current management”. Am Surg 75 (8): 635–42.

“PubChem: mateina”. National Library of Medicine. Generally translated as mateine in articles written in English

“PubChem: guaranine”. National Library of Medicine.

According to N.J. Paonessa, D.O., FACOS, a professor of Surgery, “Conservative / Nonoperative Therapy”, in I. Khubchandani ed et al., Surgical Treatment of Hemorrhoids, Chapt 6, 2nd ed., Springer, 2009.

 

Research and main write by Loni L. Ice, quality control, editing and additional writing by D. S. Urquhart.