Potatoes for gastritis

Gastritis is a common disease that many people know about firsthand. The gastric mucosa becomes inflamed in response to irritants - chemicals, infections, high or low temperatures, stress, poor nutrition. By the way, nutrition is one of the most common causes of pathology. Therefore, in order to cure it, the first thing you need to do is adjust your diet: eliminate everything harmful, poorly digestible, low-quality. One of the products that raises questions in terms of dietary nutrition is potatoes. Will it harm a sick stomach? In fact, potatoes are not contraindicated for gastritis. However, there are a number of nuances that you need to know. [ 1 ]

Can you eat potatoes if you have gastritis?

Potatoes are a necessary product for patients with gastritis. The diet during an exacerbation of the disease should be extremely complete and at the same time gentle. Potatoes have a lot of useful properties and are easily absorbed by the gastrointestinal tract. However, it is important to remember that overeating with gastritis is especially harmful. Therefore, it is optimal to eat no more than 200-300 g of potatoes per day.

Patients with gastritis should not eat mashed potatoes and other hot dishes: the food should be warm, and the portion size should be small. The optimal diet is fractional.

In addition, it is necessary to take into account possible contraindications. Thus, potatoes can be harmful if the patient, in addition to gastritis, has diabetes, obesity, calculous cholecystitis. If there are doubts about the possibility of eating potato dishes, then you should definitely consult a doctor who will individually consider a suitable diet and draw up a nutrition plan.

If possible, high-quality home-grown potatoes should be used in the diet. The natural product contains a minimum of undesirable components, or they are absent altogether.

When choosing a product, it is important to pay attention to the appearance of the tubers: they should not be soft, green, sprouted, rotten, darkened. With gastritis, it is allowed to eat mashed potatoes, soups, casseroles. Fried potatoes (French fries), chips, fried zrazy and deruny, which are especially harmful and significantly injure an already damaged stomach, are strictly prohibited.

Potatoes for gastritis with high acidity

Gastritis with high acidity is characterized by the following symptoms:

• heartburn (burning sensation in the chest);
• pain in the stomach area (aching, cramping);
• "sour" belching, burning sensation in the throat;
• white coating on the surface of the tongue.

As a rule, patients with hyperacid gastritis have their diet severely limited, excluding strong and rich broths, mushrooms, raw plant products, fatty meat and lard, salt and marinades, smoked foods, black bread, etc. But potatoes are allowed in most cases, but only boiled, stewed, baked, and also in soups.

Potato decoction is especially useful for gastritis, and can be drunk from the first days of exacerbation. The decoction gently coats the stomach walls, protects the damaged mucous membrane from additional irritation, and promotes scarring of wounds and even ulcers.

The medicinal decoction is prepared as follows. Take 1 kg of potatoes, 4 medium carrots, one onion and a bunch of parsley. Wash the potatoes well without peeling them. Peel and wash the carrots and onions. Pour water over all the vegetables, do not add salt. Boil for 45 minutes. Then cool the resulting vegetable broth until warm, strain and give the patient with gastritis two sips several times a day, before meals.

Benefits

Potatoes contain a large amount of starch, simple and complex carbohydrates, proteins (albumin, globulin, peptone, tuberin), pectin, fiber, organic acids (malic, citric, oxalic, etc.), a lot of potassium (570 mg%), phosphorus (50 mg%), ascorbic acid (about 30 mg / 100 g), vitamin K and B ₁ (0.12 mg%), vitamin B ₂ (0.07 mg%), vitamin B ₅ (0.3 mg%), vitamin B ₆ (0.3 mg%), tocopherol (0.1 mg%), carotene (0.02 mg / 100 g), folic acid (8 mcg / 100 g). The microelement composition is no less rich and is represented by aluminum, boron, vanadium, iron, [ 2 ] iodine and cobalt, lithium and manganese, copper and molybdenum, nickel and rubidium, fluorine and zinc. All parts of the plant contain the glycoalkaloid solanine in varying quantities.

In terms of ascorbic acid content, potatoes are among the top vegetables among all known vegetable crops. For example, 100 g of fresh autumn tubers contain about 30 mg of vitamin C.

If the potato has a yellow cut, then this variety is rich in carotene (provitamin A).

Carbohydrates are represented mainly by glucose (grape sugar), in smaller quantities by sucrose, and in even smaller quantities by fructose. [ 3 ]

Potatoes with their skins contain a lot of potassium, which is necessary for normal electrolyte metabolism and the well-coordinated function of the cardiovascular system. The skin is also rich in enzymes that help digest and assimilate potato starch. [ 4 ]

Contraindications

Doctors say that any product, even a relatively harmless one, has its own contraindications for consumption. Potatoes for gastritis are no exception. Usually, their presence in the diet is limited if it is necessary to reduce the percentage of easily digestible carbohydrates in food - for example, if the patient, in addition to gastritis, suffers from diabetes. However, it is important to understand that potatoes also contain complex carbohydrates with slow absorption, and the proportion of their presence in the product is related to the degree and method of its culinary preparation. For example, full boiling of tubers - in particular, mashed potatoes - has a high glycemic index, which means that blood sugar levels can increase sharply.

In addition to patients with diabetes, potatoes should be consumed with caution if a person has obesity of any degree. With such a diagnosis, the product should not be completely excluded from the diet, but preference should be given to baked potatoes or boiled in the skin.

Experts note that the greatest number of dangerous situations are created by eating too young (small), too old (long-stored, sprouted) and green potatoes. All of these product options may contain large amounts of solanine, a toxic organic compound that can cause severe poisoning. The level of the toxic component increases many times over in tubers stored in the light. A bitter taste and a sore throat after eating the product indicate a high solanine content.

Possible risks

First of all, it is important for patients with gastritis to choose potatoes correctly. It is necessary to pay attention to the appearance of the tubers: they should not have any signs of rot or greenery, they should be evenly colored and firm to the touch. If there is a green spot on the potato, it is better to throw it away. The point is that if stored incorrectly, potatoes accumulate a harmful component - solanine, which is dangerous to health.

Before cooking, you should carefully examine all the tubers, wash them and remove the sprouts. It is not recommended to eat old potatoes for gastritis, as it also accumulates harmful solanine. It is better to cook potato dishes for a sick person by boiling or baking. Steaming and stewing are also allowed. Salt is added in the minimum possible amount, or not at all.

Despite all the benefits of potato juice, broth and other dishes, you should not abuse and overeat. This is extremely harmful for a sick stomach.

Before cooking potatoes for gastritis, you should remember the following recommendations:

• When the first signs of gastritis appear, you should consult your family doctor, gastroenterologist or therapist and ask him about the specifics of your diet.
• You should start drinking potato juice or broth in small amounts, carefully monitoring your body's reaction. If there are no negative effects, you can gradually increase the dose.
• It is not recommended to “lean” on potatoes for people with obesity, carbohydrate metabolism disorders, diabetes, enterocolitis and urolithiasis.
• Prepared potato dishes and tuber broth should be consumed on the same day. Gastritis is a disease that can be aggravated by eating stale products that are stored for several days (even in the refrigerator).
• You cannot cook dishes or squeeze juice from tubers with green sides. Such spots are a sign of accumulation of solanine, a very harmful substance. Solanine can be present in large quantities in "old" potatoes, so it is better not to eat them either.