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OK

Apples
Apricots
Bananas
Blueberries
Cherries
Cranberries
Grapes
Peaches
Pears

AVOID/LIMIT

All Melons
Grapefruit
Guava
Kiwi Fruit
Lemons
Limes
Nectarines
Oranges
Pineapple
Plums
Strawberries
Tangerines

OK

Herbal Tea
Water

AVOID/LIMIT

Alcoholic
Apple Juice
Anything Caffeinated
Carbonated beverages
Coffee
Lemon Juice
Milk or Milk Products
Regular Tea

OK

All Meats
Carob
Olive Oil
Splenda, Sweet and Low, Fructose
All Vegetables except for tomatoes

AVOID/LIMIT

Aspartame or NutraSweet
All wheat, rye, corn, oats, barley, & derivatives
All Vegetable Fats
Chocolate
Chilies
Ground nuts, spices, and cocoa beans
Gluten containing foods
High Doses of Vitamin B & C
Highly spiced foods
Liquid Sugar
Medications with caffeine (Excedrin, Anacin, some cold medicines)
Onions
Tomatoes or tomato-based foods
Vinegar

Substitutions You Can Make in Your Diet

  • Coffee with acid removed-Kava & Rombauts-two brands found in local grocery stores. Cold brew coffee ok.
  • Herbal tea-provided they don’t contain large amounts of citrus. Weak tea-dunk a tea bag in water four times quickly to color water. Sun-brewed tea.
  • Ovaltine instead of chocolate drinks.
    Fruit juice-Apricot nectar, pear nectar and papaya juice
  • Late harvest dessert wines (low acid content)
  • Fructose, as found in SUPEROSE instead of NutraSweet or Saccharine.
  • Carob for chocolate in a recipe.
  • Orange or lime peel scrapings for flavor. Do not use white part of rind.
  • Pine nuts in place of other types of nuts.
  • Breads made with potato flour, soy flour or rice flour.

Vitamins

Vitamin C only, calcium ascorbate co-buffered with calcium carbonate.  Vitamin E-take in powdered form instead of oil capsules.  B Vitamin-B6 only.

If Bladder symptoms are related to dietary factors, strict adherence to a diet that eliminates the above food products should bring significant relief in 10 days.  The proof is resuming your old dietary habits followed by the return of your symptom complex.  Once you are feeling better, you can begin to add these items back into your diet, one thing at a time.  This way, if something does cause you symptoms, you will be able to identify what it is.  When you do begin to add foods back into your diet, it is crucial that you MAINTAIN A SIGNIFICANT WATER INTAKE.  Water should be the majority of what you drink in a day.

References

You don’t have to live with cystitis:  Larrian Gillespie, MD, Rawson Associates:  New York 2002

CYSTITIS-The complete self-help guide: Angela Kilmartin, Warner Books: New York 1984.

Both of these books have merit in helping further one’s understanding of the complexity of cystitis.  We do not agree with everything that is in these books, but feel they provide a basis for understanding how difficult it is to identify the exact cause of your particular symptom complex.

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