Low Residue Diet
If you have never heard of a low residue diet, you are not alone. It is not a popular diet and it is typically followed when a certain medical condition or surgery requires it. Low residue diets may be prescribed by your doctor to not only shrink the size of your stools but also the number of times you need to eliminate. Basically, a low residue diet can be referred to as a residue restricted diet or even a low residue fiber diet. Because the bottom line is that you do not want the “bulk” that fiber gives your stools during this diet.

This restrictive residue diet is often prescribed before and after specific surgeries like for gynecological problems. A female’s organs are in the same area as where you eliminate from so if a woman just went through surgery, the effort to eliminate stools can not only be quite painful, but also detrimental to the recovery process. That is why a low residue diet may be prescribed. This principle of a low fiber low residue diet also applies to other medical conditions like diverticulitis, Crohn’s disease, and other bowel problems.

Typically, a residue fiber restricted diet is prescribed for the short term because nutrition is hard to keep up. In other words, you do not get adequate vitamins and minerals on the low residue diet. In fact, sometimes this puts a kink in the high risk residue diet patients who need to follow it for longer than a few days. For instance, some diabetics with other medical problems need a low residue diabetic diet. With the low residue diet and diabetic diet dilemma, your food choices are greatly reduced. However, thanks to nutritional experts and the internet, you can find low residue diet recipes that will best serve your needs. Some of the foods in the low residue diet include non-pulp fruit juices, white rice, refined breads and cereals, eggs, fish, mayonnaise, butter, creamy sauces, broths and honey.

Because animals sometimes have similar problems as humans, there are times when a low residue diet is beneficial to them as well. For instance, there is a science diet that is a low residue dry food for cats. In addition, other pets also benefit from a science diet with low residue dry food. This is often fed to your pets before and after surgeries to reduce the stress of elimination.