How to manage Bland Diet

What is a bland diet? It is a diet specially set to treat certain gastrointestinal or stomach problems such as heartburns, ulcers and gas.

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An answer to a question, what is a bland diet, is that it is a simple treatment for people suffering from any one or more gastrointestinal disorders such as chronic gastritis, ulcer, esophagitis and dyspepsia.

Bland diet is a dietary regimen for people suffering from stomach disorders. Hence, it is quite understood that ingredients of a bland diet are soft food items, which are easy to digest with a capacity to keep the acidity to low levels. Questions about diet may be asked to your physicians and he/she can suggest the diet or recommend a dietician to do it.

Diet medical questions may include the queries about the food stuffs to eat and food stuffs to avoid during the time while a person experien ces any gastrointestinal disorders. However, before a dietician could decide the bland diet for a person, he/she needs to seek answers to several medical questions related to the person such as any food allergies or irritations associated with any food items and emotions medical questions of people.

Bland Diet:

The diet prescribed as a bland diet will include food items that are easy to digest and low in fiber and acid contents. Even giving up alcohol and smoking is advised while patient is on bland diet. Also a patient is advised to have 4 to 6 light meals after regular interval to avoid heavy and large meals.

Chewing food properly and eating slowly helps in the digestion of the food. Adequate sleep, avoiding smoking and controlling anxiety are supportive treatments for the standard treatment of the problem.

Allowed Food Items:

• Dairy Products
Milk, cheese, yogurt with low-fats and other dairy products are easily digested and hence, can be included as a part of bland diet. However, there is no restriction on ice-creams and one may consume even ice creams during bland diet, but it should not have any product such as nuts that are not allowed in bland diet.

• Fresh Fruits and Vegetables
Fresh vegetables and fruits are allowed to a bland dieter. However, while carrot, squash, green peas are good to eat in a bland diet, broccoli, onions and green peeper should be avoided as it forms gas. In fruits, oranges, grapefruits, and bananas are allowed.

• Proteins
Protein requirement of the body, while on a bland diet should be met with soy products and meat. Fried chicken and greasy hamburgers are not allowed to be consumed, while grilled and baked chicken is allowed.
Low-fat peanut butter and eggs are also efficient to meet the body’s protein requirement in a bland diet.

• Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are contained in whole grain breads, pasta, oatmeal, corn flakes, white rice and sweet potatoes. All these food items are allowed.

Bland diet is designed for treating certain medical circumstances such as gastrointestinal problems. Hence, to answer what is a bland diet, we can say that this is a diet that aims at improving the digestion with the help of a timed-routine diet and soft to digest food items. Once the problem is controlled patients can return to their normal diet.

A Quick Look at Some of Today’s Most Effective Diets

The idiot-proof diet is all about calorie shifting. That is, in this diet, you shift your food intake throughout the day instead of eating just 3 meals a day. The diet is popular because it’s actually very easy to follow and there are hardly any restrictions when it comes to the types of food you can eat.

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The Idiot-Proof Diet

The idiot-proof diet is all about calorie shifting. That is, in this diet, you shift your food intake throughout the day instead of eating just 3 meals a day. The diet is popular because it’s actually very easy to follow and there are hardly any restrictions when it comes to the types of food you can eat.

The ‘calorie shifting’ model takes place because you eat every two and half hours. The theory is that because your body is consuming calories (energy) constantly throughout the day, it’s always in ‘burning calories’ mode instead of the ‘saving calories’ mode.

When you sign up for the diet, you get access to a diet handbook, an 11-day diet-plan and a diet calculator. You get to pick what foods you like to eat so don’t think that you’ll be tarving in this diet!

NutriSystem

The NutriSystem way of dieting is all about proper meal planning. People love this diet because it takes away the burden of trying to figure out what to eat during their dieting phase. You see, a lot of people actually get confused as to what they can eat when they want to lose weight. That’s not really surprising because there’s so much information out there and for every yay sayer, there is a nay sayer so it’s really tough to know what to eat.

However, with NurtiSystem, they do all the meal planning and portion controlling for you. You just need to sign up to any of their diet programs (e.g., Women’s Program, Men’s Program, Vegetarian Program, etc.) and order a multi-day (usually for 28 days) diet program.

After you choose your diet program, a menu is presented to you and you simply choose what you want to eat. The meals are then delivered to your doorstep at various intervals during your diet program.

The South Beach Diet

The South Beach Diet is popular because the name alone conjures bikini-clad bodies! Add to that the fact that it was founded by a cardiologist, Dr. Arthur Agatston, then you have a sort of ‘doctor recommended, doctor approved’ seal on the diet as well.

At first glance, the South Beach Diet looks a lot like the Atkins Diet in the sense that it restricts carbohydrates during the initial phase of the program (there are 3 phases). The first phase (14 days) encourages ‘normal eating’ in the sense that you can pretty much eat whatever you want but you must NOT eat bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, or baked goods. Fruit is also not allowed. No sugar. No alcohol.

The second phase allows you to SLOWLY introduce these items back into your diet but at lesser levels that you consumed them before of course. The third phase is more about general maintenance.

Weight Watchers

Probably one of the longest running diet programs out there is Weight Watchers. It believes in the overall approach where food, exercise, behavior and support are addressed.

Weight Watchers is known for advocating a point system for foods. Using this system, one calculates the calorie intake of the foods he or she eats. The number of points you can have in a day varies depending on your weight. The beauty of the program is that there are no gut-wrenching food restrictions so you never feel deprived of anything. However, the point system teaches you how to balance your meals so that even if you indulge on one food item, you don’t go overboard and consume too much in a day.

Wu Long Te

The Wu long (also referred to as oolong) family of teas is characterized by a partial oxidation process that is controllable by varying degrees of heat. Wu long tea has the benefits and taste of both Green Tea and the fully oxidized Black Tea. Although a number of countries now produce Wu long tea, China is the largest and best known producer.

Health Benefits of Wulong Tea

Recently, wulongs have become interesting to the West because of current research being done with obesity and weight loss, but wulong teas with heavier oxidation have been famous for hundreds of years for aiding digestion, curing headaches, and cleansing the system from excessive use of smoke and alcohol. Though promising research has been published, the weight loss claims surrounding wulong tea have yet to be substantiated by a large body of western medical research. Beware of unscrupulous merchants trumpeting claims of weight loss to mask poor quality tea. As with all tea, we suggest the health benefits are just icing on the cake, the experience of drinking these teas are what it’s all about.

Still, physiological comforts to drinking wulong can be quite blatant if one takes some tea (especially Dan Cong!) after a heavy meal. Soothing to the stomach, wulong tea is a great counter balance to rich or greasy food.

A famous culinary grease cutter in its own right, Rock Wulong tea also offers nutrients from the mineral rich soil of Wu Yi Shan, which are popularly believed to benefit joint health, to relieve muscle aches and are considerably popular in Japan as an aid to liver health.

On the other end of wulong’s spectrum of processing, the lightly oxidized teas Anxi and Taiwanese wulong is viewed by traditional Chinese medicine as beneficial to the respiratory system.

Oolong Tea Brewing Tips

The better form of Oolong tea is the loose tea form. Tea bags are not as ideal because tea bags only hold dust and tiny pieces from the leaves.

1. Brewing Accessories

A pot or kettlefor boiling water

A tea pot for brewing tea

Tea cups for serving tea

2. Brewing Steps

First pour cold water into the pot or kettle and bring it to a boil. It is not recommended to reboil water because water looses oxygen as it boils. Using reboiled water can affect the taste of the Oolong tea.

While waiting for the water to boil, put 1 to 2 teaspoons of Oolong tea into the tea pot for every 5 to 8 ounces of water depending on personal taste. It is a common practice to rinse the tea leaves with the first brew. Pour some water into the tea pot when the water temperature is right. After a few seconds of rinsing, dump the water out. Pour water in agian and let it sit for 1 minute or until the water turns golden yellow and serve. You can reuse the same tea with new water for 3 or 4 more times or until the tea has lost its flavor. Oolong tea can be served cold as well.