Indian Diet Chart for Interstitial Cystitis

In India often the role of diet in managing Interstitial Cystitis is not emphasize, however,r diet plays an important role in healing Interstitial Cystitis (IC). It is popularly believed that IC is incurable however with the knowledge of proper diet IC can be managed to a large extent. An IC patient can take a cue from online and offline resources to chalk out a diet plan. The best way is to start an elimination diet by identifying and eliminating the foods that trigger flare-ups.

The common trigger foods are:

Tea

Coffee

Alcohol

Tomato

Citrus Fruits

Chocolates

Sweets and Sugar

Onions

Processed Food

Capsicum

Chillies

Spicy Food

Sauces

Pickles

My Diet Plan

Here I am sharing the diet plan that I followed to heal IC. First I eliminated all the above mentioned foods from my diet. If you have severe IC it is best to avoid gluten and diary in addition. In the first month,h I had mainly boiled/steamed/raw food. I was having fruits like banana, pears and apple. In the first month,h my breakfast used to be idli or dosa with curd. I avoided the chutney and sambhar. My mid morning snack used to be cucumber or carrots. In the afternoon I used to have boiled rice with boiled vegetables and curd. In the evening I usually had an apple and carrot smoothie. Dinner used to be rice and boiled vegetables. After diligently following this diet for a month my pain and frequency reduced considerably. Slowly I started including foods to my diet however till now I do not eat many things. I try to stick to an alkaline diet.  I avoid eating outside and mostly stick to home cooked non spicy foods.

IC Food Chart

Foods	Friendly Foods	Foods to Avoid
Vegetables	Potatoes, beans, carrots, cauliflower, cabbage, peas, radish	Raw onion, chillies, capsicum, bell papers, tomatoes
Fruits	Banana, melons, pears, apples	Grapes, lime, lemons, oranges, pineapple, cranberry, strawberry
Dairy	Skimmed milk, curd, paneer, natural vanilla ice cream	Flavoured yogurt, ice cream, processed cheese
Grains	Rice, millets (bajra, jowar, ragi) oats, lentils	White flour (maida)
Meats/ fish	Chicken, fish	Salaami, sausages, mutton
Nuts/ dryfruits	Almonds, cashew, peanuts, walnuts, raisins	Pistachio
Beverage	Herbal tea, ginger tea	Tea, coffee, alcohol, aerated drinks, fizzy drinks
Spices	Ginger, garlic, coriander, cumin	Red chilli, cardamom, clove

The above-mentioned list will help you plan meals initially. Once you start to feel better you can add foods back to your meals. We all are different and all of us have different trigger foods. So through a process of trial and errors, you will have to find your own trigger foods. It will take some time but eventually, you will find your trigger foods. Follow this chart along with the bladder diary to identify your trigger foods.

Do watch this video for more info.