Dietary recommendations
Nutritional scientists recommend maintaining a balanced and healthy diet.
You should have several small meals – instead of one large one – during the day.
These should include:
- Daily consumption of vegetables and fruit
- Meat less than 3 times a week and then as far as possible light meat (e.g. poultry)
- Sea fish at least once (preferably 2 to 3 times) a week
- Only small amounts of saturated fats
- Drink at least 1.5 litres of liquid daily, preferably non-carbonated mineral water. At first, you might find the idea of drinking so much liquid every day unacceptable. But please remember that your body needs a certain fluid intake every day and that people who drink little have concentrated urine which additionally irritates the bladder
There are no generally applicable dietary guidelines for chronic forms of cystitis. However, certain foods can adversely influence the symptoms especially of patients with interstitial cystitis. But: each individual reacts differently to certain foods, which is why only recommendations can be given which you can try for yourself.
Make your diet as high-alkaline and low-acidic as possible!
Low acidic diet means you should consume as little as possible of acid-producing foods and semiluxuries. Try to reduce products containing white sugar or aspartame to a minimum. Special caution is advised with alcohol (especially wine), coffee, strong tea, carbonated drinks, (sliced) cheese, yeast, smoked or pickled products, confectionery, citrus fruits (as well as other fruit such as pineapple, apples, apricots, strawberries, nectarines, peaches, plums, grapes), fruit juices, tomatoes, vinegar and strong spices.
There have been several reports that cranberry juice (300 ml daily) can reduce the frequency of recurrent bladder infection.