Soft vegetable diet: tips and weekly menu to do it well

Surely that soft diet sounds like rice, mash and soup to you. And if you follow a vegetable diet, it is possible that when it was recommended to you, you found yourself in the situation of not eating anything but white bread for a few days.

The bland diet is a diet designed for give the digestive system a break, to give him little work and let him recover. It is usually recommended when suffering from an episode of diarrhea or gastroenteritis, in outbreaks of inflammatory intestinal diseases, after surgery… That is why it is a easy-to-digest, low-fiber, low-fat diet.

Let’s see how to configure one bland diet regimen adapted to vegetable diets, so you don’t find yourself in this situation the next time you have to follow a soft diet. And, if it hasn’t happened to you, you’re also interested, since normally there is always a moment in our lives when we need to make a soft diet for any health problemsuch as gastroenteritis. But remember! Always do it with the approval of your doctor or nutritionist.

Plus I’ll give you a weekly menu for soft diet. It will be the professional who takes you who will have to determine how many days it is convenient for you to follow it. In my proposal I offer you three days of strict soft diet and the rest of the week we will go gradually reintroducing removed foods to go back to normal, but allowing the digestive system to finish recovering. In the last few days we will also be introducing recipes that help restore intestinal flora.

Can download the weekly menu for bland diet here.

How to make a soft diet without eating meat or fish

The problem when following a vegetable or preferably vegetable diet is that many times, when they give us information on how to have a soft diet, the guideline to make it compatible with a diet that dispenses with foods of animal origin. But it is interesting have options to be able to follow it and find us well.

We must bear in mind that there is a big difference between bland diet and low residue diet. The latter is used to cleanse the colon, usually for a colonoscopy-style test, and the regimen consists of a diet low in fiber, fat, and lactose.

Foods to Avoid

It is habitual exclude legumes of soft diets and also of low-residue diets. But there are also other foods that must be eliminated.

Whole wheat cereals and breads.Spices and salt.Fresh fruit, except for ripe bananas.Raw vegetables.Whole legumes.Chocolate.Cruciferous vegetables (goodbye to broccoli and cauliflower for a few days!).Pastries , if we take it. Nuts, also in cream.

In a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet, it must be taken into account that not all dairy is recommended.

On a vegan diet, vegan cheeses and meats are also restrictedeither because they are ultra-processed or because of their high fat composition.

Although we will not eliminate fat completely, we will have to minimize oil and fat consumptioneven if they are healthy. Those that we can consume, in very small quantities, will be given by olive oil, rapeseed oil, quality vegetable margarines and avocado.

allowed foods

On a vegan diet these are the foods you can eat to follow a bland diet:

Cereals and refined flourssuch as white bread, conventional pasta or white rice.Crushed cooked legumes, especially the peeled ones. We won’t be able to make a hummus because the tahini is very fatty, but the legume purees are suitable.Cooked or mashed vegetables.He white tofuavoiding smoked and seasoned, grilled.vegetable yogurts natural without sugar, avoiding those of the Greek type, prioritizing that they are low fat.He seitan without spice. Vegetable milks, especially rice milk, for being the most digestive. Soy milk is not recommended. Vegan protein powder. This is an option that can also be taken into account in residue-free diets, which are often complicated when following a vegan diet.Fruit compote or baked.Bananaas long as you are very mature.Vegetables soup.light soups with white rice or pasta.

Other tips for a bland diet

It is not only important to know what can be eaten, but also how we eat it.

We want the stomach and digestive system to work as little as possible, so we must avoid copious meals. It is better to eat a small amount, as many times as necessary, and chew calmly.The food should not be too cold or too hot; always better at room temperature or warm. If we have been prescribed a soft diet, it will be because we have a digestive problem, probably gastroenteritis. In these cases, it is normal to eat much less than usual, but it is equally important to stay hydrated. The filtered juices, the soft broths and the water will help us to do this. In addition, it is important eat consciouslyprioritizing those foods on the list that make us feel better. Although variety is one of the maxims for good health in nutrition, in this case we are looking for the opposite: focus only on foods that bring us calm and well-being.

Purees are your great allies so that these days you can consume vegetables. We cannot add margarine or creams or cheese to obtain a creamier texture. However, yes you can add cooked potato or rice.

Exactly the same as the soups, which are to be made from mild vegetable broths, fat free. Cooking the potato and rice with this broth, so that the starches remain in the soup, is highly recommended and digestive.

Although the bland diet does not imply that all foods are soft, it is true that most tend to be. Do not forget to chew well during the days that you have to follow this guideline. You can eat bread between meals, with a thin layer of avocado or margarine, or with homemade fruit compote, without sugar. Pasta is also a good option to chew, although we have to eat it without sauces or spices.

Weekly menu: 3 days of soft diet + 4 days of recovery

In the weekly menu that I propose on this occasion we do not start on Monday, but the day you should start your soft diet (day 1).

The days 1, 2 and 3 you will be strictly complying with a bland diet adapted to a vegan diet: we will base the proposals for breakfast, lunch and dinner on the foods allowed in a soft diet and we will do without the prohibited foods. During these days we will be giving the digestive system a good rest.

In it fourth daywith the digestive system already more recovered, we would begin to introduce other foods or cooking and some raw vegetables, but little by littleto give the body time to adapt and also see how they feel to you.

Finally, we will add probiotic and prebiotic foods to improve intestinal health taking care of the microbiota.

In the downloadable menu you will find a soft diet guideline for one week, but remember that the soft diet should not be followed without a justified reason and that it should always be reviewed and authorized by a healthcare professional reference.