Interstitial Cystitis Advice

Vegetable and Salad Recipes

If fruits are the most limited area of the IC diet than vegetables apply make up for the shortcomings of fruit. While one of the most notorious IC foods is a vegetable – tomatoes – most others are easily tolerated. Avoid chillies though; as well some people are bothered by soy-beans, pickles (due to the vinegars and pickling spices), raw onions, and lima beans. Work with frozen veggies if your favs are out of season and have fun. Make dishes with squashes, carrots, peas, broccoli, fennel, corn, mushrooms, bell peppers, and tons of other wonderful vegetables. Potatoes are one of those foods that just about everyone seems to love. Luckily they are bladder friendly, because their range of uses is almost limitless! To mix things up try yams, sweet potatoes or a range of different varieties and colours (did you know there are even blue potatoes). Incorporate potatoes into your soups, salads, frittatas, and even with breakfast. The humble spud is an IC favourite Whether elaborate or simple, try to incorporate lots of vegetables into your diet; they are awesome sources of vitamins, nutrients, and minerals.

Salads used to mean iceberg lettuce and few slivers of carrot or tomato. Nowadays there is a huge range of bladder friendly vegetable and lettuces at your disposal. Try unique lettuces like lamb’s leaf, radicco, butter head, rocket, and diamond gem (they are cute little miniature heads of lettuce that have a pleasant, slightly sweet flavour). Try adding almonds, sunflower and pumpkin seed, flax seed, and even dried blueberries to your salads. Salads doesn’t have to have lettuce, you can make them out of any ingredients you chooses. In the warm months they can be a culinary saving grace. Opt for homemade dressings without vinegar, tomatoes, or citrus but instead fresh herbs and good quality olive oil. When it comes to bladder friendly salads, you’re only limited by your imagination.

Fruit Recipes

Of all the categories of food, it is perhaps fruit where many ICers have to eliminate the highest number of choices. The acidity and other factors in most fruits make them too difficult for IC bladders to tolerate with out a flare in symptoms. Fruits like cranberries, all cirrus, peaches; apricots, (for some ICers) grapes, nectarines, most tropical fruits, and pineapple are probably best to be avoided all together. But there is hope! Try making recipes (or eating them on there own) with blueberries, blackberries, pears, dates, and most melons (except cantaloupe) are widely acceptable with little or no problems for most ICers. As well you may be able to tolerate limited amounts of fruits like apples (Fuji has a good IC record), bananas (watch out though the potassium can be a bladder irritant), currents, coconut, lychees, custard apples and Maraschino cherries.

When it comes to jams, jellies, and preserves the repertoire of bladder friendly jams (and the like) is considerably small for most people, but there are still options available. Try to find jams with as few preservatives as possible, and those that are sweetened with made with grape juice as opposed to (the very common) lemon juice. When making jams and preserves (fruit or veggie) at home always thoroughly wash your produce, select pure sugars, and try to use as little acidity as can you. While you’ll most likely want to avoid those with fruits like citrus, pineapple, most berries, cherries, nectarines, and peaches you can find alternatives. Pears, blueberries, blackberries and apricots are all fruits that many report having good luck with in the jam department

Pickled vegetable, fruits, and other products are best avoided due to the acidity of vinegar, as well as a number of other products used in canning (such as high volumes of pepper corns, cloves and salt). Whether fresh or cooked, baked in a pie, or served over ice cream try to incorporate as much bladder friendly fruit into your diet as possible.

Meat Recipes

Luckily most meat is IC friendly, you’ll want to avoid those that are smoked, preserved, or which contain nitrites (like hotdog wieners and bologna). Buy fresh deli meats (just ask if they have preservatives ahead of time), and meat. If possible try to source out organic or free-range meat, or get your meat from a local butcher who may know a lot more bout the products they are selling than in a supermarket. Most ICers find that they can handle beef, pork (not preserved ham or some sausages though), lamb, veal, and venison.

When it comes to eggs, some ICers have no troubles where as other are bothered by the sulphates in egg yolks, and yet for other it seems to be something in the whites that give them trouble. As with meat, it’s a good idea to find organic or free-range eggs.

Some ICers can tolerate soy protein (often formed into soy “meat” products), but as so is a common bladder irritant you will want to test small quantities to see if you have an adverse reaction. If you can handle soy it is easily interchangeable with meat (especially beef) in a wide array of recipes.

Poultry Recipes

Like with red meats, most poultry products are a-okay with ICers. Avoid those that are preserved or which contain nitrates. Chicken, turkey, duck, goose, and rabbit are all bladder friendly for most people. The range of uses for these products is huge! Try poultry is salads, pastas, rice dishes, barbequed, and in sandwiches. This also is where you’ll find stuffing (dressing) recipes too, unless they are more suited to another category, such as the meat recipe section.

Fish and Seafood Recipes

Fresh fish and seafood can be a great option for ICers. Packed with many nutrients and healthy oils, fish is good change of pace from heavier red meats. While you want to avoid fish that is smoked or preserved, most fish and seafood do not posse a problem; just wash it well when you get it home so as to reduce any chemicals it may have come in contact with. Great choices include salmon, bass, fresh tuna, swordfish, crab, lobster, clams, prawns, some caviars, and squid. Skip the traditional lemon juice and try a sprinkling of fresh herbs or a little organic sea salt instead.

Pasta Recipes

Pasta and noodles, the staple of so many cuisines and the back bone o countless recipes. ICers are fortunate in that we can eat most pasta noodles. If eggs are problem there are tons of brands that do not use them. You may want to look for organic pasta or even try making your own at home to get as few preservatives as possible. When it comes to pasta varieties that are straight from Italy as reputed as the very best. Plus they are often no more costly than their counterparts.

The ingredient that ICers usually cannot tolerate in the pasta world, is tomatoes – their high acidity content can be a bladder-killer. But that still leaves many options available. Cream and veggie based sauce like basil pesto can be great choices. Or simply dress your pasta in a little fine quality olive oil fresh herbs, and a sprinkling of bladder friendly cheese. Asian noodle dishes can sometimes be spicy, or contain bladder irritants, but again you have a bevy of options. Try ingredients like ginger, carrots, peas, chicken broth, bamboo, lean meats, and sesame seeds. However you like you pasta, remember it’s a great source of energy – in fact it’s what many marathon and triathlon runners eat before the big race.

Rice and Grain Recipes

Rice, the lifeblood of so many cuisines – fortunately the IC diet is rich in rice and grains. Soy flour seems to be the biggest trouble in this family, but otherwise most grains are easily tolerated. Some of the most bladder friendly are couscous, corn meal, rice, milo, quinoa, oats, spelt, and buckwheat. Get creative with your grains; try a Moroccan couscous, Italian risotto, Japanese sushi (skip the wasabi), wild rice, or quinoa pilaf. Have fun; grains can literally be a blank canvas upon which to create your meals.

Soup and Stew Recipes

Rich hearty aromas wafting through the air, memories of winters past and mom’s famous chicken noodle any time you were sick. Soups and stews are an integral part of cooking, and luckily ICers are able to work with a plethora of ingredients. Just pass on things like tomatoes and chilli peppers. Create cream and broth based soups and strews with meats, or just veggies. Try to find organic broths, or better yet make your own at home and freeze it for later use.

Breakfast and Brunch Recipes

We all do it sometimes, skipping breakfast that is. But medical research has shown that this can do more harm than good. A healthy breakfast can do wonders for you; the nutrients and energy you obtain in the morning will significantly help to fuel you through out the day. While ICers often need to avoid many fruits (and juices, preserved meats, and for some such as those with IBS too, egg yolks), there are lots of wonderful breakfast ideas available for those with IC.

Try homemade muffins, recipes with pears, blueberries, or blackberries. If eggs are not a concern for you try to incorporate them into your breakfast, perhaps as an omelet with a bladder friendly cheese like mozzarella and green peppers (which are loaded with vitamins).

As many ICers are sensitive to preservatives and artificial foods, it’s wise to avoid the sugar laden, processed cereals and breakfast pastries and switch to something like oatmeal with honey, dried blueberries or if you have a hankering for something sweet, white chocolate chips or carob chips. Just try to make breakfast a part of your daily routine, and keep it as healthy as possible – your bladder will thank-you through out the rest of the day.

Bread, Biscuit and Flat Bread Recipes

Bread is a staple part of many people’s diets; in fact it has been in existence for at least 10,000 years. But what largely separate the breads of then with the breads of now are the high levels of preservatives and artificial ingredients found in many commercial types of bread. While you can find varieties without these ingredients, many who eat for medical diets, opt to make their own bread at home.

As ICers we able to eat a large variety of different breads while still adhering to the guidelines of the IC diet. The ingredients you can use to make your IC-friendly breads include buckwheat, matzo, corn flour and corn meal, millet, oats, potato and rice flours, cassava flour, spelt, amaranth flour, rye and most white and brown flours (try to find unbleached flour, and buy organic if possible). In this section you will find recipes for breads and bread related foods, try to include grains and bred in your diet, despite the fade as of late, medical science shows that we need the carbohydrates and which breads and grains provide.

Biscuits (in the North American sense of the word, in Europe and other parts of the world "biscuit" often means "cookie") can be sweet or savoury; perfect for almost any meal. A batch biscuits can be whipped up in under half an hour and are a tasty alternative to bread.

Cookie Recipes

The scent of cookies baking in the oven is so intoxicating it makes you mouth water just to think about it…With the busy pace of modern day life, it can be hard to squeeze in the time to bake, but cookies are often quick to prepare, and many type of dough can be made ahead of time and either frozen or stored I the fridge. Relatively few varieties of store bought cookies lack bladder irritating ingredients, so you may want to bake your own. Ingredients you could try include white chocolate, carob, almonds, pine nuts, poppy seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds and cashews. As well as most extracts (check your local health food store for organic or dye free types) and seasonings are IC friendly, but remember to sty away from cloves as they are a known bladder irritant.

Dessert Recipes

Many with IC find that it is the sudden lack of dessert choices which they find most difficult to adjust to. A lot of common dessert ingredients simply can not be tolerated by most ICers. Culprits include coffee, chocolate (except white), most dried fruits, certain nuts, a lot of fruits (citrus, peaches, most berries, etc), and artificial preservatives. But all is not lost; working with in the parameters of the IC diet you can still create an almost endless array of desserts to satisfy even the sweetest tooth. Aim for recipes with white chocolate, honey, natural sugars, bladder friendly fruits, pastries, and almonds.

When it comes to frozen treats…I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! That childhood rhyme still rings true for many of us, but commercially prepared frozen treats can often be jam-packed with artificial ingredients and bladder-harmful foods. Instead try making your own frozen treats at home with ingredients like blueberries and blackberries, pears, vanilla, white chocolate, cinnamon, and honey. Even without an ice cream maker it is possible to make ice cream at home, it’s a little time consuming but well worth the sweet reward.

Beverage Recipes

For many ICers they find that their choice of bladder friendly drinks is reduced to water, and perhaps milk (or soymilk if your bladder can tolerate soy products). As products like sodas, coffee, many teas, most fruit and vegetable juices, and alcohol (especially red wine) get scratched off the list. But fear not, there are still many options available.

Try making homemade smoothies or milk shakes, squeeze your own pear or carrot juice (or combine both for a tasty, vitamin rich treat), and ice tea made with caffeine free bladder safe teas. Just as with cold drinks many ICers find their list of warm drinks has shrunken a lot. But there are alternatives to coffees, teas, and hot drinks with alcohol. White hot chocolate, pear juice cider (alcohol free), bladder friendly teas, and even a mug of warm milk can all be wonderful alternatives, especially during the chill of winter.

IC Friendly Recipes for Kids

As most parents know, a lot of children can tend to have finicky tastes, but when your child has IC it can be considerably more difficult to ensure that they get a full balanced diet, and still enjoy what they are eating. While many store bought snacks and fast food joints are off the table, you and your IC child can prepare delicious recipes at home that the whole family will enjoy. Try making macaroni and cheese with Velveeta, chicken wraps with bell pepper slices, blueberries pancakes, white chocolate cookies, salads and soups with bladder safe ingredients, and as many grains, fruits, and vegetable as possible.