Pancreatitis Diet Food List
Download our free Pancreatic Diet Food List to help you shop for healthy foods for your pancreas. Get the free template and example here.
Fact Checked by RJ Gumban.
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What causes Pancreatitis?
The pancreas is an organ located in the abdominal area. It has an exocrine function and an endocrine function. The former helps us digest food by producing digestive enzymes; the latter is insulin production, which regulates our blood glucose levels.
Pancreatitis is the inflammation of the pancreas. Any of the following causes this type of inflammation:
- Bacterial infection of the pancreas
- Gallstones blocking the pancreatic duct
- Having a genetic predisposition for pancreatitis
- Trauma/injury of the abdomen or belly
- Tumors
- Smoking cigarettes
- Drinking alcohol excessively
- High calcium and triglyceride levels in the bloodstream (eating high-fat foods and full-fat dairy can cause this)
- Taking estrogens, steroids, or thiazide diuretics
- Cystic fibrosis (a hereditary condition that affects the lungs, digestive tract, and other organs)
Printable Pancreatitis Diet Food List
Download this Pancreatitis Diet Food List to help you shop for healthy foods for your pancreas.
What is the difference between acute and chronic pancreatitis?
There are two kinds of pancreatitis: acute pancreatitis and chronic pancreatitis.
Acute pancreatitis is the sudden inflammation of the pancreas. Its most common culprits are gallstones and excessive consumption of alcohol. This kind of pancreatitis only lasts briefly, especially if treated immediately. There’s also a chance for the pancreas to return to normal when the inflammation disappears.
On the other hand, chronic pancreatitis is much worse. This one is characterized by the inflammation of the pancreas that happens, disappears, and recurs now and then. Because it recurs, it causes progressive damage to the pancreas, which is irreversible. It can also cause scarring to the pancreas, too. It can also negatively impact its functions, leading to digestive system problems and hindering insulin production.
Pancreatitis symptoms, causes, treatments, and tests
Common acute pancreatitis symptoms include severe dull abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting. Chronic pancreatitis symptoms are the same as acute pancreatitis symptoms, but with the addition of these possible symptoms: back pain, diarrhea, sudden weight loss, having fatty stools, and glucose intolerance.
To diagnose either of these types of pancreatitis, healthcare professionals will conduct a pancreas blood test designed to assess the level of pancreatic enzymes in the bloodstream. They will specifically examine blood amylase and blood lipase levels.
The normal range for blood amylase is 23 to 85 units per liter (U/L), but this will depend on the specific laboratory analyzing it. Sometimes, it can go as high as 140 U/L. The normal range for blood lipase is 0 to 160 U/L. If the measurements are three times higher than the normal ranges, then pancreatitis is likely.
Healthcare professionals will conduct imaging tests like CT scans and MRIs to confirm and diagnose pancreatitis. They might even conduct other blood tests, glucose tests, stool elastase tests, and fecal fat analyses if they suspect the likelihood of chronic pancreatitis.
Treatment for pancreatitis will depend on the cause, but usually, treatment options include the following:
- Hospitalization with treatment, including intravenous fluids, pain relievers, and antibiotics. Those with mild pancreatitis can drink clear fluids and eat low-fat diet foods. For severe cases, a feeding tube might provide nutrients because eating solid food and drinking can strain the pancreas.
- Surgery to remove the gallbladder and gallstones might be done if gallstones are the cause.
- Surgery might also be done to remove damaged parts of the pancreas. In some cases, islet cell transplants are conducted.
- They might have to undergo pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy.
For those with chronic cases, they have to make diet and lifestyle changes to manage their chronic pancreatitis:
- Adopt a low-fat diet
- Eat small meals high in protein
- Stop smoking cigarettes or using tobacco products
- Stop drinking alcohol
- Take medicine for chronic pancreatitis pain
- Take insulin (if they end up getting diabetes)
Those with symptoms of pancreatitis need to get checked and treated immediately because this inflammation can lead to serious complications such as malnutrition, kidney failure, diabetes, the emergence of pseudocysts, breathing problems, and pancreatic cancer.
For those with severe chronic pancreatitis, surgery might be the best bet to address it.
What food should one avoid when adopting a pancreatitis diet?
One of the best ways to manage chronic pancreatitis is to change one’s diet, specifically a low-fat diet. This involves doing away with fatty foods to reduce fat intake.
This entails avoiding high-fat foods, high-sugar foods, and refined carbohydrates. Here are examples of what one needs to avoid eating:
- Dairy products like cream cheese, whole milk, processed cheese, cheese sauce, and ice cream
- High-sugar foods like chocolate, cookies, cinnamon rolls, cakes, pies, pudding, and other pastries
- Snacks like potato chips, nut bars, granola bars, mixed nuts
- Processed meat like hot dogs, sausage, canned fish, bacon, and salami
- Fatty portions of red meat and organ meat
- High protein foods
- Anything with refined carbohydrates, like non-whole wheat pasta and white bread
- Egg yolks
- Fried fish, fried chicken, French fries, and pretty much any fried foods
- Baked goods like donuts, muffins, and croissants
- Fruits like coconuts and avocado
- Fast food and convenience store food
- Anything cooked with olive oil
Whether one has pancreatitis or is at risk of developing pancreatitis, one must avoid foods like the ones mentioned above.
What foods are good for those adopting a pancreatitis diet?
To protect one’s pancreas and manage pancreatitis, one should choose low-fat foods to reduce fat intake significantly. This means that one must choose foods that aren't in the same categories as the ones listed in the previous section, and to be honest, that's a wide variety of food they can't eat.
It would be best to visit a registered dietitian or nutritionist to help create a well-thought-out meal plan that ensures a well-balanced diet to stay healthy.
Examples of certain foods to eat in a pancreatitis diet:
- Brown rice
- Sweet potato
- Beans
- Lentils
- Legumes
- Whole grains (bread, cereal, crackers, tortillas, pasta)
- Tofu and tempeh
- Lean meat
- Fresh herbs
- Egg whites
- Almond milk and soy milk
- Quinoa
- Fat-free sour cream
- Low-fat sweets
Pancreatic Diet Food List Template example
Now that you know the gist of acute pancreatitis chronic pancreatitis, and what foods a person who has or is at risk of either of those conditions must eat, we’d like to acquaint you with our food list template.
This filled-out sample template is for educational and inspirational purposes only. This is a list meant for a fictional person. You or your client should ensure that your list is suitable for you or your client’s needs and pancreatic health. This doesn’t mean you can’t follow what’s on the list, though. Feel free to do so if you believe this is an excellent way to kickstart a pancreatic diet.
This template is printable, so you can fill out the PDF, download it, and print it before going to the grocery store or market. If you want to go paperless, that’s fine, too! You can keep a filled-out copy on your mobile device and view it as you shop.
Download this Pancreatitis Diet Food List example:
What are the benefits of adopting a pancreatic diet?
It can help manage the inflammation.
Adopting a pancreatic diet is effective when it comes to managing pancreatitis. The food choices for pancreatic diets are easily digestible. This means that eating will alleviate stress from the pancreas and reduce pain when stressed and inflamed. And since pancreatic diets do away with specific foods and drinks, it lowers the number of irritants that can stress the pancreas.
It can help with weight management and prevent malnutrition.
One of the symptoms of pancreatitis is weight loss. A person with pancreatitis can lose a significant amount of weight quickly, and they might even lose their appetite! The reason for this is that pancreatitis can negatively impact nutrient absorption. Pancreatic diets can provide essential nutrients through easily digestible food, preventing malnutrition, nutrient malabsorption, and further weight loss. It can even restore a person to a healthier weight!
It can lower the risk of getting diabetes.
As mentioned earlier, the pancreas produces insulin, an important hormone regulating blood glucose levels. Relieving stress on the pancreas can prevent inflammation from further impacting insulin production and control blood glucose. This will lower the risk of hyperglycemia and, by extension, the risk of developing diabetes.
What are the recommended lifestyle changes for patients with pancreatitis?
Besides adopting a low-fat diet and avoiding specific types of food, here are other recommended lifestyle adjustments:
- You must make it a point to drink lots of water to keep themselves hydrated
- You must limit your caffeine intake or avoid drinking coffee (unless it’s decaffeinated) because caffeine can stimulate the pancreas
- Make your meal portions smaller, plus eat frequently in a day to ease digestion
- Quit smoking and drinking alcohol to avoid exacerbating your pancreatitis
Other tips to keep in mind while following pancreatic diets
Consult a dietitian and nutritionist to learn the best foods to add to your diet and learn about nutritional values for specific meal portions so you know how much you need to eat per meal daily. They can even create a personalized food list and eating plan every once in a while to cater to your needs, preferences, and health goals.
Make sure to ask them about the necessary supplements you can take to support your pancreatic diet. Again, it’s essential to ensure you get all the vital nutrients you need, whether or not you have pancreatitis.
Suppose you are confirmed to have diabetes or at least at risk of developing it. In that case, you must learn to monitor your blood glucose levels and ensure your meals don’t boost them to unhealthy and potentially dangerous heights.
How can Carepatron help with diet planning and nutrition-related work?
Thanks for reading this guide! We hope this was an excellent introduction or refresher to pancreatitis and how following a pancreatic diet can aid in managing its effects or lowering the risk. We also hope our food list template example helps you determine what food and drinks you should buy when shopping at a grocery or market.
While we still have you, we’d like to request your time to check more of our platform if you haven’t. We have various nifty features, and we’re confident they’re fantastic and helpful enough to convince you to consider us your number-one clinical documentation, diet planning, nutrition, and general practice software! We won’t go in-depth about them here, but we’d like to highlight one related to this guide and template: our resource library.
Our resource library is one of our most popular features, and it also happens to be one of the features we’re most proud of. It is a treasure trove of clinical resources that cover numerous healthcare fields, topics, and practices, including diet planning and nutrition!
Besides our guide and template for this particular food list we just discussed, we have other guides for different types of diets that you might want to read! We have guides for vegan, plant-based, alkaline, pescetarian, low-cholesterol, and military diets. These guides also have templates.
What’s great about our collection of clinical resources is that they’re all free! This means you can read as many guides as you want and download as many templates as you need! We hope they help you decide the best diet for you or your client and determine what goes into them!
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Commonly asked questions
Pancreatic diets are strict regarding the kind of food and drink a person must eat and how much they should eat and drink daily. This strictness ensures the pancreas can recover from pancreatitis and avoid stressing it out during meals.
Because alcohol can cause more inflammation in the pancreas, which can lead to an array of unwanted complications.
They need to follow it for as long as their dietitian says so. This will depend on the severity of the pancreatitis or how risky a person is of getting it. Once their dietitian clears them, they can switch to another diet, but patients and clients are free to follow a pancreatic diet for the rest of their lives.
