hi, I was given a list of foods that I should avoid after my surgery. One of those was processed meats. Could you please explain why I should avoid them? What would it do to me if I ate some ham for example?
thank you in advance
Jennylou
Hi Jennylou
It took a lot of searching to find a reason why processed meats are included in your list of foods to be avoided.
Processed meat includes products, such as bacon, sausage, ham, salami and paté.
The only explanation that I could find why processed meat should be cut down is that apart from some other medical conditions like raised blood pressure and cholesterol levels is that there likely to be a link to bowel cancer.
If you were to restrict your daily intake of processed meat to 70g, which is the average daily consumption in the UK you should be okay to eat some ham. 70g is probably equivalent to about 2 to 2½ slices, a slice being about ½ the size of a slice of normal bread.
It is advisable when buying processed meat to look at the packaging and as most prepackaged food operate the traffic light system and you should aim to buy foods with green highlighted
In other words eating processed meats in moderation will have no effect on your ileostomy function, but the usual advice I would give is to chew each mouthful of food no less that 30 times before you swallow.
Hope this helps.
Ian
CC
