Soft food diet

Hi Lena 

Your poor boyfriend having so many problems it can't be easy for you, I do hope you are looking after yourself and getting some time to yourself it really is important that when you are caring for someone that you are able to grab some ME time it's not being selfish you need to do it occasionally so that you are able to continue to look after your boyfriend and remain cheerful otherwise you'll become tired and exhausted

Now on to your question 

SOFT FOOD DIET

1st the foods to avoid.

Don’t include the following foods in your soft food diet: 

• chewy foods (toffees, tough meat) 
• crunchy foods (nuts, crisps, muesli) 
• stringy foods (rhubarb, cabbage, celery) 
• dry and crumbly foods (biscuits, samosas, pastry)
• seeds or pips (summer fruits, citrus, pineapple)
• skins or husks (beans, peas, sweetcorn) 
• doughy foods (bread, pizza, bun) 

 Secondly THE SUGGESTIONS 

Here are some suggestions for meals and snacks in a soft food diet:

BREAKFAST IDEAS

• porridge or Ready Brek made with milk 
• Weetabix or Oatibix soaked in milk 
• scrambled egg 
• mashed banana 
• yoghurt or fromage frais 
• stewed fruit with yoghurt 
• Slice of toast

The above could also be nutritious snacks.

MAIN MEAL IDEAS (try to include some protein, carbohydrates and vegetables in every main meal)  

PROTEIN 

MEAT, POULTRY, FISH AND VEGETARIAN ALTERNATIVES 

• minced meats in stews and casseroles 
• minced Quorn or textured vegetable protein 
• tofu or soya mince 
• houmous 
• thin slices of cold meat
• smooth paté 
• well-cooked lentils mashed with a fork and served with a flavoured sauce, like dhal 

FISH 

• boneless fish cooked by steaming, baking, poaching or microwaving, and served with a sauce 
• tinned tuna or salmon with mayonnaise 

EGGS

• scrambled or poached eggs
• plain omelette
• plain soufflé 

Adding extra butter, milk or margarine can help to make eggs softer. 

CHEESE 

• soft or cream cheese 
• plain cottage cheese 
• grated cheese added to mashed potatoes, sauces and soups 

CARBOHYDRATES  

PASTA AND POTATOES 

• well-cooked pasta
• boiled soft noodles or rice 
• mashed potato with butter, margarine, gravy or sauce 
• jacket potato WITHOUT skin 
• mashed sweet potato or yam 
• plantain 
• sweet cassava (type of root vegetable)

FRUIT AND VEGETABLES

FRUIT 

Many fruits are naturally soft but others will need to be softened. Suitable fruits include: 

• ripe bananas, mangos or pears 
• peeled lychees, paw paws, peaches, nectarines or plums 
• tinned fruits in juice or syrup (not pineapple), mashed if necessary 
• stewed fruits, such as apple 

VEGETABLES 

You can cook fresh, frozen or tinned vegetables until soft and mash with a fork if necessary. Suitable vegetables include: 

• carrots, parsnips, swede or butternut squash 
• cauliflower or broccoli florets (no stalks) 
• tinned tomatoes (no skin) 
• creamed okra or bhindi 
• mashed avocado 
• courgettes or aubergines (with tough outer skins removed)

SAUCES 

Sauces can be used to moisten foods as well as add extra calories and protein. You could try adding: • cheese sauce, parsley sauce, white sauce, butter sauce or curry sauce

• gravy
• mayonnaise or salad cream
• natural yoghurt
• soured cream
• custard, or evaporated or condensed milk

DESSERTS AND SNACKS

• milk puddings, such as semolina, tapioca, rice pudding or custard 
• soft sponge puddings with added cream or custard to make puddings moist 
• blancmange or crème caramel 
• smooth yoghurt or fromage frais 
• mousse or whips 
• trifles (without hard fruit pieces) 
• fresh or tinned fruit (see fruit and vegetable section) 
• tiramisu 
• jelly
• ice-cream or sorbet 
• homemade or shop-bought milkshakes

PROTEIN 

• plain soufflé 

Lena, as usual the points to remember

• Small portions
• Serve on small plate or saucer
• Eat often (breakfast, midmorning, lunch, mid afternoon, tea/dinner and supper = 3 main meals and 3 snacks per day. But if hungry doing this have something from Desserts and Snacks section above in between meals/snacks
• If had enough stop eating
• Keep a food diary

And the good news you both can eat the same things at meal times.

Hope this helps, perhaps you could let me know how you both get on with it.

Best wishes

Ian

Hi Ian. 

Thank you so much for your input. This in incredibly helpful with lots of great ideas.  He has to remain on a low fibre diet too.  I hope this resolves itself very soon. 

I will keep you post as to how it goes. 

Hope you are well x

Hi Lena

Now you're complication it and now you need this as well

And have to mix and match

By working with both diets you'll be able you give boyfriend his soft food low fibre meals

Ian

By clicking on the green text above will open up a new page for you.

Hi,

Just butting in, I am on a low residue diet but some of the things on your Hillingdon hospital diet are not on mine. I wonder if it's just a matter of examples or whether every hospital has its own take?

D

Hi

You're not butting in  but you have made a very good point. I believe that hospitals dietitians all have a different take on a theme when it comes to soft food, the foods are all the same but some hospital suggest more and some less.

Over the years I have built up a large reference library of diets and for Lena I just posted the first one on my list for her. She however had the additional problem of her boyfriend being also on low fibre diet which meant some of the foods contradicted between the two.

I could have just as easily sent one of the following or some other hospitals but you can get bogged with information overload and confused as each hospital either gives a lot of information or hardly any.

Royal United Hospital BATH

Hull University Hospital

Kings College Hospital 

SCAN (South East Scotland Cancer Network) NHS Scotland

Southern Health

I'll be honest, although I've got quite a number of these information sheets collected over the years, I've never actually sat down and compared them and tried to consolidate them into a fact sheet of my own, a job for the future maybe!

"D" never ever feel you're butting into a discussion that's what they are there for to give everyone the opportunity to add their comments and experiences and I thank you for raising it, I've got something new to think about, perhaps I'll get round to consolidating all the recommend foods into one, we'll see one day it might fall into place.

Thanks again

Ian

1. By clicking on any of the green text above will open up new pages for you.

Thanks,

I don't really have trouble with the soft side of the diet except maybe soggy cornflakes which is plain unnatural!

My late husband was stew mad and it wasn't a good stew till it was a 4 day stew and most the meat had melted into the gravy.

It's the low residue part which I have to stay on for another 2 months, my diet bans all biscuits but I can't see why if the biscuit is wholemeal free. And Hillingdon allows peanut butter. I'm looking for some quick calorie hits to lift my intake because I'm struggling to get into more than 3 meals having been a life long weight watcher

D

A soft food diet is a diet that includes foods that are soft and easy to chew. This diet is often recommended for people who have trouble chewing or have had recent surgery. Some common soft foods include soup, yogurt, mashed potatoes, pudding, scrambled eggs, macaroni and cheese, rice, and fish. If your boyfriend feels fed up with soup and yogurt, he can try plenty of other options. Mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and rice are all great choices. From my experience, this granola is well tolerated by the gut (michelesgranola.com). He can also try scrambled eggs or fish. Just be sure that the fish is cooked all the way through so that it is easy to eat.