Low fibre vegetarian diet 7 days before colonoscopy/gastroscopy?

[HeathisWealth]

White carbs, eggs, cheese, butter, processed cereals, milk, well cooked carrots and strained tomatoes (but staining?).

This is my idea of food hell.

White bread egg/cheese sarnies?

Pasta with butter and cheese?

Usual diet is rich in fruit, berries, seeds and nuts with my yoghurt, veggies (skin on!), beans, pulses, salads, seeds and nuts- and wholemeal, brown and whole grain.

Please can I ask for your help with better ideas as honestly, if I didn't need one before, I'll definitely need one with that diet!

Think I'd go Greek yoghurt and honey for breakfast. Then cheese on toast for lunch, or just buttered toast. Ooh, or maybe buttered tea cakes... Then cheese omelette for dinner, or egg fried rice / noodles for dinner. Just pretend you're a student again - and think how much money you'll save! Good luck.

Just remember to watch taking things like aspirin for 48 hours before. It's nice that you had good wishes for those permanently on this diet. My DP is one, he's got a stoma. Unfortunately his colonoscopy came back clear, which meant his later constipation was dismissed. I wasn't happy and made him come to A&E, he was hours away from death. So if you still have symptoms, don't ignore them. Good luck.

DH (also veggie) was recently in the same position.

It does suck especially for veggies but as PPs have said, you are to sone extent just going to have to accept you are eating a bland diet for the week because there just isn't much wiggle room, it needs to be what it is.

DH was allowed to eat white rice, which at least has a bit of texture.

He made congee for breakfast, and had meals like cheese melted over rice, scrambled eggs and rice, and omelette and rice.

Plain white bread is nice toasted with butter.

Thank you. No meat or fish and TBH I rarely eat eggs.

I've got lots of ideas from this thread, thank you all so much for taking me out of my scrambled head, stress mode and helping me focus on the next few days. It's crazy what stress and anxiety do to your ability to think logically! All I see to have been doing recently is thinking (the worst).

I'm grateful for our healthcare and I hope and pray anyone who has been/is going through similar will be ok.

I'm looking forward to dippy eggs and soldiers, cinnamon eggy bread with yogurt and honey, rice pudding with (seedless) jam, cheesy Mac n cheese, cheese on toast, egg mayo sarnies with pepper and truffle oil 🤤- basically a comforting diet for a few days and a lovely chilled 'cocktail' drunk through a straw 😉.

Reminding myself 'this too shall pass'

Hahahahaha. Yes, this is true!

Is he ok? Thanks for your advice and understanding.

Wishing you the best of health.

I'm so sorry that he's been so badly affected and thank God you were there to know that something was not right. Is he getting used to his 'new normal'? I'm so glad you were able to get him into hospital in time.

Dr Alan Desmond is a vegan gastroenterologist. He’s written an excellent plant based cookbook.

This is his Facebook post on the subject:

Foods that vegans – and everyone else – can eat while prepping for a colonoscopy!
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I thought I’d get on here and publicly answer one of the most common questions I am asked: What can vegans eat while getting ready for a colonoscopy?
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Tip number 1: Follow your healthcare providers instructions on medication, hydration, and dietary intakes. Over the years, I have had several patients who free-styled their prep with a combo of juice fasting and enemas and it does not work! Let’s just say that the views were “suboptimal at best”. Skipping the laxative prep was an immediate ticket for a repeat procedure.
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Most centres ask patients to eat very low fibre for 2-3 days prior to the procedure. But they often forget to include the vegan options that are on the menu during that phase.
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During the low-fibre phase of your colonoscopy prep YOU CAN EAT: Cornflakes, rice crispies, white bread, olive oil, white flour, white pasta, white rice noodles, potato with no skin, silken or firm tofu, seitan, vegan cheese, maple syrup, agave syrup, clear jams or jellies (no red jelly – it confuses us if we see red blobs in your colon!) – clear soups, bouillon, clear broths, mustard, soy sauce and tamari.
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During your prep DO NOT EAT wholegrains, wholegrain breads or cereals, brown rice, brown pasta, quinoa, fruits, veggies, beans, legumes, anything leafy, veggie soups, dahl, tempeh, hummus, nuts, seeds or popcorn! Basically, don’t eat any of the good stuff during those few days!
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Stay hydrated by drinking water, fruit squash, tea and coffee with plant-milk, or clear apple juice. No smoothies!
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Read your provider’s instructions carefully and don’t be afraid to ask questions. They would prefer that you turn up confident and well prepped!
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This post is dedicated to my fellow Gastroenterologist (and all-round nice guy) @theguthealthmd who has just shared his own colonoscopy prep journey in his stories.
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Yep
The 7 day diet is a breeze in comparison

There is a list of vegan foods here: https://www.nuh.nhs.uk/low-fibre-diet

It includes carrots, pumpkin, potatoes and cucumber/ courgette cooked well with peel and skin removed so could possibly use them to make a spiced soup. Clear broths are also okay, I would probably use miso as is really flavourful. You can have tofu or tempeh for protein.

It also states soft avocados are ok so could have avocado with omelette. If white bread is off putting how about white bagels or muffins. Smooth nut butters are ok too and might make yoghurt more interesting. Fruit sorbets might be a nice treat, M&S do nice ones. I wouldn’t overthink nutrition for a single week and would just focus on meeting your calorie needs and eating foods you can enjoy as much as possible.

Thank you so much.

This is really helpful. Thank you. I'd been googling and just finding the same restrictive list and finding myself in a bit of a fog.

I've just had this! Specific instructions vary by trust, mine was only 3 days of the low residue then 1 day fast then prep night before. Like you it was totally opposite to my usual diet and I struggled with it but tried to enjoy the 'good' bits (ate a lot of cake!). Meals I enjoyed were plain roast chicken with mash and instant gravy, white fish with rice and soya sauce, scrambled egg on toast. Also croissants and lemon curd. It's a necessary evil. Hope the procedure goes well. Happy to share my experience of that if it's helpful!

🤣 cant wait!

The colonoscopy found some polyps the doc wanted to remove. Not cancerous but the type that can become cancerous.

The procedure to remove is very similar to the colonoscopy, so he had to go through the whole thing twice. But the doc seems to think it's all been dealt with. It's not unusual to need something removed. (Sorry I'm not an expert, just sharing what DH told me).

Thank you. I hope you're ok.

Thank you so much. This is really useful.

Thank you. Thank goodness they caught the polyps early. I assume he'll have fairly regular checks in the future?

I’m so glad you got some good ideas before I saw your thread, OP. My understanding is, no seeds amongst other things. Various NHS Trusts have good guides on their websites.

I’ve just had a colonoscopy and it looks like there will be several more in my future with the same prep for an imminent procedure. My low residue diet was supposed to be three days, but I was so worried about getting all my prep (MoviPrep plus lots of chaser liquid) down that I made it five days. I figured if I could not manage the whole prep a longer low residue diet period would give me better results.

I managed only about 75% of my prep, DH begged me to stop and as you may imagine I had to be in a very bad way for him to do that. But the strategy worked: you get a Boston Bowel Score out of 9 marks for the accessibility of your bowel lining and mine was 9/9. So much better than risking a repeat experience or inconclusive results.

As colonoscopies save lives, possibly including mine, I will repeat this experience as often as necessary. BTW, the colonoscopy itself was nothing - I did have conscious sedation and Fentanyl.

I am sorry you had some harsh replies because the diet is undeniably a bit grim. Good luck with everything.

I get you OP.
I did it years ago, and although the actual prep and cleanout is an unforgettable experience, I actually suffered more for the crappy mandatory diet in the preceding days. I hated it. It was so long ago, but I still remember that as the worst part of the whole proceedings. 😂😂😂

Just keep in mind that first meal when it's all over 😋😋😋😋😋😋
Good luck 🤞🏼

OP, how about home made carrot and potato soup, flavoured with spices or fresh herbs and garlic granules. You could have garlic bread with it - that makes white bread more interesting. Just cook the veg in stock until very soft then puree it.

Pasta with pomodoro or a simplified version of all'arrabiata sauce, made with passata sieved tomatoes, powdered onion and garlic and herbs for flavour, grated vegan cheese on top.

How about a potato curry, like the trad ones in India or sri Lanka, in a thin spicy broth of a sauce?

Macaroni cheese, home made with vegan cheese, is delicious. A bit of dijon mustard, garlic powder, tomato puree, and a tiny amount of nutmeg in the sauce keeps it interesting.

Old school cereal is actually really nice. I've got back into it recently as I need more vitamin B and the tablets make me queasy. Rice krispies or cornflakes with sliced banana on top, as ripe as you can tolerate, as the fibre breaks down when they ripen.

You can have cooked and peeled fruit, by the way (I just looked it up) so you could make puff pastry pear tart with all spice or apple tart with sweet cinnamon. Puff pastry is made with oil, so usually vegan. Or just stewed fruit and custard. Old school, but it's only for a week.

Edited as I just realised you said vegan.

Don't eat any food with seeds as the seeds can linger in the gut quite a long time and affect a clear view by the endoscopist. Really, just stick to what they have told you although 7 days seems a lot. My hospital also say 3 days before. You don't want to go through all that prep again if they have to abandon the first time. Another tip from me, if they want to give you Plenvu or Moviprep and you are a queasy person, ask if you can have Picolax or something of that nature. I can't tolerate the other two at all (I did get one glassful down). If you ask, it turns out they do have alternatives.

I put ice and ginger cordial in mine.

Use a straw and put it as far back as you can to get as little taste as you can.

Mine was late morning i had to start about 6 or 7 pm. I just stayed in the bathroom for a few hours but it did then stop and i got some sleep before round 2 at 6am

I'm not sure TBH. That makes me sound like a terrible wife! He has pre-existing health issues not related to the gut or the colonoscopy and they tend to take most of our focus. So the positive FIT test and colonoscopy were a bit "Oh FFS not something else as well!" and once we knew it was ok other things took priority.

I'll ask him when I see him later.