Ulcerative Colitis Diet: What to Eat and Avoid, 7-Day Meal Plan, and More

Diet and nutrition play a vital role in the management of ulcerative colitis (UC) a form of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

While no specific foods are known to cause UC, certain foods may trigger or worsen painful symptoms. Other types of food can be soothing to an inflamed gut. Knowing the difference can help you create a healthy eating plan that complements medical treatment to keep you feeling your best.

There is no cure for UC, but the right diet can reduce symptoms. Read on to learn more, including foods you should eat, foods you should avoid, and meal plans, plus some beginner tips to get you started.

Ulcerative colitis affects individuals differently, and the foods each person finds tolerable can vary. Still, there are some general guidelines to follow when deciding what you may want to include in your diet and what you’re better off avoiding.

What to Eat

Consider including the following foods in your diet.

“I would highly recommend cooking, steaming, or boiling these foods whenever possible, just to make the texture a bit easier on the already inflamed intestinal lining,” Deal says. While fiber is essential for a healthy digestive system, too much can cause problems, especially for people with UC.

Lean Proteins Healthy, lean proteins, including chicken, fish, eggs, legumes, nuts, soy, and tofu provide energy and nutritional support whether you have UC or not. But these foods can have additional benefits if you're living with IBD.

Note that for some of these foods, you may need to change the texture to make them easier to digest. “For example, consider eating peanut butter instead of whole peanuts or having hummus instead of whole chickpeas,” suggests David Gardinier, RD, a registered dietitian with the Cleveland Clinic Center for Human Nutrition.

But whole grains can be difficult for some people with UC to digest during or right after a flare. For these individuals, Gardinier says refined grains like white rice or non-grain carbohydrates such as sweet potatoes or regular potatoes are better choices at these times.

“Oats and buckwheat are both whole grains that may be tolerated better by UC patients in a flare up,” he notes. “For bread, I usually recommend a sourdough since it is not too fiber heavy while also having a low glycemic index.”

What to Limit or Avoid

Certain foods may trigger or worsen UC symptoms. Here’s a list of foods you may want to limit or avoid.

Spicy Foods When your UC symptoms are flaring, it may be best to avoid spicy foods. “These don’t necessarily cause damage to the lining of the colon but when the colon is already irritated, it’s like adding salt or acid to a scratch on your skin — it hurts,” explains Adeeti Chiplunker, MD, a gastroenterologist who specializes in inflammatory bowel disease at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus.

Foods High in Simple Sugars Candy, cakes, cookies, soda, and juices can irritate the gut and exacerbate UC symptoms, Dr. Chiplunker says. “If these are not fully digested and absorbed by the bowel or your intake simply overwhelms your normal absorption system, these unabsorbed sugars act like a laxative,” she notes. Most of these foods are also ultra-processed.

High Lactose Foods Some people with IBD are lactose intolerant, meaning their body does not properly digest lactose, the sugar found in dairy products like cow’s milk, cheese, and ice cream. Others may have issues digesting these foods during a UC flare. Both can lead to uncomfortable symptoms like abdominal cramping, gas, and diarrhea.

Gardinier, who works with patients with IBD, offers the below seven-day sample menu for ulcerative colitis.

Please note that if you have specific goals around weight, for example, you should consult a nutritionist who will be able to help you find a UC diet that fits your needs. Some of the below desert options are also not ideal if you also have diabetes, for example.

Day 1

Breakfast Oatmeal with sliced banana and peanut butter
Snack (optional) Sliced peach and cottage cheese
Lunch Butternut squash soup
Snack (optional) Hummus and pita bread
Dinner Grilled oregano chicken with a side of white rice and grilled asparagus
Dessert (optional) Dark chocolate

Day 2

Breakfast Banana peanut butter smoothie
Snack (optional) Pita chips and guacamole
Lunch Turkey burger with sweet potato wedges
Snack (optional) Greek yogurt with blueberries
Dinner Shrimp stir fry with cooked peppers, carrots, and broccoli
Dessert (optional) Horchata with almond milk

Day 3

Breakfast Egg cups with broccoli and cheese
Snack (optional) Roasted chickpeas
Lunch Peanut butter and banana sandwich with dark chocolate chips
Snack (optional) Cucumber slices and hummus
Dinner Khichdi (a rice and lentil dish)
Dessert (optional) Gingersnap cookies

Day 4

Breakfast Baked oatmeal with cinnamon, strawberries, and blueberries
Snack (optional) Cheese and crackers
Lunch Pan-seared chicken with fingerling potatoes and green beans
Snack (optional) Rice cakes with sunflower seed butter
Dinner Chicken noodle soup
Dessert (optional) Homemade pumpkin chocolate chip muffin

Day 5

Breakfast Avocado toast on sourdough bread
Snack (optional) Apple and peanut butter
Lunch Pumpkin spice smoothie
Snack (optional) No bake energy balls
Dinner Stuffed bell pepper with ground turkey and white rice
Dessert (optional) Zucchini bread

Day 6

Breakfast Greek yogurt parfait with toasted oats and berries
Snack (optional) Honeydew melon
Lunch Pasta with ground turkey, broccoli, and tomato basil marinara sauce
Snack (optional) String cheese and a sliced pear
Dinner Baked maple salmon with sweet potato wedges and steamed broccoli
Dessert (optional) Banana “nice” cream (dairy-free)

Day 7

Breakfast Banana pancakes
Snack (optional) Hard-boiled egg
Lunch Chicken and rice soup
Snack (optional) Roasted seaweed snacks
Dinner Grilled shrimp kebabs with zucchini, yellow squash, and red bell peppers
Dessert (optional) Baked apple with cinnamon

It's important for everyone to drink enough fluids, but people with active UC need to take extra care to avoid dehydration.

“For patients who are flaring, it can be hard to stay hydrated as the colon’s primary job is to absorb water,” Chiplunker says. “It can’t do that job properly when it’s inflamed, and if you are having a lot of diarrhea, you are flushing away a lot of your body’s water.”

Udayakumar Navaneethan, MD, a gastroenterologist at Orlando Health, advises UC patients to stay hydrated with water, broth, smoothies, enteral nutrition supplements, and oral rehydration solutions, a hydrating beverage containing sugar and electrolyte salts.

“Oral rehydration solutions come in a couple of commercially available preparations that you can easily buy in the grocery store or online (Liquid IV, Drip Drop, TriOral) but you can also easily make this at home with 4 cups of water, ½ teaspoon table salt, and 2 tablespoons of sugar,” Chiplunker says. “You can flavor it with any low-calorie, sugar-free powdered beverage mix.”

An ulcerative colitis diagnosis can feel overwhelming, and you’ll need to make some lifestyle adjustments to manage your condition. Here are five tips that can make diet changes a bit easier.

Prepare Your Meals at Home

Making your meals at home gives you more control over what you eat, thus making it easier to avoid trigger foods. “Cooking more meals at home can help reduce intake of sodium, added sugars, and proinflammatory food additives like emulsifiers,” Gardinier says. He recommends stocking your pantry with UC-friendly ingredients and snacks like applesauce, rice cakes, canned soup, and peanut butter. “Make the best choice also the easiest choice,” Gardinier says.

When Eating Out, Have a Plan

If you’re dining at a restaurant instead of at home, Deal recommends having a plan of action before you get there. “Review the menu ahead of time and follow the same recommendations as if you were eating at home,” she says. While it can be difficult to know exactly how foods are prepared at restaurants, try sticking with safe options like seafood or grilled chicken.

Work With a Registered Dietitian

Talk to your primary care doctor about consulting with a dietitian to help you adjust to an eating plan that maximizes your gut health. “We’ve been trained to help guide patients toward a diet that works best for them, can help identify which foods may be causing unwanted symptoms, and will make sure that our patients are well-nourished,” Deal says. The Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, and the International Foundation for Gastrointestinal Disorders all have databases where you can search for dietitians in your area by speciality.

Be Aware of Signs of Malnutrition

“Malnutrition can be a significant problem in patients with UC,” Chiplunker says. “Foods may not be absorbed well by the inflamed gut, thereby losing important nutrients in the stool. Symptoms like nausea, vomiting and fatigue may make it hard to take in enough calories to keep up with the losses.”

• Unintended weight loss
• Low energy and fatigue
• Weakness
• Loss of muscle mass
• Vitamin and mineral deficiencies

Talk to your doctor or dietitian if you’re experiencing these symptoms. They can help you figure out how to make up for various common nutritional deficiencies with dietary changes or supplementation.

Give Yourself Grace

Making dietary choices to manage UC symptoms is important, but it’s normal to slip up at times. “I tell my patients if you follow this diet 80 percent of the time that is fantastic,” Gardinier says. “We are only human, and being overly strict leads to disordered eating patterns or hyper fixation on food.”

“The role of diet and treatment of inflammatory bowel disease is an exciting field of research,” says Michelle Muza-Moons, MD, PhD, a gastroenterologist at University of Michigan Health-West. “There are hundreds of diet studies in the United States and abroad looking at the role of dietary changes to improve response to medications and overall GI health.”

Here’s a closer look at what research says about the impacts of certain diets on UC symptoms.

The Mediterranean Diet

“A Mediterranean diet has been shown to be helpful for people with ulcerative colitis and is what we currently recommend as the best option for most patients with UC,” Gardinier says. “Note that a Mediterranean diet is overall a nutritional guide or template, and the principles of a Mediterranean diet can be adapted to fit cultural cuisines outside of the Mediterranean region of the world.”

The Low-FODMAP Diet

Researchers have explored whether the low-FODMAP diet, which is sometimes used to treat irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), may be helpful for people with IBD and UC.

“A low-FODMAP diet is helpful for people with ulcerative colitis who are in remission, but still having GI symptoms,” Gardinier says. “This is a dietary strategy that I would not recommend for people with UC who are currently in a flare. The diet is best done with guidance from a registered dietitian.” Importantly, a low-FODMAP diet can be restrictive and should be time-limited with the goal to ultimately reintroduce foods back into your diet.

• While diet is never a replacement for a prescribed medical treatment plan, adjusting what you eat, particularly during a flare, can help you manage UC symptoms.
• Low-fiber fruits and vegetables, lean proteins, and foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids tend to be easier on an inflamed gut, while foods high in insoluble fiber, processed meat, spicy foods, dairy, and foods high in fat and sugar can aggravate symptoms.
• A registered dietitian can guide you toward a healthy eating plan to help manage your GI symptoms and ensure you’re getting proper nutrition.