When you’re afflicted with a hernia, daily activities such as exercise, sleep, and eating become stressful. With one wrong move, you can have a flair-up that will ruin your day and disrupt the progress of your hernia treatment. When it comes to food especially, finding the right items to avoid, and learning which will help your treatment can be difficult. To help you lead a more satisfying, hernia-pain-free life, here are five of the best (and worst) foods to eat if you’re afflicted with a hernia: 

Best Foods for Hernia Sufferers:

1. Whole Grains

Whole grains are excellent for keeping your hernia from becoming inflamed and irritated. They are packed with fiber and have complex carbs that will keep your gut balanced and less frequently upset. Thankfully, the sheer amount of delicious whole-grain foods, including oatmeal, rice, whole-grain bread, and couscous will give you plenty of variety to work with when introducing whole grains into your diet. 

2. Legumes

The high-fiber content of legumes and beans will keep your hernia from becoming worsened and can boost your gut health in major ways. Especially if you absolutely love black beans, finding recipes that incorporate them with other hernia-friendly foods is highly recommended. 

3. (Most) Vegetables

Nearly all vegetables have some type of benefit to your diet when you’re managing a hernia. Broccoli, potatoes, and other vitamin and fiber-packed vegetables are especially important to eat. Keeping your belly full of vegetables instead of more sugar-heavy, processed foods is key to ensuring your hernia does not become a constant, painful irritation. 

4. Leafy Greens

Leafy greens are packed with tons of rich nutrients such as vitamin B and calcium. Not only are they able to keep your hernia manageable, but leafy greens provide a great base for all sorts of delicious meals. Spinach, lettuce, and other amazing leafy greens are available in bulk at your local supermarket and can supercharge your diet to keep your hernia fully under control. 

5. Yogurt

If you’re missing sweet foods in your diet, yogurt can provide a stellar hernia-friendly substitute. You can top yogurt with lots of (reasonable) hernia-friendly toppings like nuts to make the food even better. The natural bacteria that are used in making yogurt have tons of other benefits as well, especially when it comes to keeping your gut healthy. The recent surge of popularity in yogurt products makes it a great time to become a yogurt superfan. 

Worst Foods for Hernia Sufferers:

1. Onions

Onions are actually packed with fiber but cause other unfortunate reactions in your body that make them a poor choice for hernia sufferers diets. Onions cause intense gas build-up and bloating (especially if you eat a lot of onions) that will stress your hernia and make you wish you went with a less intense ingredient for your meal. 

2. Hard Candy

The processed nature of hard candy, and its high sugar content, make it a poor choice for hernia sufferers. There is a lot of gut upsetting ingredients in hard candies that will unbalance your gut and make your hernia worse. Finding substitutes for your sweet cravings (such as yogurt) is highly recommended. 

3. Cow’s Milk

Dairy is one of the harshest food products for hernia sufferers. Cow’s milk makes many delicious products, but the acidic, intensely fattening milk and cheese it helps craft will quickly irritate your hernia. Thankfully, there are excellent plant-based alternatives to milk and other dairy products. Soybean milk is especially beneficial for hernia sufferers, and almond milk is recommended as well. 

4. Alcohol

Alongside the other health detriments that alcohol can lead to and its highly addictive nature, alcohol is horrible on hernias. Not only will it inflame your hernia, but it can lead to complications that can cause additional hernias and put you in a state where surgery could be necessary. To avoid complications from surgery, and the costly nature of fully removing a hernia, steer clear of high amounts of alcohol consumption while you’re treating your hernia. 

5. Coffee

Coffee is delicious and energizing, but unfortunately, it is one of the worst foods for hernias. The acidic, bothersome nature of coffee can absolutely destroy your gut health (not to mention how addictive the high-caffeine beverage can be). If you want a hernia-friendly alternative for caffeine (as well as the other health benefits that coffee can provide), kombucha and (unsweet) teas are an excellent choice. 

Managing Your Hernia is Possible

There are a ton of other amazing hernia-friendly foods out there for you to incorporate into your diet. By avoiding foods that will stress and exacerbate your hernia, you will eat comfortably and treat your hernia effectively. After all, a hernia affliction does not have to remove taste and enjoyment from your lifestyle!