I distinctly remember a weekend while in high school that mom and dad were gone and I was home alone. Craving something sweet I found the perfect solution, chocolate pudding. Yes, I ate the entire pot and yes it triggered a HP attack!
Why is a proper diet so important to reducing HP attacks? The primary function of the pancreas is to produce insulin which regulates your blood sugar. The second function the pancreas preforms is it creates digestive juices that assist in breaking down nutrients that the stomach’s acids weren’t effective at metabolizing. The digestive juices start out alkaline in the pancreas, but when they meet substances bathed in stomach acid in the duodenum, they become acidic. These enzymes include lipase, which digests fat and protein, and amylase which digest carbohydrates.
Lipase and Amylase, Oh My! If lipase helps digest fat and protein and amylase helps digest carbs, what can we eat? The goal of a good HP diet is to eat foods that will keep the pancreas from working too hard. For many of us, our pancreatic duct(s) (the minor duodenal papilla and major duodenal papilla) are blocked and the lipase and amylase build up in our pancreas and are unable to escape. High levels of both lipase and amylase are detected in our blood during an attack. Eating certain types of food will trigger the pancreas to excrete the two enzymes and we need to avoid or greatly reduce these foods.
There are many “Pancreas Friendly” diets out there along with recipe books geared for the pancreas. So what does a pancreas diet look like, it’s simple, low fat. First, let me make this perfectly clear, NEVER EVER drink alcohol if you have HP! Some other things we should avoid are spicy foods, pizza, eggs, cheese, fried food, bacon, sausage, butter, tea, sugar and coffee. Some good foods are baked potatoes, brown rice, pasta, fruits, vegetables, soups, salads, whole grain breads and high fiber healthy cereals like oatmeal are excellent. Limit dairy to yogurt and low fat milk such as skim or 1%. Personally, I would avoid dairy as much as possible.