Low-Fiber Diet

According to HealthCastle.com, a low-fiber diet is often prescribed for treating certain gastrointestinal conditions such as Crohn's and colitis, as well as allowing for recovery from certain surgical procedures involves the colon. A low-fiber diet simply refers to the heavy restriction of both soluble and insoluble fiber in your diet, requiring that you avoid certain foods while making substitutions to lower the net amount of fiber that you are consuming per day.

Low-Fiber Advice

• According to the Mayo Clinic, you should strive to limit consumption of high-fiber foods such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains to no more than one or two servings per day. Foods to avoid include difficult to digest, fibrous items such as brown rice, dried fruits, beans, chunky peanut butter, nuts, seeds, popcorn and coconuts. Instead of these items, focus the majority of your diet around consumption of low-fiber substitutes such as refined (white) flour items--breads, pastas, rolls, noodles and cereals. Some fruit is perfectly acceptable to consume as long as it does not have skin on it or seeds. Dairy products are another staple item of a low-fiber diet, along with meats of all kind, eggs and white rice.

Low-Fiber Meal Planning

• Note that complying with a low-fiber diet does not mean you should neglect the goal of balanced nutrition. Regardless of your current dietary restrictions, you should still aim to consume as nutritious a diet as possible. To accomplish this, ensure that every meal you eat contains a source of lean protein (all types of meat), healthy fat (this will usually consist of oils, as many other sources of healthy fat are restricted by the nature of a low-fiber diet) and some type of fruit or vegetable--because you are allowed one to two servings per day, you can have a half serving with every meal to provide your body with some additional vitamins and nutrients. Finally, include the white flour item substitutes listed above, but try not to overeat--aim to restrict your servings of white flour items to no more than two per meal to prevent weight gain while on a low-fiber diet.