📣 Discussion Topic: What are your favorite pancreatitis-friendly snacks? (Plus, some recommendations!)

[Skye_MC]

Hi everyone! 👋 Living with pancreatitis, you've probably had your fair share of questions during snack time. Picking the right foods can make a real difference in managing your condition and avoiding flare-ups down the road.

But – let’s face it – figuring out which foods are actually safe can be pretty confusing. Generally, it’s recommended that pancreatitis patients eat between 30 to 50 grams of fat per day (differs in the UK). That's why we're sharing 5 low-fat foods for you to try next snack time:

• Air-Popped Popcorn (without butter or oil)

• Baby Carrots

• Fat-Free Yogurt/Greek Yogurt

• Air-Fried Potato Chips (without oil)

• Apple Sauce

Remember, every person is different, so choose foods based on your own personal symptoms, triggers, and tolerance to fat. Always check the label to make sure the ingredients are right for you!

What pancreatitis-friendly snacks do you enjoy eating? Share in the comments below! 👇

[deniseinmilden]

Hiya!

Because of my malabsorption issues I'm always short of vitamins and minerals but I don't want to get fat so I need to eat nutrient dense things and avoid empty calories.

I need a lot of potassium but no additional sodium so I don't eat much processed food. I'm always short of time and money so buy simple, good quality meat and then lots of whole fruit and veggies which are cheaper than processed options. I zap (microwave) most things, or batch cook to save cooking costs.

I need to eat quite a lot of cheese and meat for their benefits so don't need any additional fats/oils. I eat these as snacks as well as in main meals. I need a high haem iron intake and keep calcium and iron intakes 2 hours apart to get greatest benefit from them.

Unfortunately I have an incredibly sweet tooth and love cake, but rarely indulge! 😃

For sweet snacks I slowly dry bake various vegetables and fruit, especially carrots, parsnips, peppers and sweet potatoes, etc, so their flavours and sweetness are concentrated down. I load my oven up when I do them and then I have a box of these in my fridge for several days to eat either cold or quickly zapped in the microwave.

I usually make a pack up to take wherever I'm working and have lots of mini clip-top tubs that I put things like the above, or olives, chunks of cucumber, half an avocado, fruit from tins, etc, in.

I then also have an apple, a satsuma, maybe a banana, or other fruit with it's own "wrapper" (skin) on.

In the evenings I might zap fruit - eg frozen cherries, or rhubarb from my garden, and then add in small (cheap) porridge oats. They're about the same calories as sugar but are better for me and make the fruit sweet and creamy. I also make a sort of porridge with yoghurt (dairy free for me because I'm lactose intolerant) and oats sometimes too.

In the car I have whole fresh carrots or celery and there's always a packet of nuts and dried fruit, sometimes with seeds, available.

I eat other dried fruit instead of sweets and chocolate. I get migraines and find crystalised ginger is good then. 😃

I live and work on my own mostly so it's easy for me to eat what suits me. I tend to just have snack sized portions during the day (1 or 2 Creon 25,000's worth) so that if my guts rebel against something it wasn't in any quantity and they get over it relatively quickly. I then just don't eat again until I know I'm likely to be OK.

I might have a sandwich (3 - 4 Creon) at lunchtime, plus lettuce leaves or similar.

I have more of a main meal at night (5 or 6 Creon) - often fish with zapped veg such as various brassicas, peas and sweetcorn, or one of my batch-cooked and frozen meals, and then I go straight to sleep so I'm not awake to hear any grumbling, and it's rarely so bad it wakes me up. 😃

I don't have tea or coffee and instead make up bottles of sugar free, clear squash which I sip throughout the day. I usually have 2 to 3 litres of this per day but obviously more if it's hot or my guts aren't good.

I know this isn't probably the sort of crisps and cakes type snacks you were thinking of, but is an alternative option. Now I've got used to it, I rarely want packet snacks, especially as I find plain stuff more digestable.

[Readingagatha in reply to deniseinmilden]

Some great ideas thank you

[deniseinmilden in reply to Readingagatha]

Thank you!

[Skye_MC Administrator in reply to deniseinmilden]

Thank you so much for sharing! These are excellent ideas.

[Hidden]

Hi Skye_MCI don't eat snacks much because my appetite is poor and it can be hard work eating anything so I prefer to concentrate on balanced meals, but I'm going to try the ones you like in future because I'm getting a bit bored with my usual ones...it's not much

Brown bread with tuna

Red grapes

Yogurt

Sometimes I have chocolate and suffer for it....DO NOT DO THIS PLEASE!!!

[Readingagatha in reply to Hidden]

I wonder which chocolate you eat. As a chocoholic I was devastated when told no chocolate but then a surgeon told me a little dark chocolate is ok which I was never fond of but now I love it.

[Hidden in reply to Readingagatha]

Hi Reading AgathaI'm glad you're enjoying some dark chocolate! I can't get used to it but after reading your reply I will try harder. I normally have some big chocolate buttons because I can still handle some dairy now and then, so just ordinary milk chocolate but last night I had some mirangue, well it was lying there winking at me and acting all seductive, so I got a bit carried away and ate lots so boy am I regretting that. I've Been extremely good for a while so I think I needed a break but that's definitely not the way to reward oneself!!

[deniseinmilden in reply to Hidden]

Have you tried lactase tablets?

I don't like dark chocolate either and have always been lactose intolerant. Having recently discovered the tablets life's much better - although I confess I use it for cheese rather than chocolate now.

I used to be addicted to chocolate but when I was trying to understand some one else's alcohol addiction a couple of years ago, I gave it up and almost never eat it now, which does make life easier.

Low magnesium levels tend to make you crave chocolate so if you make sure you get plenty of magnesium in your diet it does help.