The old Nuts and Seeds argument.

You bring this up with a room full of Diverticulitis suffers and you are likely to start a fight.

The current scientific thinking is that nuts and small seeds, like strawberry seeds DO NOT cause the diverticulitis sufferer any problems.

The traditional thinking was that these small seeds and pieces of nuts would get caught in the Diverticuli (small pouches) in the lower intestine and cause an inflammation. The thinking is that the sharp edges especially with seeds and nuts would aggravate the Diverticuli and generally cause lots of problems.

Well is this true on not.

To be honest I tend to agree with the scientist on this one. That nuts and small seeds will not cause problems with Diverticulitis, at least due to the rough edges and sometimes pointy bits on the foods. I tend to think that for most people nuts and small seeds will not directly cause a flare up of their Diverticulitis. At least due to the sharpness of the food items and bits of them getting trapped in the Diverticuli.

HOWEVER.

In saying that I do believe that nuts and some small seeds do cause problems with some people. The reason is likely to be more what is contained in or on the small seeds and nuts than the nuts and seeds themselves.

The End Diverticulitis Survey we did showed that Nuts and Seeds did indeed cause some people problems. BUT not all. There were quite a lot of people that said they ate strawberries without any issues at all.

The survey showed that nuts and seeds rated as a problem, but they didn't rate as high as we expected. Which means a lot of you out there have little or no problem with nuts and seeds.

Confused?

So where does this leave you?

Well due to the controversial nature of this subject I believe it is best to err on the safe side.

Avoid them.

Why suffer a flare up just to have some peanuts or some strawberry jam.

Avoid them, at least until you are feeling better again and have a better understanding of what causes problems with your Diverticulitis. Once you are feeling on top of things, and getting back to a normal diet. Then it is time to experiment a little, if you feel you would like to try them, then do so. Remembering to err of the side of caution. Try a few of one specific type and see how you go.

You will probably discover that a few do not cause any problems at all. However a lot might. Like in all things variety is good. You should never have excessive amounts of one type of food or drink.

Test the nuts and seeds a little at a time, if you have no problems you will be able to put them on the safe list. Or at least on the list that means they are something not to be concerned about. This doesn't mean you should have them every day, however if you are out and some foods contain them at least you do not have to worry about eating them.

For example, A bowl full of peanuts, might be best not to have any. As you would tend to have a lot at once. But Ice-cream with nuts in it, or a bun with sesame seeds on it, will be of less of a concern.

To try and sum all this up. As it is a little confusing.

Nuts and Seeds will probably be OK for you personally to eat.

HOWEVER they were rated as a food that is risky by our End Diverticulitis Survey Results.

So. Avoid them to begin with. When you feeling better try a few if you really miss having them. If they still cause problems. Just leave them out of your diet. If they do not cause problems, then you are most likely not to have problems with nuts and seeds. I would still avoid them in large quantities, but in small quantities at least you will have less concerns.

UPDATE : We are talking about small hard seeds, the theory is that the small seeds get caught in the diverticulit and then cause problems. Seeds like : sesame seeds, strawberry seeds, peanuts, cashew nuts, wall nuts etc...
Things like rice, legumes etc are also seeds. However these seeds tend to be larger, and bigger and softer. The seeds that were thought to cause a problem were small hard seeds with sharper edges.