The stinging pain that accompanies interstitial cystitis can flare up if you eat certain foods. Redoing your diet to avoid pain is even tougher if you already have dietary restrictions such as being vegetarian. One of the more accessible foods is chickpeas.
Identification
Interstitial cystitis, or IC, is a painful health condition that can act like a bad bladder infection, but tests show no actual infection. Someone with IC may feel like she has to desperately urinate quite often, and she might experience general bladder pain. Food and drink are seen as triggers for more pain. Unfortunately, no one has been able to find a definite cause of IC; membrane defects, inflammatory responses, infection and immune response malfunction are all possibilities. It is more common in women than men. The Center for Holistic Urology at Columbia University Medical Center says a rare side effect is actual physical shrinkage of the bladder. The role of diet in coping with IC was observed in research in 2007 in a study published in the "Journal of Urology," although those with IC had already been modifying their diets in response to pain. Common culprits include soy, tea, coffee, chocolate, citrus and tomatoes.
Chickpeas
What exactly sets off episodes of pain after eating certain foods isn't completely known. The Center for Holistic Urology notes coffee, chocolate, citrus and tomatoes are good sources of potassium. However, so are chickpeas, which are on the Interstitial Cystitis Network's "Bladder Friendly" list of foods, meaning you've got a good chance of being able to include them in your diet.
Variation
Note that the acceptability of chickpeas in your diet will ultimately depend on how you yourself react to them. This is one of the more difficult aspects of IC; everyone is different. While the symptoms and reactions follow a general pattern, the exact foods you can eat will vary, with some people more tolerant of more foods than others. To see if you can eat chickpeas, follow the Center for Holistic Urology's elimination diet advice: Eat foods you know you can tolerate for a couple of weeks, and then add foods back in one by one, one per day. So after you've gone a couple of weeks without pain, see if plain chickpeas set off your symptoms. Don't eat multi-ingredient dishes when testing as the Center notes if you have more than one new food on the same day and have pain, you won't know if the chickpeas or something else were to blame.
Vegetarian Concerns
Vegetarians and vegans face particular difficulty when it comes to foods suitable for IC. Chickpeas actually aren't representative of legumes' effect on an IC-stressed bladder. Common beans such as lima, black and kidney beans could be all right for some but not for others, and soybeans and tofu -- vegetarian mainstays -- can cause more of a problem for more people. Nuts are divided as well. Chickpeas offer a lot of variety: You can eat them cold in salads, hot in other dishes and even roasted as a snack. Chickpeas' fiber, iron, protein, potassium and other nutrients make them a valuable contribution to the diet of anyone trying to remain vegetarian while adhering to an IC-friendly diet.
References
- Ohio State University Extension: Chickpeas Chock Full of Nutrition; Martha Filipic; August 2006
- Interstitial Cystitis Network; 2009 IC/PBS Food List; September 2009
- Center for Holistic Urology: Bladder -- Interstitial Cystitis
- IC-Diet.com: IC and Vegetarian Diets
- Interstitial Cystitis Network: The IC/PBS Diet Guide
- "Journal of Urology"; Effect of Comestibles on Symptoms of Interstitial Cystitis; B. Shorter, et al.; July 2007
