As the name suggests, a soft diet means foods that are easy for the digestive system. It includes foods that can be chewed and swallowed easily.
The same diet plan excludes foods that are hard to chew or need extra chewing power. Everything you need to know about Soft Diet Meal Plan is given in this article.
What is a Soft Diet Food Meal Plan?
Soft Diet Meal is also known as a low fiber diet, mechanical diet or even bland diet. It consists of soft foods that don’t require to use of extra chewing power.
As per your doctor’s suggestion, you have to follow a soft diet plan for a few days post-surgery or follow certain medical procedures.
Soft Food Diet Meal Plan – What is a Soft Diet Meal
We all love to have delicious foods, nobody wants to follow any type of diet plan.
However, you have to follow the diet plan as per your doctor’s recommendations to stay healthy or to recover faster from surgery or disease. You are what you eat!
In Which Conditions Doctor Recommends Soft Diet Meal?
The list of conditions in which your doctor would recommend you to follow the soft diet meals is given below. You would be recommended to follow this diet if you are in any of the below-listed conditions.
1. Surgery
If you have had surgery and your doctor would recommend a soft diet plan only.
In some cases, doctors may suggest you to follow the liquid diet plan that consists of only liquid foods such as juices, milk, etc.
Soft diet meal is easy to digest and doesn’t disturb your digestion system. For that reason, your doctor would recommend you this diet plan so that you can recover faster and get back to your normal life.
2. To Treat Cancer
The digestive system is affected due to chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are used to treat cancer.
Doctors would suggest a soft diet plan to those who are undergoing any of these treatments.
Your digestive tract will become sore and inflamed due to a heavy dosage of medicines during the chemotherapy.
This ultimately disturbs the entire digestive system. To make it goes smoothly, your doctor will suggest you soft diet only.
3. Dental Problems
If you are suffering from any type of dental problem, your doctor would suggest you for this diet.
Whether you have a root canal or braces or tooth extraction, you will have to follow the soft diet meal for a few days as per your doctor’s recommendations.
Since your teeth need some healing time, you should not have hard textured foods that require extra chewing power. Take soft meals only that are easy to chew. It ultimately helps your mouth heals faster.
4. Difficulty Swallowing
Those of you who are suffering from rare throat-related disease would recommend following the soft diet plan only.
Some people find it difficult to swallow food easily due to sore throat or any other problems, in this case, your doctor would recommend this diet plan.
Soft foods can be swallowed easily without affecting your throat.
Foods to Eat on a Soft Food Diet
As noted above, a soft food diet consists of foods that are soft-textured, easy to chew, and easy to digest. You can have the following foods if you are recommended to follow the soft food diet by your doctor.
Let’s take a look at some of the examples of soft foods. The following foods can be included in your soft diet meal plan.
1. Fruits
Bananas, cooked or peeled apples, avocado, citrus fruits such as orange, grapes, etc. In short, you can have fruits that are easy to chew.
You can avoid hard textured fruits such as pineapple, guava, papaya, etc.
Soft Food Diet Meal Plan – Foods to Eat on a Soft Food Diet
2. Vegetables
Chopped cooked spinach, cooked beans, cooked broccoli, cooked carrots, etc. Since veggies are hard to chew, you are requested to cook them properly for easy chewing.
Soft Food Diet Meal Plan – vegetables
3. Dairy Products
Soft cheese, yogurt, ice cream pudding, milk, milkshakes, etc. All these dairy products can be included in your soft diet meal plan.
Soft Food Diet Meal Plan – dairy products
4. Eggs
You can have cooked eggs or egg whites or can prepare egg salad with boiled eggs during the diet program.
Soft Food Diet Meal Plan – Foods to Eat on a Soft Food Diet – Eggs
5. Soups
You can have all types of foods in liquid conditions. Soups prepared with veggies and other ingredients can be included. Make sure that it doesn’t contain hard-textured veggies.
6. Grains
Soft cereals, cooked cereals, oatmeal, noodles, pasta, white rice, bread, waffles, pancakes. Grains give your body the required energy as they are the primary source of carbohydrates.
7. Drinks
Water, Tea, Coffee, and all the other cold drinks can be included.
The types of soft foods may vary as per the condition of the person. Your dietitian would suggest you or would prepare a detailed diet plan which you have to follow as per the suggestion of your doctor.
If you are suffering from diabetes or hypertension, then there may be some restrictions on foods to control your body’s sugar level and the flow of blood.
Now, let’s get on to the basic Soft Diet Meal Plan which you should follow:
Soft Food Diet Meal Plan
The basic soft diet meal plan or we can say meal ideas are listed below. People who are recommended to follow the soft diet should prepare their meal by following the below given basic diet plan for soft foods.
As noted above, you can prepare your meal as per your doctor’s recommendations. The only thing you need to keep in mind is that you have to include the foods that are easy to chew if you want to recover faster.
Soft Food Diet Meal Plan
Foods to Avoid on a Soft Food Diet
If you want to know about the types of foods to avoid during the soft food diet program, then the list of foods listed below should not be included in your diet. Let’s get on to the list now!
You just need to skip or avoid foods that are hard to chew. This is the only thing you need to keep in mind during this period.
You should avoid seeds, nuts, popcorns, chocolates, potato chips, sausage, meat, peanut butter, raw veggies, fruits with skin, whole grains, etc.
These types of foods should be excluded as they are hard to eat and may disturb your recovery journey.
Bottom Line:
Your doctor would suggest you follow the soft diet only if you can’t eat or chew properly. It gives your digestive system a much-needed boost to healing the surgery or a particular disease.
It is also good to keep your body healthy and fit as this diet boosts your metabolism system.
Make sure to consult with your dietician before you start a soft diet plan.