What can I eat two days before a colonoscopy?

Generally speaking, when doctors arrange colonoscopy for patients, they will remind or write down the precautions in the medical instructions, indicating that diet is very important in the two days before the colonoscopy, and the patient should eat a light diet, reduce food intake, and not smoke. However, there is no detailed food menu in the doctor's instructions, which may be confusing for some nervous patients who do not understand the specific requirements. Here we have summarized for you the specific dietary menu recommendations for the two days before a colonoscopy, so that you can prepare correctly before the colonoscopy and minimize mistakes.

Colonoscopy in the morning: Do not eat or drink anything and do not smoke after 8pm the night before. Eat liquid food (rice water, soup) for dinner the day before. Colonoscopy in the afternoon: You can drink some sugar water before 8 am that day, but you cannot eat anything else and do not eat at noon. The hospital will prescribe laxatives, and you can take them according to the doctor's instructions.

Dietary principles for two days before colonoscopy:

1. Eat semi-liquid food with no residue or little residue in the first two days of meal preparation, such as thick porridge, noodles, vegetable puree, etc. It should be light and easy to digest. Food should be cooled to lukewarm temperature before eating to avoid scalding the digestive tract.

2. Avoid eating vegetables high in fiber (celery, leeks, bean sprouts, etc.), fruits, and beans. You can eat peeled and seeded fruits and ripe melons, such as cantaloupe, cantaloupe, grapes, pears, loquat, pumpkin, winter melon, and loofah.

3. Avoid eating large pieces of meat and hard, indigestible foods.

4. Avoid all gas-producing foods, such as overly sweet liquids, soy milk, milk and dairy products.

5. Avoid eating fried, deep-fried, greasy, spicy, sweet, sour and other irritating foods.

6. On the second day of dietary preparation, breakfast and lunch should be fiber-free liquids (such as white porridge, baby rice cereal, thin lotus root powder without sugar, steamed eggs, etc.), and dinner should be light liquids without residue (such as clear rice soup, fruit juice, vegetable juice without residue, meat soup without oil and residue).

7. Check the fasting status of the day.

Suggested menu:

Breakfast on the first day: lean meat porridge (less oil). Lunch: Plain noodles (light, less oily), cold tofu, and a steamed egg. Dinner: 1 bowl of white rice, salted shrimp.

Breakfast the next day: porridge, steamed egg. Lunch: mushy noodles, rice soup, baby rice noodles, and lotus root starch. Dinner: 2 cups (500ml) of fruit and vegetable juice without residue.