Acute Gastritis. Einhorn

During the first or second day of illness it is best not to give the patient anything substantial to eat. Strained barley or rice water, or weak tea may be taken. On the third day, as soon as the appetite reappears, the patient is permitted to partake of water soup (bread and hot water) oatmeal or barley gruel, rice soup, and perhaps one soft-cooked egg. Later on French bread, butter and oysters may be added to the dietary.

If the improvement is steadily progressing the fourth day begin with meat once a day, and thus slowly return to the usual bill of fare.

Chronic Gastritis. Einhorn

The regulation of the diet is of prime importance in the treatment. The dietary to be selected will depend on the severity of the symptoms.

At the beginning, therefore, a light diet will be called for. The patient should partake of four meals daily. The articles of food should be given largely in liquid and semi-liquid forms; that is, milk, kumyss, matzoon, barley, oatmeal, and rice soup prepared in milk; chicken soup with an egg beaten up in it; soft-cooked eggs, mashed potatoes, scraped meat, raw, or boiled, toasted bread, and also French white bread (not too fresh); butter; tea and cocoa.

1 Max Einhorn, M.D.: "Disease of the Stomach." New York. William Wood & Co.

The quantity of nourishment for each meal should neither be excessively large nor too small.

My own bill of fare for the first week of the treatment is as follows:

The patient having been kept on this diet for a week or two, the diet must be gradually changed to one suitable for the lighter forms of chronic gastritis. Here the following rule will apply: The diet should correspond as nearly as possible to the common mode of living. In this way the distribution of the meals should be arranged according to the customs prevailing in those places in which the patient lives.

All food derived from the vegetable kingdom should be given in large portions, while the quantity of meat should be somewhat limited.

In order to permit the patient to have a greater variety in his food, it is best not to point out a few articles he should eat, but to mention only those he should avoid. Forbid meat with very tough fibers, meat from too old animals or too fresh meat (right after slaughtering), meat that contains too much fat, like pork; forbid sausages, lobster, salmon, chicken salad, mayonnaise, cucumbers, pickles, cabbage, strong alcoholic drinks like liquors.

It must be impressed upon the patient to masticate the food thoroughly, to eat slowly, not to think of business during meals, and to stop eating before the sensation of satiety appears. The latter advice is only necessary in persons who are accustomed to high living.

Chronic gastric catarrh is frequently combined with constipation. The diet can be arranged as to facilitate movement of the bowels. All foods which contain a large percentage of cellulose (undigested matter) increase the quantity of feces, thereby effecting a stronger peristalsis of the larger bowel.

All kind of green vegetables (spinach, asparagus, green peas) and rye bread are therefore very suitable. Many organic acids possess the property of increasing intestinal peristalsis. Almost all kinds of fruits contain a certain quantity of these organic acids, and act like mild aperients. The use of cooked pears, stewed or baked apples, stewed prunes, is in many instances effective. Ewald recommends a mixture of two parts of prunes to one part of dried figs. The taste is agreeable, and the cathartic action mild. The custom of eating an orange in the morning for its laxative effect is well known. To these dietary remedies we may also add the use of a glassful of either very cold or warm water, or a glass of milk in arising, in the fasting condition.

There are many persons in whom one of these latter means produces a good movement of the bowels.