HHS HealthBeat (October 09, 2008)

Popcorn, nuts

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

For people who’ve had diverticulosis – development of tiny pockets in the intestine – foods like popcorn and nuts have been off the menu. Medical thinking was that small hard things can get lodged in those pockets, creating irritations that cause infection or bleeding.

But Dr. Lisa Strate and colleagues at Brigham and Women’s Hospital examined data on that, from a large long-running study of the health of men.

They found no association between the foods and infection or bleeding.

So, co-author Sapna Syngal says:

``For a large proportion of people out there who know they have diverticulosis and have been told that they should avoid these foods, there probably isn’t any reason to do that.’’ (9 seconds)

The study in the Journal of the American Medical Association was supported by HHS’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: October, 09 2008