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Pancreatitis and Potato Chips From everything I've heard pancreatitis affects different people's diets differently. I often hear that white fish, skinless chicken and lean red meat are okay for sufferers of pancreatitis. This is not my story. (Here is a list of foods that don't seem to bother my pancreas.) My pancreas becomes inflamed and irritated when I have white fish. The only time I've had turkey was while still in the hospital. I had a smaller thinly sliced piece of plan, skinless turkey. My pancreas wanted nothing to do with it. I was back on an IV with no food or water for another 4 or 5 days. One thing that is clear about pancreatitis is that very little is known about it and that how it affects people is not consistent. If you find that eating white fish (other fishes aren't an option we are even considering in this article), skinless chicken or turkey, or lean red meat is bothering you, stop eating it. Don't think that because you read somewhere that it's okay for a pancreatic diet that it will work for you. I say this from experience. I can tell you that without a shadow of a doubt, at this point in my disease - which is supposedly in the early stages - my pancreas reacts very poorly to any kind of meat whether it be fish, chicken, turkey, pork or steak. Trust your own body. Listen to your body and respect how it is reacting to certain foods. I've heard that potato chips are hard on the pancreas because of the high fat content, yet when my pancreas is inflamed that is often all I can eat. The potassium and magnesium is beneficial to the pancreas. Also, I've had bouts with severely low blood sugar which is one of the symptoms of acute pancreatitis. The salt from the potato chips helps keep the blood sugar elevated. The fat content in the potato chips hasn't hurt my system - maybe that is a result of how few I eat at a time. When I have potato chips I only have a few and just sparatically throughout the day. It's hard to have no food at all. People get hungry. So when I eat something, I keep it small and I try to make it something that will help my system. My guess is that the magnesium and potassium from the potato chips makes my pancreas feel better. Each of us is different and, again, we all seem to be able to handle different foods differently. Some of us react poorly to some things while those same food groups seem to work fine for others. If potato chips hurt your pancreas, don't eat them! For me, white fish (I wouldn't even try the other fishes), skinless turkey and red meat hurt my system - yet other people with pancreatitis have no problem with these foods. Don't go by what other people say. Use it as a starting point. Then, see how your body is affected by what you eat. If something hurts you, don't do it! Just trust that your pancreas isn't ready for that food. Maybe someday my pancreas will be ready for meats. All I know is that today is not the day. Not much is known about pancreatitis and, between now and when a cure is found, I don't want to die from it. My guess is that the more often my pancreas hurts the more damage is being done. I want as little damage done as possible because the more damage that is done the more likely it is that I will die earlier. Pancreatitis is not a nice, easy going disease and we really need to remember that it's a real temperamental jerk and and we need to handle it with kid gloves or it's just going to get pissed off. The way pancreatitis gets pissed off is by attacking the pancreas. That's not good. So, don't piss it off. In case I need to remind you, today is not your day to drink. Drinking is no longer an option for you. You drank too much. Now, you get to deal with the reprecussions which are playing the 'which foods are okay to eat' game. I believe the less we hurt our pancreas the longer we have to live. That means, for me, the less I hurt my pancreas with food the more of a chance I have of living longer. Now that sounds good to me! I hope it does to you, too! Stay away from booze and pay attention to foods don't hurt your pancreas...and have a great day! If you have found the information on this site to be useful consider leaving a donation. | 
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