I think your instincts are right: it does seem bizarre that someone with diarrhoea should base their diet on animal proteins, especially red meat and cheese, which are notoriously hard on a sensitive gut. But there are a few things in the diet sheet that make sense and would be useful for anyone with diarrhoea.

First, make sure that your husband drinks enough water, because diarrhoea will increase the amount of fluid he loses, leaving him with the classic dehydration symptoms of tiredness, headache, etc. I treat a lot of people having radiotherapy, and find that if they drink 2.5l (4.5 pints) of water a day they can ride the treatment much better. I don’t think that sweet drinks should be drunk in excess, but when you have diarrhoea a little cordial — lime, lemon, elderflower — can make the water more appetising: and the sugar is easily absorbed, even if the gut is rejecting a lot of things, which means that one’s electrolyte (potassium, sodium, etc) balance is maintained.

Next, I’d keep his diet low in fibre: use white bread rather than wholemeal, white rice (a traditional binding food), white pasta, etc, as wholemeal can be too rough for the gut. Even though too much fresh fruit is hard for an unsettled gut to deal with, pectin — a form of soluble fibre found in fruits and vegetables — helps to reduces diarrhoea by absorbing water: it also stops important minerals from being flushed too rapidly out of the gut.

Keep your husband eating vegetable soups, as they’re not only nutritionally useful but provide much-needed fluid; however, add potato, pasta (spelt pasta is often easier to digest) or rice as an extra high-starch ingredient to provide energy.

Cold cooked vegetables — runner beans, peas, squash, courgettes — are sometimes OK, as cooking makes them more digestible. They’re delicious with olive oil and fresh herbs and go well with a simple pasta dish. Cooked fruits can be better tolerated than raw, too, so go for pear compote, poached peaches, baked bananas and so on.

Try to keep down his intake of fatty foods, as they’re not easy to digest; chicken, white fish and eggs are preferable to fatty sausages, cream, butter and pastries. Vegetable fats aren’t well tolerated, so you need to go easy on the oils. Sometimes people undergoing radiotherapy find that their gut doesn’t like dairy. The exception is live bio yoghurt with probiotic bacteria, as this contains natural bacteria such as lactobacillus and bifida that can help the recovery from diarrhoea.

Sometimes a sensitive gut is better at dealing with small, frequent meals. If diarrhoea continues at night, try to eat as early in the day as possible. Lack of sleep can make a gut even more sensitive.

Finally, get your husband to try aloe vera juice (available from good health-food stores), as this can be soothing for a gut undergoing such invasive treatment, and good for getting over diarrheal bugs. Take 30ml three times a day, half an hour before or after having anything hot to drink, as the heat reduces its potency.

What are your views on the supposed health risks associated with smoked foods?

Smoked and cured foods such as salmon, haddock, meats and cheese contain N-nitroso compounds, which may be linked to colorectal cancer if you eat a lot of them. But if you stick to the Food Standards Agency’s recommendation of no more than two 140g (5oz) portions a week of oily fish — which includes smoked salmon — for young girls and women of childbearing age, and up to four 140g portions for everyone else, you should be fine.

Choose salmon that has been caught and smoked in the same place, and has a catching and smoking date and a never-frozen guarantee. Buy naturally smoked haddock, which is pale rather than bright yellow.

Cured foods are often high in salt. Gravad lax is especially culpable, since it isn’t smoked, but is cured in salt and dill, and so is particularly bad for our blood pressure.

DO YOU NEED ADVICE?

Send your nutritional problems to jane.clarke@thetimes.co.uk or to Jane Clarke, times2, 1 Pennington Street, London E98 1TT. Her replies cannot apply to individual cases and should be taken in a general context. Consult your GP with any health or specific conditions. Jane cannot enter into personal correspondence.

NEXT WEEK IN THE TIMES

Get a taste of Jane Clarke’s fantastic new book Yummy! Every Parent’s Nutrition Bible. Twenty new children’s healthy recipes by Jane in a free 36-page booklet next Saturday, and five recipe cards, starting on Monday. Plus Q&A with Jane at www.timesonline.co.uk/talkingpoint

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