Bladder Irritants

Some of the things you eat or drink can have an effect on your urinary urgency and frequency, ability to empty your bladder and pelvic pain. While not everything on this list is going to affect you, consider eliminating one or a few of these and see if your symptoms improve. You can always add them back in to see how they affect your symptoms. Consider this to be an elimination diet, rather than a cold turkey stop. Even if something does affect your bladder, you can always choose to have the irritant, you’ll just know how they affect your symptoms. 

These are the top 5 most common bladder irritants: 

• Caffeine

• Alcohol

• Artificial sweeteners

• Spicy or acidic foods (including vinegar) 

• Carbonation 

Other possible irritants:

• Tomatoes

• Chocolate

• Sweeteners of any kind 

• Dairy

• Vitamins B and C

If you eliminate multiple things from your diet and your symptoms improve, add one of them back in to see how it affects your symptoms. 

You might notice that it's not necessarily what you drink or eat but how much of that irritant you consume. For example, you may be able to tolerate coffee in the morning, but not coffee, orange juice, and salsa on your eggs for breakfast.