Diverticulitis Club spoke to Dalia Weinreb RD, a Registered Dietitian and Nutritionist who specialises in gut health and digestive disorders. Dalia has around 20 years of clinical experience, works with patients internationally and is registered in both the UK and US.
This article is for general information only and does not constitute medical advice. Always seek guidance from a qualified medical practitioner about your own diagnosis and treatment.
Mark, founder of Diverticulitis Club, interviewed Dalia to answer the questions our members raise most often: how much fibre to eat, how fast to increase it, and why one doctor’s advice so often contradicts another’s. Dalia also spoke about a patient who stopped leaving her own house, why she left the NHS in tears, and the single question she wishes every newly diagnosed patient would ask her.
- How Did Dalia Become A Dietitian?
- What Drew Dalia To The Mind-Body Connection?
- What Is The Biggest Misunderstanding About Fibre And Diverticulitis?
- How Do You Get The Pace Of Fibre Right?
- How Are Stress And Digestion Linked?
- What Do You Say To Someone Given Conflicting Advice?
- Why This Work Feels So Personal To Dalia
- What Do You Wish More People Asked You?
- How Can You Work With Dalia?
- FAQ’s
- Key Takeaways
- A Final Word
How Did Dalia Become A Dietitian?
Dalia’s own bowel stopped working properly at fifteen. Doctors sent her to gastroenterology, where a year’s waiting list ended with a shrug, and then to a psychologist, which her family refused. She spent her teenage years in the library, researching her own condition because the internet did not yet exist.
She studied environmental biogeoscience at university, then switched course after a naturopathic doctor altered her diet and her bowel function improved. Dalia was fascinated.
“I thought, wow, what did he do? What was happening before? And I just became so fascinated with the power of nutrition to change your health.”
She retrained in nutrition and dietetics and has not looked back since, and she describes being a dietitian as much more than a job.
“I feel like it’s my calling. It’s almost like I was chosen to do this job because of what I went through, versus I chose this job.“
And there is no mistaking her enthusiasm.
“I love my career. I just have the best job in the world. Honestly, returning people to health is a really amazing privilege.“
What Drew Dalia To The Mind-Body Connection?
Dalia resents the idea that gut symptoms are “all in your head”, and she heard that dismissal from professionals throughout her own diagnosis. Years of clinical experience convinced her the opposite is true: the mind and the gut are not separate systems.
“How our mind feels affects the physiology of our gut, and how our gut feels affects how our mind feels. We are one being.“
Dalia describes the gut as an incredibly sensitive organ and points to the constant communication between the brain and the gut.
“It’s not telling people it’s in their head. It’s saying your stress response is going to affect your health.“
That is an important distinction. Your symptoms are real. But that does not mean your gut exists independently from the rest of you.
The gut has its own nervous system, sometimes called the second brain, and it reacts to stress before the conscious mind even registers a problem. Dalia treats the whole patient rather than the symptom in isolation, and a patient’s relationship problems, work stress or life circumstances sit on her treatment plan alongside food.
What Is The Biggest Misunderstanding About Fibre And Diverticulitis?
Doctors and patients often talk about fibre as though it is a single substance. It is not. Different fibres behave differently in different guts, which is why a generic fibre target rarely works on its own.
Dalia also hears frequently that seeds and nuts cause diverticulitis. This is out of date advice. Current evidence shows no connection between seeds and flares, yet the myth persists because it comes from medical training that has not been refreshed since it was taught decades ago.
“I do wonder how much continuing education doctors do on diverticulitis. They might just be looking back to medical school thirty years ago.“
The public health target for fibre intake is 30g a day, adjusted for body size and sex. Reaching that figure safely, without triggering symptoms, is the real skill, and it looks different for every patient.
How Do You Get The Pace Of Fibre Right?
Dalia’s approach starts with data, not guesswork. She asks patients to count their current fibre intake, then increase it gradually while tracking symptoms.
“Slow and steady wins the race. There’s a lot of pressure to meet public health fibre requirements, but you’re not going to get there if you rush yourself. You’ll only relapse.”
Dalia told me that a patient’s diary is one of her most valuable tools because it can help her identify patterns and make an educated judgement about which types of fibre may suit that individual.
Step | What To Do | Why It Matters |
Week 1 | Count your current daily fibre intake | Establishes a real starting point instead of a guess |
Week 2 onwards | Increase gradually, roughly 2g at a time | Rapid increases are the most common cause of bloating and pain |
Ongoing | Start with soluble fibre, then build towards insoluble fibre too | Soluble fibre is gentler to start with, but insoluble fibre is also valuable for gut health, so the aim is to include both over time |
Every day | Match fibre with fluids | Fibre without enough water causes cramping, gas and constipation |
Alongside food changes | Keep moving | Mobility and stretching support digestion as fibre increases |
Soluble fibre is usually the easier starting point, but Dalia is clear that insoluble fibre matters too. The goal is not to avoid it long term, but to build up to including both types as tolerance improves.
Hydration is not optional. Dalia recommends a glass of water each morning before your first tea or coffee.
“Think of your bowel as a tube. Wash the tube, wash the tube, wash the tube.“
Tea and coffee are not banned, but they are dehydrating, so water needs to come first, not instead.
How Are Stress And Digestion Linked?
Stress can cause people to skip meals, snack continuously or simply lose their normal eating routine. Dalia believes maintaining a regular rhythm of meals can help support the gut.
“Three meals a day often under stress meals slip away. People start to snack and to nibble.“
Her advice is refreshingly practical: keep eating properly, even if that means a supermarket meal deal rather than something home cooked.
“The gut likes to have three meals a day and a break in between, where it sweeps itself.“
This guidance applies to everyday stress rather than an acute flare, which needs its own separate approach and should always be discussed with a GP or dietitian directly.
What Do You Say To Someone Given Conflicting Advice?
Contradictory advice from different doctors is one of the most common complaints raised in the Diverticulitis Club community. Dalia believes patients sometimes need to take responsibility for educating themselves about nutrition, rather than assuming that every healthcare professional will have detailed knowledge of the latest dietary evidence. She put it more bluntly during our conversation:
“I think listening to your doctor about nutrition is probably a mistake.“
That is deliberately provocative. Her underlying point, however, was that detailed nutritional advice is a specialist area, and she believes people with digestive conditions should ideally have access to a dietitian who understands gastroenterology.
Why This Work Feels So Personal To Dalia
Dalia left the NHS after a moment she still carries with her. A patient dying of pancreatic cancer, following major abdominal surgery, asked her directly what the point of a dietitian even was.
“My hands were tied. I could offer her Ensure. I couldn’t offer her anything actually healing.“
In private practice, she has a full hour with each patient and the freedom to act on her clinical judgement. She has since worked with a woman in her seventies, a widow experiencing faecal incontinence, whose doctors had told her to take Imodium and accept it. The condition had already stopped her going to bingo and walking her dog.
“It would have been the death of her, to stay in and be lonely.“
Dalia resolved the problem, and her patient went back out into the world.
Bowel conditions are often treated as an inconvenience. But for the person living with one, the consequences can reach far beyond the toilet. They can affect confidence, relationships, eating, travelling, socialising and the simple freedom to leave the house without worrying about where the nearest toilet is.
Dalia speaks openly about this because she has experienced it herself.
“My job is to minimise those attacks… I feel very strongly about giving people the confidence that they can go out and eat whatever they want. And they can. I’ll teach them how to manage that.“
What Do You Wish More People Asked You?
Dalia hears the same, powerful question from her best-prepared patients:
“How can I build a healthy diet? I realise I haven’t had a healthy diet until now, help me build it.“
She encourages every newly diagnosed patient to reframe the diagnosis as the start of a positive health journey rather than a life sentence. A high fibre diet does more than manage diverticulitis: it also reduces the risk of diabetes, certain cancers and heart disease.
How Can You Work With Dalia?
Dalia sees patients worldwide via Zoom and is dual registered as a dietitian in both the UK and the US. The first step is booking an initial consultation through her website.
“You can be on the moon, hiding in a cave, and I will help you.“
FAQ’s
Do seeds and nuts cause diverticulitis flares?
No. This is an outdated myth that traces back to medical training from decades ago. Current guidance does not support avoiding seeds and nuts.
How much fibre should I eat if I have diverticulitis?
The general public health target is 30g a day, adjusted for your size and sex, but the safest route there is a gradual increase of around 2g a week rather than a sudden jump.
Why does my doctor’s advice keep contradicting what I read elsewhere?
Nutrition training in general medical education often lags behind current evidence. A dietitian who specialises in gut health, working from your own symptom data, is usually better placed to guide fibre changes than general advice alone.
Can stress really affect diverticulitis symptoms?
Yes. The gut and the nervous system communicate constantly in both directions, and disrupted routines, particularly skipped or irregular meals under stress, can affect gut rhythm.
Key Takeaways
- Fibre is not one substance. Different fibres suit different guts, and a food and symptom diary is the most reliable way to work out what suits yours.
- Increase fibre gradually, roughly 2g a week, alongside plenty of fluids.
- Have a glass of water before your first tea or coffee each morning.
- Eat three regular meals a day, especially during stressful periods, so the gut gets its natural break.
- Seeds and nuts do not cause diverticulitis flares.
- Stress and gut health affect each other directly. Treating one without the other rarely works.
A Final Word
Dalia has lived the condition she now treats, and it shapes every answer she gives.
“How did I get here? I couldn’t poo. I’m not going to mince my words. That is exactly what happened, and it still happens sometimes.“
If a specialist who has spent her career studying the gut still needs to manage her own symptoms carefully, it is worth asking why any of us should be expected to work this out alone, or to accept “just live with it” as a final answer.
If you want expert insight like this on a regular basis, or want to share your own experience of managing diverticulitis, join the conversation on the Diverticulitis Club forum. You can find out more about Dalia’s practice at dalianutrition.com, and read more about diverticular disease on the NHS website.
This article is for general information only and does not constitute medical advice. Always seek guidance from a qualified medical practitioner about your own diagnosis and treatment.