Reader Question: Can you eat rice before a colonoscopy?

“I’m prepping for a colonoscopy and planning my meals for a few days beforehand — is plain white rice allowed any time before the colonoscopy, or should I skip it?”

Planning your colonoscopy prep meals days ahead is the right strategy to maximize the success of your procedure. To answer your question, plain white rice is an excellent option to add to your meal plan in the early stages of preparation but it is not allowed when you are a day away from your colonoscopy.

Let me break it down further.

About 2-3 days before your colonoscopy, you will be asked to start on a low-fiber diet. Compliance to this diet is important because it helps reduce colon residue and optimize visibility during scoping. Plain white rice is low in fiber, making it high in the list of what you should be eating in this timeframe.

Skinless chicken and turkey, fish, eggs, bone broths, seedless fruits, apple juice, and an hydrating coconut water jello are some great options to pair with your plate of white rice.

However, there is a time in the preparation phase when white rice is not allowed. 24 hours before your colonoscopy, you will have to transition to a clear liquid diet to ensure your colon is as empty as possible. As white rice is not a liquid food, it is absolutely impermissible at this point.