101 Soft Foods to Eat When Chewing Hurts

Are you looking for soft foods to eat when chewing hurts? This article provides 101 different soft food ideas and a free PDF download! And it provides some general information on a soft foods diet or no chew diet.

Why Follow a Soft Foods Diet?

A soft foods diet or no chew diet can help make it easier to eat when chewing hurts. Most people will follow a soft food diet temporarily.

Those without teeth (or dentures) may be following a soft foods diet long term.

Let’s look at some of the reasons to follow a soft foods diet.

Soft Foods for Mouth Pain

You may be looking to follow a soft foods diet if you have mouth pain.

Mouth pain may be caused by dental issues. Untreated cavities or gingivitis can make it difficult to eat. When you bite down you experience significant pain.

The solution is to find foods that do no require chewing. So, you don’t have to bite down. Rather, you can mush food around in your mouth before a swallow.

Soft Foods After Dental Surgery

Having mouth or dental surgery can cause temporary pain requiring a soft foods diet.

Having wisdom teeth removed, oral surgery, or even just getting tight braces placed can cause temporary mouth pain making it difficult to chew.

A soft foods diet can help you get through the first days and weeks following dental surgery (or any type of dental procedure). Over time, as the pain goes away you can transition back to a normal diet.

Caution with Mouth Pain

If you are looking for soft foods to eat because chewing hurts, it is so important to address the underlying issues causing your pain.

While dental or oral health care is expensive, if left untreated it can lead to significant health issues.

Chewing should not hurt. Pain is your body’s way of saying something is wrong.

It is important to find the underlying issue causing your mouth pain. Treating the mouth pain can mean you go back to following a regular diet sooner.

And while rare, mouth pain can be a sign of oral cancer. Additionally, untreated cavities or mouth sores can lead to an infection or heart issues.

Be sure to work with your healthcare team to resolve any ongoing issues you have with mouth pain.

Tips for Selecting Soft Foods to Eat

Let’s talk about tips for selecting soft foods to eat.

Every person is in a different situation. Maybe you need every food you eat to be smooth or pureed. But maybe you can manage some texture as long as it’s soft.

The key making foods easier to eat when chewing hurts is: soft, tender, moist foods.

Tender and Moist

Making sure foods are tender is important when following a soft foods diet.

If you are eating grains, make sure you cook them extra long so they are soft and mushy.

When cooking meat, cook them low and slow (crock pots work great) until the meat falls apart with a fork. Adding extra moisture and/or cutting the meat can help make it even easier to eat.

Adding more liquid during the cooking process and/or to foods when serving can make them easier to eat. Think of adding gravy to mashed potatoes. Or a splash of cream to oatmeal.

If a food is too dry, even if it is soft, it can be difficult to eat.

Premade Soft Foods

You can make foods soft by blending them, mushing them, cooking them slow, and/or adding liquid.

Or you can select foods that are already soft.

Canned foods are a great example of premade soft foods. The process of canning requires heat and liquid. This makes the canned food quite soft and easy to eat.

Not all canned foods are soft and easy to eat. For example, canned pineapple can be a little difficult due to the texture of pineapple. But canned mandarin oranges or diced peaches can be quite soft and easy to eat.

Remember, everyone tolerates softs foods differently. This is based on their individual situation.

The soft foods to eat below are ideas to get you started. Over time you will find your favorite soft foods that make eating less painful.

101 Soft Foods to Eat List When Chewing Hurts

Without further ado, here is our list of 101 foods to eat when chewing hurts.

This list doesn’t include every single soft foods ever created. It’s just some ideas to get you started. The foods are listed in alphabetical order (no special ranking for the “best” since everyone tolerates foods differently).

I hope this list provides you with some inspiration for soft food you can eat! And be sure to download your free PDF of 101 Soft Foods to Eat When Chewing Hurts!

1. Almond butter
2. Apples (well-cooked & soft)
3. Applesauce
4. Apple juice
5. Avocados
6. Banana (ripe)
7. Bean dip (smooth)
8. Beans (well-cooked)
9. Beef stew (well-cooked)
10. Brie (w/o skin)
11. Broccoli cheddar soup
12. Broth (beef, chicken, vegetable)
13. Cantaloupe (very ripe)
14. Carrots (canned)
15. Carrots (well-cooked)
16. Cashew butter
17. Cheese spread
18. Cheesecake
19. Chicken noodle soup
20. Cottage Cheese
21. Cheese (Cream Cheese)
22. Cranberry juice
23. Cream of mushroom soup
24. Cream of Wheat
25. Creamed spinach
26. Custard
27. Egg salad
28. Fettuccine
29. Flan
30. Frozen yogurt
31. Fruit cocktail (canned)
32. Fudge bars
33. Grape juice
34. Green beans (canned)
35. Grits
36. Guacamole
37. Hard boiled eggs
38. Hot cereal (cool before eating)
39. Hummus
40. Ice cream
41. Jam
42. Jelly
43. Jell-O
44. Kefir
45. Lentil soup
46. Lentils
47. Macaroni and cheese
48. Mandarin oranges (canned)
49. Mango (ripe)
50. Mashed cauliflower
51. Mashed sweet potatoes
52. Mashed white potatoes
53. Meatloaf
54. Milk
55. Milkshake
56. Mousse
57. Nutrition supplement drinks
58. Oatmeal (well cooked)
59. Orange juice
60. Pancakes
61. Papaya
62. Pasta
63. Peaches (canned)
64. Peaches (very ripe)
65. Peanut butter
66. Pears (canned)
67. Pears (very ripe)
68. Peas (well-cooked)
69. Pita bread (soft)
70. Poached eggs
71. Polenta
72. Pomegranate juice
73. Popsicles
74. Potato soup
75. Protein shakes
76. Pudding
77. Rice (well-cooked & moist)
78. Salmon
79. Scrambled eggs
80. Shakes
81. Sherbet
82. Shredded beef (tender & moist)
83. Shredded chicken (tender & moist)
84. Shredded turkey (tender & moist)
85. Sloppy Joes
86. Smoothies
87. Soft bread
88. Sorbet
89. Soufflé
90. Spaghetti
91. Squash (well-cooked)
92. Tapioca
93. Tilapia
94. Tofu (soft)
95. Tomatoes
96. Tomatoes (canned)
97. Tomato soup
98. Tortilla
99. Tuna
100. Tuna salad
101. Yogurt (smooth)

Infographic: 101 Soft Foods to Eat List When Chewing Hurts

Be sure to grab your free PDF or click the image above for your download!

Sample No Chew Meal Plan

Now we covered a lot of different soft foods to eat. But what does that look like in a meal or throughout the day?

Here is an example of a soft foods or no chew meal plan for a day.

Soft Foods Breakfast

From eggs to soft cooked grains to yogurt and smoothies. Breakfast is an easy meal to incorporate soft foods to eat. In fact, many of these foods you may already eat for breakfast.

Sample Soft Foods Breakfast:

• 2 scrambled eggs
• Canned diced peaches
• 1 glass milk

Soft Foods Lunch

A classic soft food to eat at lunch is soup. Soups and stews are great because they are heated for a long time making the ingredients soft. And with the liquid, soups go down easy.

Sample Soft Foods Lunch:

• Beef and vegetable stew
• Applesauce
• Iced tea

Soft Foods Dinner

Finding soft foods to eat for dinner is often the most challenging meal. Here is a delicious soft foods dinner idea.

Sample Soft Foods Dinner:

• Meat loaf with gravy
• Mashed potatoes with gravy
• Canned green beans

Soft Foods Snacks

In addition to 3 solid meals, you may be looking for some food soft foods snack ideas. Here is a list of some tasty soft foods snacks.

Sample Soft Food Snacks:

• Yogurt topped with jam
• Cottage cheese with canned peaches
• Egg salad
• High Calorie Smoothies

Soft Foods to Eat Conclusion

I hope this article gave you some ideas on what soft foods to eat when chewing hurts. Whatever the reason for your mouth pain, I hope it resolves soon.

And be sure to check out our article: 15 Best Foods You Can Eat Without Chewing

Best of luck to you!