Crohn's diet

[matrix123]

Hello,
I'm posting again regarding my cousin who's had colectomy about 3 months ago and is diagnosed from Crohn's disease.

Until know she has got a lot of contradictory information about her diet. The last recommendation from the doc has been "she can eat anything". I have tried to find some recommendation for a diet for people with Crohn's disease, but haven't found something useful, so I'm asking here:

1. Will a diet make a difference for people with Crohn's?
2. Should people who had colectomy keep a diet?
3. Regardless of the diet is it "normal" for people with Crohn to eat things like Hamburger, Sandwitch, tec?
4. Is there any good recommendation for a Crohn's diet?

Thank you

 

[Beach]

Dietary ideas such as the SCD or paleo have been helpful for many with Crohn's, but not all that try. Some that take a dietary approach do not see improvement.

A sight that you might find of help for your cousin is professor Dr. Hunters. He is reporting good success with Crohn's patients on diets. His IBD program can be seen at:

http://crohns.org.uk/

& a Daily Mail newspaper article explaining further Dr. Hunters work, along with a mention on study information that has been published concerning Crohn's and diet. Good luck!

"How to tackle Crohn's Disease without the help of drugs"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1076594/How-tackle-Crohns-Disease-help-drugs.html

 

[UnXmas]

Hi, I've had a colectomy also. I was advised to eat less fibre, and I have found this does help my symptoms a little, although I don't take it to extremes - I can still eat some fibre in small quantities without too much trouble. It might help to reduce high-fibre foods (most fruit, vegetables, whole grains and nuts and seeds) especially in the early stages of recovering from a colectomy. Having fruit juice and pureed soups are good ways of getting in fruit and vegetables if fibre is a problem.

However, the diet that suits people with Crohn's does vary a lot from one individual to another. The only way to learn what's best is through trial and error. I think it is probably because there are no set rules about what helps that many doctors end up saying diet doesn't matter with Crohn's.

Avoiding the things that are known to be hard to digest, even for those with healthy digestive systems, is a good place to start: avoid things that are very spicy, very rich, and trying to eat several small meals and snacks a day rather than three large meals might be helpful.

Further guidelines for diet really depend on whether she needs to gain weight and what particular symptoms she is having.

The most important thing, in my opinion, is not to get caught up in any overly-restrictive or radical diets. As you've already found, there is an awful lot of contradictory information available - not all of it is correct, and even if it helps some people with Crohn's, it won't necessarily help every person with Crohn's.

The best things to do are to find foods that your cousin likes, monitor her symptoms to see if she can find any patterns between dietary changes and symptoms, try to make sure her diet is balanced and provides all the nutrients that every person needs, but also make sure she enjoys her food and don't worry too much if she ends up making some mistakes. Although she may feel ill as a result of eating the wrong thing, she won't do herself any lasting damage.

 

[matrix123]

Thank you for the useful answers.

What's bothering me is that she eats too much "junk food" that includes fried potatoes, sandwiches, hamburgers, etc. Since the doc said to her that food does not matter, she isn't taking any special care. However, my "feeling" was that since she's have problems with the digestive tract, at least she should take some care and eat at least a healthy diet.

 

[Beach]

That tends to be a common mention by doctors about IBD conditions and diet. Something to keep in mind is that most physicians receive very little training in dietary methods. Chances are your cousins doctor is not familiar with what could help with her diet. For example, one write up I recall on this by Dr. Pauline Chen, on the little training she received concerning diet when in medical school.

"Teaching Doctors About Nutrition and Diet"

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/16/health/16chen.html?_r=0

Not all patients want to go the dietary route also. As an earlier article posted by Dr. Hunter mentions, even though he has had good success in getting Crohn's patients into remission using diet ideas, around 90% success, approx. 25% drop out of his program. So I imagine the best that can be done for your cousin is mentioning that diet can potentially help improve her IBD condition if she should choose to try that route someday in the future.

 

[hugh]

this pretty much explains it....
"One consultant gastroenterologist at a major London teaching hospital, who wished to remain anonymous, explains: 'Exclusion diets are not easy for the patient or supervising doctors; it's much easier to just hand out a pill."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/a...-Crohns-Disease-help-drugs.html#ixzz2ZFRWgEDG

whereas the truth is....
"To say that diet “doesn’t matter” – a common medical teaching in Crohn’s – is to vastly overstep the boundaries of our knowledge."
Lee Hieb, M.D.

Diet can make a huge difference, but it takes effort and will power to find out
If your cousin is interested this is a good start to understanding food toxicity,,, (but if she is not interested there is nothing you can do but wait until she is)
http://perfecthealthdiet.com/2010/0...i-healing-the-gut-by-eliminating-food-toxins/
then this......
http://www.crohnsforum.com/showthread.php?t=48559
then this.......
http://eugenia.queru.com/2012/12/08/the-gut-and-paleo-scd-gaps-fodmaps/
and then maybe this......
http://www.crohnsforum.com/showthread.php?t=52400

 

[UnXmas]

Thank you for the useful answers.

What's bothering me is that she eats too much "junk food" that includes fried potatoes, sandwiches, hamburgers, etc. Since the doc said to her that food does not matter, she isn't taking any special care. However, my "feeling" was that since she's have problems with the digestive tract, at least she should take some care and eat at least a healthy diet.

It's not good for anyone to have too much junk food, and eating a diet that provides all the right nutrients is important for everyone's health, whether they have Crohn's or not. However, I don't think "junk food" isn't any worse for people with Crohn's than for people without Crohn's, and everyone can eat some junk as long as it's in moderation and along side plenty of healthy food.

For some people with Crohn's, some junk food can be beneficial, especially if they need to gain weight. As some people with Crohn's feel worse when eating too much fibre, sometimes the option that is conventionally seen as less healthy is actually the better choice. For example, I find white bread easier to digest than wholemeal bread.

There's no reason your cousin should stop eating fried potatoes, sandwiches and hamburgers just because she has Crohn's. If she notices she feels worse after eating them, she may want to cut them out, but if she doesn't feel worse then eating them sometimes won't do her any harm.

I think it's fine for her to keep eating these things, as long as her overall diet provides all the nutrients she needs, and as long as she's not eating so much junk food that she compromises other aspects of her health - for example, as long as she's not gaining too much weight, eating too much salt, etc.