Hello Dave. Welcome to the forum and thanks for posting.
I wish it was as easy as saying follow these 5 steps and eat this diet and everything will work for you. But unfortunately, this is a disease that seems to differ for everyone.
Regarding diet, you really need to do what works for you. People with IBD usually have more trouble or symptoms with diary products, whole wheat, nuts, seeds and the skin of fruits and vegetables (especially peas and corn). I would recommend trying to avoid these foods as much as possible, except if you are fully sure that these things do not cause you any problems. For me, I could eat some fruits and vegetables if they were skinned, and steamed/boiled.
I recommend keeping a food journal and recording what you eat throghout the day, as well as any pain or discomfort felt (perhaps what you felt after each meal on a scale from 1-10). This may allow you to figure out what foods are most likely to trigger symptoms with you and therefore you can avoid them in the future.
If weight loss and proper vitamin intake is a problem, you may find it easy to drink meal replacements like boost or ensure. They have a good amount of calories, in addition to many vitamins and minerals. The issue with Crohn's Disease though is it may be causing you to suffer from malabsorption due to inflamation in your intestine, so you may be having trouble absorbing nutrients even if you are eating them. Vitamins can be taken for deficiencies (including ones just for iron) or you can try eating iron rich foods like liver or those found
here
I also suffered from sever constipation, and I found that certain actions allowed me to be a bit more regular, but unfortunately only surgery brought me back to anything close to a normal frequency. Drinking a lot of water was helpful, and I believe the target is to drink your weight in kilograms divided by 8 (1 pound =0.45359 kgs). I also found that eating fibre is important, which can be an issue as high fibre foods can trigger pain. I found oatmeal to be a good source of fibre for me, and I could tolerate bananas as a fruit and steamed carrots and pepers as vegetables quite well. You may want to even look into flax seed powder or psyllium fibre husk. Both of these powders can be added over other foods or taken with water of another beverage (I take psyllium with water) and both give you several grams of fibre (flax also gives you some fat). I have been told that psyllium is good for all people with IBD, however I would caution you to speak with a doctor or professional before adding them to your diet. If you do add them, make sure you add them slowly, and you drink extra wateras this will add quite a bit of fibre to your body.
In addition to that, I found that avoiding white sugar or any artificial sweetner was helpful as well. This was difficult to do, but I think it is helpful. Instead of white bread, I was able to eat spelt bread. There are other options at health food stores, so consider going to one to see what food items you like you can get that do not have sugar in them.
Hopefully this helps a bit and good luck with your treatment!
