How to tell what you can/can't eat?

[dj_tano]

Hi everyone,

Here's something I'm really struggling with: how can you tell what you can and can't eat?

I've had crohn's for around 2,5 years now, and there are very few foods I don't eat and that is because they just make me uncomfortably gassy (coffee, beans, etc.).

Right now I'm having a flare up and I've been wondering if maybe I have been eating bad in the past 6 months, however there really is no food that I eat and then just feel bad afterward. Now I'm starting to think that maybe I simply don't know what symptoms to look out for to know if I can't eat something.

Can you help me understand how I can recognize food I shouldn't be eating?

Thanks!

 

[errmagerd]

This is what my gastro said to me when I asked him the same question less than a week ago:

Foods shouldn't make Crohn's worse, but Crohn's can make it hard to eat certain foods. So as long as it doesn't cause me pain or gas or any symptoms, I can eat it.


I'm very new to this so I'm learning as well, but this is what I know. Hopefully this helps, or at least someone else can explain better than I!

 

[Magnolia24]

The standard answer about food is that specific foods will not actually make the disease worse, but because of already existing damage, certain foods will be hard to digest. It is the first answer I got as well.

HOWEVER, there is an alternate perspective on food and Crohn's. Have you looked into the Specific Carbohydrate Diet at all? SCD is based on the idea that part of what is happening in IBD is an imbalance of bacteria in the digestive tract. This imbalance causes an immune response and inflammation. Certain foods (sugar, grains, lactose) feed overgrown bacteria, and keep someone with IBD from getting well. Elaine Gottschall gives a more thorough explanation of this theory in her book Breaking The Vicious Cycle (http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/home/)

In response to your specific question - How do you tell what you can and can't eat - In order to really be successful on SCD many recommend beginning with an elimination diet, where you start with a few simple, easy to digest foods (homemade chicken soup, steamed carrots, etc.), and slowly add other things in. If you have a reaction you can pin point it to a specific food. This process is outlined on http://scdlifestyle.com