New here, and looking to eat right!

[vexon1]

So I've finally taken the plunge into getting help from others that have Crohn's, considering doctors give me too general of information.

A little quickie about me. I'm 29, soon to be 30 and have been diagnosed with Crohn's since my early 20's. A big issue of mine is that I've always had a problem with gaining weight. I'll put on a pound here or there, and for the most part, I'll have a bad week (little flare here or there) and I've lost that weight, plus a few extra pounds.

My current weight right now is about 150, and I'm 6'0". My goal is to be around 180, with the proper diet and work out program (seeing a trainer soon).

So I guess my main question (or questions) are, What type of foods are good for putting on the weight while generally being gentle on the stomach, and are there any good supplements out there that tend to react well for crohn's patients.

Thanks in advance for any and all help!

 

[Susan2]

Hi Vexon and :welcome:

This is a hard question to answer because, as with all things to do with Crohn's, there is a great deal of difference between the experiences of individuals.

Bland, non-fibrous foods are gentle on the stomach. My better foods were always avocado, smooth peanut butter, bananas, white bread, but I can also tolerate milk products, which are impossible for many people with any form of IBD. Unfortunately, it's very much a matter of try it and see.

There are a number of supplements that would help you put on weight. My only experience is with Ensure, which I didn't mind drinking and which certainly helped boost my weight.

 

[hugh]

My two cents, copied from my reply to someone else on another thread,
make up your own mind....

My two cents, and i don't want to start a war.......

See what makes more sense to you and try that first.
Don't dogmatically stick to any diet or ideology if it obviously isn't working (but keep in mind you may feel a bit worse before you feel better)

I went from eating 5 meals a day plus snacks and loosing weight (a skeletal 55kg) to eating 3 meals a day with (almost) no snacks and gaining weight (a slender 66kg) by eating a paleo diet (low carb NOT very-low carb - sweet potato and tubers) with no exercise or meds (but we're all different}

It's NOT about calories, it's about whether you are digesting and absorbing what you eat.
Eating more **** won't help, as you are just feeding the bacteria that are keeping you sick!!!!!!!!!!
Creating a favourable environment for healthy 'good' bacteria and restoring gut integrity (fixing leaky gut) [1] is the biggest step to healing.

I recommend looking at "the perfect health diet"[2] (or a similar 'real food' diet -SCD,GAPS, Paleo,, excluding all processed **** and 'food-like' products.)
The 'PHD' is far easier than paleo as it recommends a fairly high carb intake but only from 'safe' carbs (no grains-except white rice, no processed foods, low sugar) and eating fermented foods - among other things.
This is a good starting point, and if it helps you can look at other dietary or lifestyle changes if they are still required.

[1] "The twofold increase in permeability of patients and their relatives (p <0.005 compared with controls) indicates that the intestinal defect in the ability to exclude larger sized molecules is not secondary to clinically recognized intestinal inflammation, but is a primary defect that may be an etiologic factor in this disease."
http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=700963
"These results show that increases in intestinal permeability precede clinical relapses in Crohn's disease and so are an indicator of subclinical disease."
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/014067369390882H
"Time-dependent analysis, performed on patients receiving serial evaluation, showed that L/M test [intestinal permeability (lactulose/mannitol test] alteration was the only variable that could predict a relapse"
http://www.nature.com/ajg/journal/v94/n10/abs/ajg1999660a.html
"Abundant data have incriminated intestinal bacteria in the initiation and amplification stages of inflammatory bowel diseases."
http://gut.bmj.com/content/53/1/1.1.full
Crohn's Disease Marked by Dramatic Changes in Gut Bacteria
http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2014/03/crohns-disease-marked-dramatic-changes-gut-bacteria
" Our findings indicate that a combination of different bacterial species or a dynamic interplay between individual species is important for disease and is consistent with the dysbiosis hypothesis of CD."
http://jcm.asm.org/content/50/10/3258.full

[2] Bowel Disorders, Part I: About Gut Disease (read all 4 parts)
"On the other hand, if we prioritize chronologically in terms of the original causes, the disease is originally caused by food toxins and malnutrition and sometimes antibiotics, which cause intestinal damage and infections, followed by autoimmunity."
http://perfecthealthdiet.com/2010/07/ulcerative-colitis-a-devastating-gut-disease/
http://perfecthealthdiet.com/the-diet/