Newbie - food diary advice please

[nitty]

Hi, everyone! Great forum. I'm new to all this and on a rapid learning curve.

Having never had problems before, I started with PR bleeding in summer 2011 and had awful symptoms of acute severe colitis by mid-September. Fab NHS treatment led to a diagnosis in November of mild Crohn's, which has responded well so far to oral Pentasa and mesalazine suppositories.

Unfortunately I'm still not quite right yet. For the last month I've been keeping a food diary to try and spot any patterns, and now that Christmas is over I'll be making a proper effort to cut out rubbish and (I hate to say it) alcohol. So far all I've been doing is avoiding the more fibrous fruits and veg, and wholegrain type stuff.

What I don't know is how soon after eating a particular food will I notice if it is a problem? - bearing in mind that I think my Crohn's is mainly affecting the colon rather than small bowel, and that my symptoms are mainly related to urgency, diarrhoea and passing blood/'gunk' oosorry if too much info!).

Any advice would be very gratefully received.

Nitty

 

[shazz]

Hi Nitty and welcome to the forum.

With regards to the food diary. I was put on a low residue diet, you can get a good booklet from your IBD nurse/gastro, its basically white bread, white pasta, white rice etc. Nothing with any fibre in it. I then introduced a new food, small amount, every few days. I would know sometimes within a few hours if it didnt agree with me.

Its good that you are responding to the meds.

I wish you well. I expect some of the more experienced members will add more.
Sharon xxxx

p.s where in the uk are you?

 

[chrisnsteph1022]

My reactions come the following day. If I have gluten for dinner, the entire next day will be rough.

 

[nitty]

Thanks, I never know whether a change the next day is too soon to link with a food, but it sounds like it might not be.

Shazz, I'm in Sheffield.

Nitty XX

 

[shazz]

Sometimes it can take up to a day to feel the full effects if the food does not agree. Also depends what time you eat I suppose.

Keep it up though. And also keep going back and try foods again. Sometimes a food you didnt get on with might be ok at a later date.

xxxxxx

 

[hugh]

I was put on a low residue diet, you can get a good booklet from your IBD nurse/gastro, its basically white bread, white pasta, white rice etc. Nothing with any fibre in it.

Considering that Dr Wolfgang Luntz did a trial in the 80's and has 85% remission by avoiding hi-carb food (grain,sugar, processed food) you have to wonder what they are thinking.

"103 patients suffering from Crohn's disease were treated by a low-carbohydrate diet. After a quarter of year most patients (85 percent) showed remarkable improvement in their health. After half a year, more than 60 percent were asymptomatic, after one year more than 70 percent and after one and a half year about 85 percent. This is in contrast with ulcerose colitis, which Is shown in the lowest line, improvement of which runs much slowlier on the same diet and often is interrupted by relapses."
http://www.scdiet.org/7archives/lutz/lutz7.html

I'd look here for inspiration about diet
http://www.newtreatments.org/knoweat.php

 

[mnsun]

I agree with Hugh's advice. Personally, I could handle white flour/processed grains, but for only so long. I think these foods have a longer, slow burn effect, so to speak, and ultimately kill off good bacteria. Sure, the effects aren't as immediate--for me--as sugars (HFCS,aspartame,acesulfame potassium,sorbitol,sugars,crystalline fructose,...just use stevia or honey sparingly) or caffeine.

After determining whether you're sensitive to lactose or gluten, or not, I would stick to a modified low residue diet: chicken, hard boiled eggs, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, herbal teas (ginger, peppermint), cooked carrots, steamed broccoli, vegetable drinks (100% juice), bananas, other 100% juices. If your not sensitive to lactose, I'd take an unflavored whey protein with a banana, cinnamon, handful of nuts, and stevia/honey in a blender with cold water.

Maybe search the site for safe foods. Personally, I would maybe cut out grains for now and slowly introduce sprouted bread (like Ezekial's orange bagged, frozen bread). Maybe make smoothies with nuts or nutbutters and sweeten with stevia or REAL raw honey (upwards of 70% of store bought honey is fake).

If I were flaring, I would eat one food at a time and not combine fruit or its juices with other food groups. I would also take enteric coated fish oil (3-4 grams of Omega 3, a day) and good probiotics (Jarrow EPS is cheapest on iherb.com) at least 15billion (depends on brand though) a day. Additionally, S. Boulardii is specifically helpful for diarrhea (I'm currently taking a NOW product of this).

 

[nitty]

Thanks for the replies. It's very early days for me at the moment, and I don't have the greatest will power in the world (none at all!) so I'm just on a gradual approach to cutting out certain foods at the moment, but all info and advice will be considered. I also need to find out whether I might be better off on Asacol rather than Pentasa as I believe my disease is confined to the colon, and Asacol might target it a bit better.

 

[queenlizard45uk]

hey everyone, i got diagnosed last week and if im honest, i get terrible pains within an hour after eating.... Or so it seems :S

 

[M2M]

Hey Nitty
welcome to the forum. you will find that the alot of docs follow the same routine and after you read numerous stories you will kind of figure out that no one is the same. My daughter's doctor told us that back in last year in February; and i didn't really know to believe him. After having wicked bad results from pentasa and 6MP; I started believing.
be really careful with your diet; I think in the beginning that is important; but along with that find a really good multi vitamin you feel good about taking; so its a good one; my daughter takes the Isotonix one from Market America; she is also on OPC3 from there. She takes Omega 3 and Bosweillia. The thing is you have to be deligent about taking your supplements.
good luck with everything and i hope you get the food thing figured out.

 

[crunch]

to counter what Hugh said in answer to post by Shazz, it sounds like the diet Shazz was using is connected to LOFFLEX, developed by a Gastro at Addenbrokes (highly respected UK hospital) and contrary to the trials by Dr Luntz, Dr Hunter has 95% of patients symptom free...

go figure!

think it proves that food diet is the way to go as everyone all diff. I've gone the LOFFLEX way, low fat fibre limited exclusion diet where you start on a list of normally ok foods with nothing processed, no gluten or lactose, lots of rice and meat basic food groups restricted fibre and then start adding single food groups and seeing the reaction. I have managed to add oats recently which is great for breakfast always my biggest problem..

Think you will start to find a pattern depending on how fast your digestive system works - when I had transit of hours it was quick to work out, but now its more normal I sometimes struggle to know, but LOFFLEX says you have to try each food stuff lots over a couple of days to prove it one way or another and then things should become clear!

best of luck from oxon

 

[nitty]

I haven't radically changed my diet as yet, and as my symptoms are relatively mild I'm not sure how much difference to expect. It's also not easy, as I'm sure many of you know, to change everything I eat when I have hubby and kids to prepare food for and not either cut out good stuff from their diet or have to produce two or three different meals at every mealtime.

What I have done so far is try to cut down on 'bitty' foods, such as wholegrains and things with skins, pips or fibrous leaves, which I can easily leave out of meals (although I struggle to miss out tomatoes - they're in many of our family meals), and I have stopped drinking alcohol which, to those who know me is a MASSIVE sacrifice. I'm not a heavy drinker, but I do miss my glass of wine with dinner. I've also discovered that our food processor has a juicer on it that can juice pretty much anything.

But when I wonder if it's working or if it's worth bothering with, I just have to look at this forum and see what a terrible time some people are going through, and count myself very very lucky!

 

[dietsavedme]

Considering that Dr Wolfgang Luntz did a trial in the 80's and has 85% remission by avoiding hi-carb food (grain,sugar, processed food) you have to wonder what they are thinking.

"103 patients suffering from Crohn's disease were treated by a low-carbohydrate diet. After a quarter of year most patients (85 percent) showed remarkable improvement in their health. After half a year, more than 60 percent were asymptomatic, after one year more than 70 percent and after one and a half year about 85 percent. This is in contrast with ulcerose colitis, which Is shown in the lowest line, improvement of which runs much slowlier on the same diet and often is interrupted by relapses."
http://www.scdiet.org/7archives/lutz/lutz7.html

I'd look here for inspiration about diet
http://www.newtreatments.org/knoweat.php

Amen.

 

[okhoney]

I talked to a nutritionist for the first time a couple of weeks ago and she told me that reactions to certain foods can occur immediately after you eat them or delayed up to three days depending on the food and the type of reaction. She said the best way to determine your sensitivities is to do a food journal and look for patterns. I know that it's a pain and I myself have just started doing it too, but I don't think there's any other way around it!

If you can try and talk to a natural nutritionist. She gave me some great suggestions and was more helpful than I could have imagined. It made me regret not doing it sooner. After talking to her, I had a much more positive outlook and was really motivated to take some new steps towards taking control of my health through diet. I am still working on a lot of things as I think for us IBD sufferers it's a process. Best of luck!