What are your food triggers?

[danielle.wilson411]

I'm just wondering through everyone's experiences what foods they find trigger their Crohns symptoms? If you could just list what foods trigger you and maybe what symptoms you have and how long it takes for these symptoms to start. Just curious if there are common foods or if its all over the place.

Recently diagnosed but have found the following to be triggers:

Spicy food (stomach pains/urgent bathroom trip 30 minutes after eating)

Eggs (this is a new one so not sure if eggs every way but I know for sure hard boiled) (stomach pains about 30 minutes after eating and get very gassy)

 

[JaimeM]

Caffeine- usually causes diarrhea

Sugar- (I can handle in small doses)- Stomach cramping

Bread- (I can handle in small doses)- Stomach Cramping, causes constipation easily

Spicy Foods- I don't even know what it causes because I haven't had it in so long

Beef/greasy meat- Lots of pain, nausea- amazingly I can eat a fast food burger easily... which probably isn't a good sign for fast food. haha

Garlic- this is only sometimes.. but this has caused a full on flare in the past

Popcorn- unfortunately this causes a lot of pain.. If i pick the hard pieces out I can tolerate it once in awhile but I can't do it more than once a week if even that.

Heavy Dairy- i can drink milk most of the time, but if it's heavy cream or ice cream, chocolate anything like that I can get cramping and nausea

Anything with a lot of mass to it.. If it's bulky I don't try to eat too much at one time..

 

[ronroush7]

Gluten, dairy, spicy foods , the skin off of anything (since my resection), nuts, spicy food. I either have to go to the bathroom a lot or I have incontinence.

 

[Cat-a-Tonic]

Beef/greasy meat- Lots of pain, nausea- amazingly I can eat a fast food burger easily... which probably isn't a good sign for fast food. haha

I'm the same with beef - about 2 bites of real actual 100% beef and I'll be ill. But fast food is definitely not 100% beef in many cases. A McD's hamburger, I can eat about half or even 2/3rds of one before I feel ill. And Taco Bell's "beef" is mainly soy and I can seemingly eat as much as I want of it without feeling that "I just ate beef" type of ill feeling. Not that Taco Bell makes me feel great, of course, but it doesn't make me ill in the same way that actual beef would.

My other trigger foods:
Coconut - even small bits of it will make me horrendously ill for days.
Garlic - similar to coconut but the effects last more like one day, not multiple days.
Dairy - I've been lactose intolerant for 15+ years now.
Nuts/seeds - I cannot digest them whole but I can do things like smooth nut butters.
Fried foods - they make me nauseous and trigger my GERD symptoms.
Anything highly acidic like tomato sauce or orange juice - also triggers my GERD.

Oddly enough I can tolerate some spicy foods in moderation now. I can do kimchi and salsa (not at the same time!). I've read that spicy foods have some anti-inflammatory properties so maybe that's why?

 

[danielle.wilson411]

Wow it sounds like there may come a time when more food will bother me. The bad thing is that it normally happens when I'm at work. The eggs did both the last few days which was not so fun but I got through it. Right now I'm tapering off of predisone after a hospital stay so I'm wondering if more food triggers will present themselves when I get off of the steroids completely (whenever that may be).

Did you find that the food triggers came about with any medication you were on? Just wondering if medication can help and allow for you to eat more things.

 

[Beach]

The trigger foods or chemicals that I suspect are:

* Synthetic vitamins. A multivitamin taken in the morning puts me in a daze for the day, muscles will ache, i feel chilled, and I suspect create an upset stomach by evening.

* Possibly soy is a problem food. I don't eat soy directly but have noticed when soy is added to a food there is a good chance I'll have an upset stomach later in the day.

* I've avoided wheat and other grains for a number of years. That has helped improve my gut condition.

* Of late with my diet I've been sticking with wild caught fish or Kerry Gold grass fed cheese for fats and protein. So far so good. I've known for awhile that regular store bought eggs are problematic. Store bought beef frightens me as the worst stomach attacks have occurred after eating that. Store bought pork, if eaten every day, will after around a week cause my gums to swell up, bleed and become overly sore. I suspect a contact allergy, but hard to say. If I have a dental appointment when that happens, I'll receive a long lecture from the dentist about brushing better.

Some have thought that soy meal fed to commercially raised animals will show up in eggs and possibly meat. It's something I'm testing for myself right now.

"Is Your Egg Allergy a Soy Allergy in Disguise?"

http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/egg-allergy-really-soy-allergy/

 

[stylinmama]

None. Not one food or drink triggers my disease. Every flare I've ever had has a stress trigger, never a food.

 

[Pug Gamer]

Mine are anything with lactose(dairy), very spicy foods, fruit, vegetables (apart from onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes and leeks), sweets (like haribo etc) eggs im also now starting to react if there scrambled. Its depressing and I find it quite soul destroying at christmas and easter.

 

[Cali01]

I can't eat oats that are not ground up - so I can eat small amounts of cereal but otherwise they can cause a flare. No oatmeal, granola bars, etc.
Wheat - I can tolerate small amounts but not large amounts (5 forkfuls of pasta? Fine, a bowl of pasta? No way)
Spicy foods

I've read popcorn is terrible for Crohn's so I haven't had any since I've been diagnosed

 

[Charlotte.]

Potatoes, dairy, eggs, gluten, soy so far, doing a full elimination diet, adding in one food by another.
Reactions (all from the next morning on): TI pain, extreme nausea, inflammation of finger joints, knee, ankle, toe joints, elbow (so my arthritis flares as well).

 

[SB7]

Spicy foods-inflamed small bowel causing narrowing
Sugar-same
Fried foods-generally feel bad
Certain beans-inflamed small bowel causing narrowing
Popcorn-same
Stress is always a component in my flares as well

Feel better eating in season vegetables cooked soft or in home made soup and a little in season fruit. A little whit rice doesn't bother me. Cold water fish like halibut and some salmon. Eggs are fine with me. Some grass-fed beef in small amounts from time to time and a little chicken. I try and stay away from wheat products. No alcohol whatsoever.
Still trying to figure out how to stay away from stress!

 

[Linnie]

Saturated fats, fast food, chips, fatty meats, any food from Malaysia, all will give me cramps and leave me curled up in a ball groaning.

I can chow down popcorn though without a worry, our cinema has pre-flavoured popcorn, I dont think I could stomach the popcorn in some cinemas that I went to while visiting America that you actually pour melted butter right onto the kernels...