What do you eat?

[Becky]

I want to change my diet to see if it helps. On top of all the foods I can not eat do to the crohns, I am also a picky eater. I pretty much only eat chicken, occasionally have red meat but not much. Breakfast and snack ideas are the hardest to come up with.

 

[xX_LittleMissValentine_Xx]

If your crohn's symptoms cause you to restrict your diet, you should maybe talk to your GI about it because you could have some deficiencies. They could suggest some sort of liquid diet which you may find helps with your symptoms?
I tend to stick to chicken and fish. Breakfasts and snacks can be difficult depending on what foods effect you. I love having porridge for breakfast with different fruits but some people find they can't eat many fruits.

 

[hugh]

I eat paleo (with the occasional slip)
worked wonders and i don't miss grains at all.

 

[Becky]

I also want to eat healthier to get in shape too. It is just frustrating when a lot of the healthly food are not good for me. Stuff like whole wheat, salads, some fruits.

 

[hugh]

whole wheat is NOT healthy

 

[Becky]

Well thanks

 

[heidicarrotcake]

I agree with LittleMissValentine that porridge is just fantastic! And also, unfortunately, that different people find issue with different foods. I reckon pretty much every IBD sufferer share your frustration with wondering what on earth to eat sometimes.
My personal saviours are: rice, oats, yoghurt, bananas, sweet potato and other fruits and veg that are low in insoluable fibre and acid (ie, not too many pips or seeds, and soft flesh, so papaya is another good one)
I avoid like the plague: corn in all its many forms, stimulants (caffeine especially), sorbitol, and (quite randomly) pork.
Good luck finding what works for you! Best of health to you.

 

[hugh]

check this out for real advice on healthy food
http://www.archevore.com/get-started/

 

[crohnicaly stinky]

breakfast lately has been toast with peanut butter on it. Nice light breakfast with plenty of protein and a little fat, it's good too when the peanut butter gets all melty. yum!

 

[Justme:)]

you could do boiled eggs for breakfast? and you can get fantastic healthy cereals in health food shops which I eat with yoghurt (for example- I get one with buckwheat and agave nectar and no other ingredients added in!) you should also look into grains that are wheat alternatives such as quinoa, millet and oats. fruits/ veg that I can tolerate are; sweet potatoes, canned peaches, bananas, sliced microwaved apple and raspberries (although they have seed to be careful of these) coconut oil is a fantastic thing to add to your diet also

 

[AmeliaKowalisyn]

Im looking for a good cookbook, or recipe site for Crohns, my fiancé was diagnosed recently and I'm trying to make sure I'm cooking the right foods for him. Any suggestions?

 

[hugh]

"Any suggestions? "

that's a can of worms,
everyone has their own 'safe' foods and diet ideas

here's mine.
a rather restrictive food list.....
http://api.viglink.com/api/click?fo...g Food Guide&jsonp=vglnk_jsonp_13387223379945
more foods can be added in as progress is made,
and the ideas behind it...
http://paleodietlifestyle.com/dealing-with-autoimmune-diseases-and-digestive-problems/

 

[Samboi]

I am considering going paleo.
The more I read about it, the more I think it might be the right thing for me.
At the moment - I eat mostly meat (red and chicken) and potatoes.
I never have major food issues though - I'm very very lucky.
I've always eaten pretty much whatever I like.

 

[lakingskerry]

Hello everyone,

I am bummed out about diet. I love beans, beans in any way, shape, or form. I have given beans up. =( I stopped eating red meat except for ground beef because along with Crohn's Disease I also have Eociniphillic Esophagitis and food impactions are a scary business. I tend to just eat chicken, ground beef, and small amounts of pork. I found out that I am going to have to give up salads. I love salads and I thought they would help out a great deal (I was wrong). I have been doing this elemental food thing that David suggested for me, though its a small step. I have been buying those chocolate equate drinks from Walmart, I am not sure yet if there helping calm my belly but It was a good suggestion so I will continue to roll with it. I find poached eggs help. I make poached eggs every morning and along with not tasting bad they seem easier on my stomach. To be honest I am still learning what hurts and what does not. When i was first diagnosed I made broccoli beef every night for dinner. My doctor told me to try different food items and see what was beneficial and what was not. These days all it seems to take for me to have a flare up is to look at a food item that I know to be bad so??? I am keeping a food diary now and hope that I may be able to make some sense of what things are currently hurting me. I am also open to suggestion as I am tired of suffering and need to get my ailments under control.

Best Regards,
~K~

 

[lakingskerry]

I eat paleo (with the occasional slip)
worked wonders and i don't miss grains at all.

Greetings Hugh, is there any particular recommendations you could make for the paleo-diet. I just found a good explanation of it but wonder what a particular meal might be for you...?

Thanks,
~K~

 

[hugh]

beans, soy, sugar etc have been shown to decrease healthy bacteria and increase intestinal permeability, and without leaky gut you don't have crohn's (i'm 'cherry picking", there are many that believe saponins and other compounds in beans/grains are good for you)
scholarly papers on crohn's and leaky gut
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q...a=X&ei=U9XPT9S2MMSPiAfCz_ShDA&ved=0CAkQgQMwAA
"Permeability measurements in Crohn's patients reflect the activity, extent, and distribution of the disease and may allow us to predict the likelihood of recurrence after surgery or medically induced remission."
"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. "

 

[crohnicaly stinky]

Sorry you're feeling badly. One thing I know about diet and a lot of things are like this with this disease. It's really a personal thing as to what works and what bothers you. You get a lot of people who are really bothered by popcorn, but myself and others can eat it just fine. So keep trying things, keep your diary and keep an open mind that what someone swears by may not work for you but that's not a reason to be discouraged. Also try to get the inflammation under control with medicine too as it probably has a bigger effect than diet.

Greetings Hugh, is there any particular recommendations you could make for the paleo-diet. I just found a good explanation of it but wonder what a particular meal might be for you...?

Thanks,
~K~

 

[hugh]

is there any particular recommendations you could make for the paleo-diet. I just found a good explanation of it but wonder what a particular meal might be for you...?
~K~

There's a bit of research out there that indicates that there are three things required for crohn's,
a genetic potential, a trigger and Intestinal permiability to bring the two togeather,
With that in mind i avoid food that cause permiability, bacterial overgrowth and inflamation

It's more about what you don't eat-
grain, sugar, processed food, vegetable oils

I live in the hills so fish is hard to get and expensive but whenever i can i eat oily fish,
i avoid pork (except small amounts of nitrate free free range bacon), and i don't like beef
I eat a lot of lamb, a whole lot, half a lamb every 14 days.
shoulder (or BBQ chops) is the cheap cut but tender if slow cooked

typical breakfasts-
leftover dinner (lamb and veg refried, reheated chicken curry)
bacon and eggs (nitrate free, still not strictly paleo but close)
apple crumble (paleo -see apple crumble thread)
stir fry of eggs, onion, kale, mushrooms with tamari,honey,lemon
(my tamari is organic, fermented and wheat free so safe - wouldn't go near GM soy products if you paid me)

lunch
lamb soup
lamb and salad
chicken curry
chicken and salad

dinner
lots of salads or wilted spinach/kale with everything
slow cooked lamb flaps (cheapest fatty cut but good if cooked properly
roast lamb with roast carrots and pumpkin with spinach thrown in at the last minute
roast chicken with same
chicken curry
slow cooked lamb shoulder with veg

drinks
water, green tea, herbal teas, 1/4 of an espresso every day
and trialling hot chocolate - cocoa, coconut cream, hot water and a 1/4 tsp honey

I eat way too many nuts at the moment and my coffee addiction is creeping back ( i was strong for a while and felt better for it.

note to crohnicaly stinky
quote "Also try to get the inflammation under control with medicine too as it probably has a bigger effect than diet." - short term -maybe, but i have to disagree.
it's diet that causes the inflammation, but since it's chronic most people can't see the connection, most people are trying to work out what they ate yesterday that caused a bad poop, not what they have been doing for the last 5 or 10 years

 

[crohnicaly stinky]

note to crohnicaly stinky
quote "Also try to get the inflammation under control with medicine too as it probably has a bigger effect than diet." - short term -maybe, but i have to disagree.
it's diet that causes the inflammation, but since it's chronic most people can't see the connection, most people are trying to work out what they ate yesterday that caused a bad poop, not what they have been doing for the last 5 or 10 years

Not to hijack her thread, but this is your theory and it's not very widely believed. Food certainly causes people a lot of problems but that is mostly after they are inflamed, when your gut is sensitive, red, ulcerated. At that point eating certain things will hurt, cause D etc. For me it was johnsonville brats, they killed me when i was flaring. I can now eat them two at a time because I am not all flared up, thanks to lialda and humira. The inflammation is not started by the food, it's started when the gut goes into a battle mode. They still don't know why this happens but drugs like Humira are effective because they basically mute the signal to go into defense mode. I'll be happy to discuss this with you further but I suggest we start a new thread. May I suggest you post the best supporting research of your theory.

 

[lakingskerry]

Hello C.S.,
I did the Humira thing for about 8 months and it just made me so sick that I had to do the scale of risk and rewards. I was in construction in horrible conditions out on the desert at or around -20 degrees in the winter. My kids, being both very young, would pick up a cold and I would instantly get the same cold yet worse. I would get fungal infections on the corners of my mouth and inflammation under my armpits. I eventually decided to fall back to standard treatments and am now deathly afraid of Biologix. I am very interested in diet as opposed to Biologix just because of what I consider to be a bad personal reaction to the drug. Now to be fair I have not tried Remicade so I have no idea how that would affect me but the Humira experience was so bad for me that I am "hesitant" to try. I have read up on things like the hygiene hypothesis and diseases of affluence and it just makes sense to me. I have read about how a simple differentiation in cell production like a type t-2 cell allows the body a healthier immune response (brought on by parasites). I am very interested in diet change though and hope to learn if simple changes in diet can help my overall quality of life which is horrible right now. since removing fiber I can say I feel a bit better. I am tracking stuff and hope to learn more as I go (something has got to give). =)
Best,
~K~

 

[kiny]

Basically anything but dairy, cow meat, soda, sugar (although not all of course, just limited), artifical sweeteners and spices / tomatoes.

 

[Hobbes650]

I hate to cook and trying to lose my belly fat, so trying to watch my calories. Now, I have had permanent ileostomy surgery so my diet is not as restrictive as before. But here is one thing I do which keep my nutrients up: protein shake every morning mixed with water and add in a scoop of a greens supplement. I don't eat enough vegetables, so adding the greens really helps.

On a side note, a pet peeve of mine is when I hear people say they "cannot eat" certain foods. The problem is necessarily the food itself, but how you actually eat it. Foods do not make IBD worse, meaning they don't cause flare ups (or for that matter, remissions). But they make your cramps worse if eaten the wrong way. Corn is a good example. I don't eat corn on the cob now since I am recovering from a flare up. However, I love corn, so I cook the corn and then puree it before eating. Much better! Vegetable juicing is another way to get what you are missing. In short, high nutrient and low residue foods will make you feel the best (when eaten the best way). When things get bad though, so many foods make you feel worse it seems like all you can do is the basic stuff- soft, bland food. Rice was actually really good for me before surgery, and that surprised me.

Good Luck!
Hobbes650

 

[crohnicaly stinky]

Sorry you had a bad reaction to Humira. I work in HVAC and I am exposed to a lot of dirty, moldy, slimy stuff and I don't get sick from it at all. It just goes to show how differently we are all affected by the disease and the treatments. I hope you find something that works for you! There was a time when I did the low glycemic load diet, strictly to lose weight. This was before I was diagnosed, and I noticed that my occasional "inexplicable" D cleared up.

Hello C.S.,
I did the Humira thing for about 8 months and it just made me so sick that I had to do the scale of risk and rewards. I was in construction in horrible conditions out on the desert at or around -20 degrees in the winter. My kids, being both very young, would pick up a cold and I would instantly get the same cold yet worse. I would get fungal infections on the corners of my mouth and inflammation under my armpits. I eventually decided to fall back to standard treatments and am now deathly afraid of Biologix. I am very interested in diet as opposed to Biologix just because of what I consider to be a bad personal reaction to the drug. Now to be fair I have not tried Remicade so I have no idea how that would affect me but the Humira experience was so bad for me that I am "hesitant" to try. I have read up on things like the hygiene hypothesis and diseases of affluence and it just makes sense to me. I have read about how a simple differentiation in cell production like a type t-2 cell allows the body a healthier immune response (brought on by parasites). I am very interested in diet change though and hope to learn if simple changes in diet can help my overall quality of life which is horrible right now. since removing fiber I can say I feel a bit better. I am tracking stuff and hope to learn more as I go (something has got to give). =)
Best,
~K~