What foods do you eat?

[tommy07]

Hi, I was diagnosed with crohns about 13 months ago, since then ive had emergency surgery, stoma/ stoma reversal and ive been decent since that reversal for about 4 months now. Just curious to what people eat, I am a strong believer that food is not a cause for this disease, obviously certain foods will trigger your symptoms if you are in a flare.. however I try to keep an open mind and eat whatever I fancy I guess, I do tend to drink only water with cordial, don't drink alcohol or fizzy drinks at all.

Foods I eat:
meat: chicken (mainly everyday) / beef(once a week maybe not even that), pork sausage (mainly sausage rolls or on a bap, seems to work well for me.)fish: cod/salmon/tuna - grilled/ canned on a roll/ or even battered from the chip shop which is also a safe to eat treat for me.
Veg:
Potato, carrots, broccoli, swede, pease, mushed and boiled, pretty much any veg but usually i rotate these.
Chocolate: pretty much anything in moderation, galaxy/dair milk etc
junk: crisps

anyone got any ideas i can try or maybe what i should avoid? thanks in advancee

 

[Guerrero]

Everyone is different but my general rules are avoid smoking and alcohol excess. Try reduce carbohydrate. Dont eat too much fiber In case of strictures. Eat probiotics and healthy food...

 

[Fayth]

I eat a whole food plant based diet which is high carbs and high fiber, I feel a lot better than anything else I've tried, from low residue diet to Paleo.

Why are you a strong believer that food is not the cause for this disease?

 

[tommy07]

I eat a whole food plant based diet which is high carbs and high fiber, I feel a lot better than anything else I've tried, from low residue diet to Paleo.

Why are you a strong believer that food is not the cause for this disease?

Don't get me wrong, if you are currently in a flare obviously you will want to move to a low residue diet, even if you are in remission which isn't necessarily no inflammation, but just mild activity its still a good idea, which is why I'm trying to still eat low residue, especially after losing a lengthy bit of large and small intestine, reducing the number of bowel movements helps my day to day activities etc. But before this happened my diet was clean, very healthy, i didn't drink or smoke, i ate take out food (i still do) and then boom, I'm nearly dead my colon looked like a char grilled chicken breast, there is no way in hell that diet has caused this disease, or will cure/help it, hell i didn't eat for months, the disease got progressively worse, there is no evidence at all that eating a special diet, or increasing healthy bacteria through probiotics will decrease inflammation, most people i see telling me this have either, just had the disease for a limited time and they feel okay, or they were lucky enough to get into remission come of meds and have stayed in remission. But either way its due to an over active immune system that happens to effect the digestive system. Idk but that's my opinion, everyone has there own and i respect that but ye haha, ty for the advice. I will check out your diets online

 

[Magnolia24]

While we currently can't say one thing is the "cause" of crohn's including diet, it seems to be true that the microbiome plays a role, and diet affects that. I find it helpful to think more holistically about food - Not "if I eat this it will or will not produce ___ symptom," but rather "how does food help me maintain a healthy micro biome and feel good" This is the logic behind diets like SCD and AIP, and related to the use of EEN and probiotics.
Beyond that general logic, there are foods that some people tolerate and others do not, even within strict diets like SCD, or foods that aren't "allowed" on one beneficial diet but are on another..So these gray areas are more individualized.
You might be interested in scdlifestyle.com and Breaking the Vicious Cycle.

 

[Fayth]

One thing I know is that meat, dairy and refined sugar ***** up the microbiome pretty badly and I feel much better since I took that out, and to be honest in my case I couldn't tell which food I could tolerate more during a flare up because my flare ups were pretty terrible, just non stop cramps and pretty much pissing blood out of my ass every day (sorry for the language) for several months, pretty much anything I would eat at that point was giving me cramps, pretty painful cramps too.

I think once you feel a bit better symptom wise than you should definitely consume a lot of fiber and not avoid them as it helps a lot for your digestion. I also do consume a fair bit of fermented vegetables for probiotics.

Anyway most of the info I get is on nutritionfacts.org, lots of peer reviewed articles, some on crohn's and UC and It's quite interesting. If you want to know more about the whole food plant based diet you can just watch Forks over Knives on netflix.

 

[tommy07]

Fair points, i will totally check them out, Idk why i feel like this, i guess its past experience, after what happened i think life is too short to eat extremely technical diets/ i mean cutting out meat? what about fish? you are losing surely valuable protein/ nutrients that will generally keep you well? This all confuses me too much

 

[tommy07]

I appreciate the info, hopefully it will help me get a better understanding, cheers

 

[Fayth]

Assuming you eat a balanced whole food plant based diet you don't lose any nutrients, I mean eating a little bit of meat probably doesn't do any harm but to think it should be a staple in your diet is just wrong, parts of the world where people are the healthiest is focused heavily on fruits, vegetables, healthy carbs should constitute the vast majority of our diets, we could also argue it's because of their lifestyle that is less stressful and more focused around community, It's hard to pinpoint exactly what it is they do better than us but I assume it is a mix of everything.

Anyway just look it up and form your own opinion, I personally can tell you that I feel better than I ever did even prior to my diagnosis (always struggled with digestion) and I don't miss any of that food that I used to consume daily.

 

[cmack]

Assuming you eat a balanced whole food plant based diet you don't lose any nutrients, I mean eating a little bit of meat probably doesn't do any harm but to think it should be a staple in your diet is just wrong, parts of the world where people are the healthiest is focused heavily on fruits, vegetables, healthy carbs should constitute the vast majority of our diets, we could also argue it's because of their lifestyle that is less stressful and more focused around community, It's hard to pinpoint exactly what it is they do better than us but I assume it is a mix of everything.

Anyway just look it up and form your own opinion, I personally can tell you that I feel better than I ever did even prior to my diagnosis (always struggled with digestion) and I don't miss any of that food that I used to consume daily.

I eat a non GMO, plant based diet and have found it helps me greatly. I also get lots of info from nutritionfacts.org Here is a link https://nutritionfacts.org/

 

[tommy07]

One question, if diet is an implication, etc like you have explained, why doesn't everyone in the entire world have Crohns? People have much worse diets, and will never encounter any issues..

 

[smada15]

Ugh, food! The enemy and the best friend! :confused2:
(Disclaimer: I have been treated for crohns the past year, but diagnosis never confirmed yet, lots of issues with that etc etc)

In terms of food, I find that I when I am having a flare, and just nauseas and sick the whole time, I can't eat anything! And the worst culprits that make me want to be sick are health foods like salads and raw veggies. So I generally stick to dry crap.

However, I am currently doing a ridiculous diet - Low FODMAP plus no gluten, no dairy and no caffeine. Low FODMAP is more of an IBS diet and I can tell you it isn't working for me, been sick the entire week!
But I've basically cut out refined sugars, gluten, dairy, meat, caffeine... lots of vegetables and sugars that are high fodmap.
It's more of a cross check though so I can go back to the GI and say look - another thing that doesn't help me

If I wasn't on this ridiculous diet, my usual diet consists most of vegetables and soy products, no meat, but I do try to have fish on a weekly basis.
That's out the window when a flare happens though.

 

[Fayth]

One question, if diet is an implication, etc like you have explained, why doesn't everyone in the entire world have Crohns? People have much worse diets, and will never encounter any issues..

The same reason not everyone who smoke cigarettes dies of lung cancer

 

[smada15]

Yep, unfortunately we are all built differently! But I would assume that those with any gastrointestinal issues would be more sensitive to array of foods and diet would be one of the first things to be looked at and adjusted.

 

[cmack]

I personally think there is a genetic component, and that diet and lifestyle can be the difference between sickness and relative health. Through trial and error, I have found that diet and lifestyle really do play a very key role.

You are right, some people drink six or more beer a day/bottle of gin or whatever, smoke a pack and a half and eat whatever they want and it seems like nothing happens to them. My grandmother was one of them, she did have to fight cancer once, she survived that and she still lived to be 78. I still really believe that had she not been a smoker, drinker and fairly often an unhealthy eater she may have been around a little longer. She also didn't have monsanto pissing poison all over the place in most of her lifetime either, so that may be a factor as well.

 

[tommy07]

The same reason not everyone who smoke cigarettes dies of lung cancer

I am not sure you can compare eating to smoking as it has completely different variables, but I get your point. I guess I will just eat foods that agree on a trial and errors basis, the foods that form a stool I will favour over other foods which will make me loser, although its hard after losing 4 foot of bowel to form much, i still get firm stools.

 

[ronroush7]

I avoid beef,nuts, vegetables that aren't fully cooked,diary,caffeine, foods that have gluten in them. Everyone is a little different

 

[smada15]

I am not sure you can compare eating to smoking as it has completely different variables, but I get your point. I guess I will just eat foods that agree on a trial and errors basis, the foods that form a stool I will favour over other foods which will make me loser, although its hard after losing 4 foot of bowel to form much, i still get firm stools.

Yes and no... Unfortunately there's a shitload more chemicals in foods these days, not a lot less than cigarettes in some instances.

I wish I knew as a baby what I know now! lol

 

[Felisha]

I'm sick all the time it seems. One day certain foods on my safe list are okay but the next day they aren't. For instance, corn grits were my number one safe food when flaring, now its my worse enemy next to gluten, nuts and dairy. :sign0085:

My diet mainly consists of: fish, tofu, applesauce, baby food, white rice, chicken broth, Gatorade, light herbal tea and gummy bears or sorbet for dessert.

 

[The Real MC]

The perplexing thing about CD is that no two patients have the same food issues. While many patients cannot tolerate red meat or dairy and others, they do not bother me.

Had you browsed here?