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Crohn's Disease
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Posted 1/17/2008 7:20 PM (GMT 0)
Hi i have had CD for 15 years now,and have recently had a resection operation.I have not been able to eat fruit or veg for years,but have been told to try and introduce them into my diet,but i am really worried about them causing me pain. Does anyone find that juicing fruits and veg,or making smoothies makes a difference to how you tolerate them.

Would love to try but would appreciate any advice first!

Posted 1/17/2008 7:28 PM (GMT 0)
Hi there, If your worried about the consistency of the fruit or veg then blending the item would be a good way to try the new food. You might also ask a nutrionist...........but it sounds ok to me.


Posted 1/17/2008 8:28 PM (GMT 0)
During the sorted times of IBD that my Daughter could not eat fruits and veggies, she did use a juicer and loved creating with it making juices and smoothies. During those times she would also supplement with baby food fruit and veggies when she did not have time or supplies to juice. Then she changed her whole eating lifestyle to vegetarian!! She has been in remission for a good while so can tolerate most veggies and fruit now.

When re-introducing, cook your veggies to soft but not overdone to where it starts losing nutrients. For fruit, bananas are gut easy as are cantalope and watermelon. Daughter was a Kiwi freak for awhile.

Have fun with it and get creative!!
Posted 1/18/2008 12:57 AM (GMT 0)
I have discovered that I can eat some fruit if it is dried. I can tolerate banana chips and dried cranberries. Not dried apples though, those I don't digest at all. Just try some and see how you do with it.
Posted 1/18/2008 10:36 AM (GMT 0)
Hi, I can eat salads, veggies not all of them all fruits have to peel apples if i eat them. You have to try diffrent ones . Its trial and error.
Posted 1/18/2008 11:45 AM (GMT 0)
The doc at urgent care told me no juice even, due to the acid (I was gagging & vomitting everything I ate). I am so glad to hear that there are people who can eat fruits & veggies.... Is this true? I am so confused...
Posted 1/18/2008 2:31 PM (GMT 0)
Yes, some IBDers can tolerate fruits and veggies, maybe not always when flaring but my IBD's Daughter eating lifestyle is totally vegetarian and fruits with fish thrown in for good measure. Seems to sit better with her particular gut on good days and even many of the bad days.

Acidic fruits and tomatoes can be wicked and should be avoided by many IBDers. Corn can be a problem too. My Daughter is a fan of carrot/celery juice, no acid. Raw veggies can be problematic, but if cooked, can be well tolerated by many. As mentioned in my post above, baby food fruit and veggies can be a handy dandy item and pretty well tolerated when guts are not cooperating.
Posted 1/18/2008 2:55 PM (GMT 0)
I make fruit juice every morning. In addition, I eat melons (like cantelope and honey doo (sp?) and banana. For veggies, I only eat cooked non gassy veggies like zucchini, squash, green beans, and spinach. That might help. Those vitamins are so important and the above stuff is pretty easy to digest. Hope that helps.

Posted 1/20/2008 3:48 AM (GMT 0)
I too had bowel resection surgery, in August, and was much like you, not having eaten many raw fruits and vegetables for years. Have been experimenting and find I can tollerate a bit of ruffage now and then.  As soon as I think I'm doing well and start to eat more I have problems, so go back to a bit every now and then.  ie. I had spinach ravoli today, but that's all I'll have for a day or two.  Have had the odd small salad. What a treat!  Smoothies are great, have 1 every morning. Melons, canned green beans, cooked carrots, applesauce, canned peaches are fine for me.  The problem is I don't know I'm having a problem until 2 or three days of eating fibre, then I get really sick.  It's easy to overdue it. Have to tell myself to take it slow.

Posted 1/20/2008 8:24 PM (GMT 0)
Ok, so explain this to me. Is it the body needing to break down the fiber if whole fruit or is it the fruit itself in any form that causes problems? It never occured to me to try a smoothie, I thought I just had to stay away from fruit!
Posted 1/22/2008 12:29 AM (GMT 0)
A nutrtionist at Mt. Sinai told me the following:
Most Root veggies are safe--potaotes ( no skin) , sweet potatoes, carrots, beets, squash, zucchini, summeer aquash, green beans, parsnip, rutabega, pumpkin, asparagus tips, roasted peppers, eggplant (cautiously).. all veggies must be cooked.. if you order Chinese food have them double cook the veggies. I have not had broccoli for a long long time :(

As for fruits, she told me all tree fruits peeled, melons, bananas, applesauce, mango and papya.. no berries ( i cheat on that one) and no cherries :(
or grapes.. at least for me. I tried to peel the grapes, but that was just frustrating and annoying. Canned fruit in light syrup is good.

I do miss the "real" thing."

I have bought Creamy Vegetable Soup.. basically pureed veggies.
Hope this helps.
Posted 1/22/2008 1:34 AM (GMT 0)
The bottom line here, is that there IS NO BOTTOM LINE.

What one crohnie can get away with has no bearing whatsoever on what another crohnie can get away with. If I'm in remission, I can eat ANYTHING. Salads, tomatoes, apples WITH skins... none of it is bothersome or hurtful to me.

When I'm flairing a little bit - I can't tolerate anything "natural" without it being blended (smoothie, juice, etc.). But, once I'm back up to par - I go back to eating my salads again without trouble.

As others have stated, it is COMPLETELY individual. ANd it is VERY important to keep a food journal when you're delving in to new territory. Decide what food you want to try... say apples. Try drinking apple juice first. Wait and see if it upsets you. If not, try blending a peeled apple with a little bit of juice to make a smoothie. Eat that smoothie, and then lay off for a couple of days. Make sure there are no "delayed" affects. If not, try eating one peeled without the blender. Again, just do it once, and wait a few days to see if there are any negative consequences. It's slow, and tedious, but it's the only way to discover what YOU as an individual can tolerate.

Through the years of self-experimenting, and reading, and researching - the one very important thing that I've discovered is that this is MY body. And since my body has this disease, I have to treat it as an ongoing experiment, because no one really has any answers about this disease. The thought of being denied fruits and veggies for the rest of my life was absolutely unacceptable. So, I found a gradual way to experiment and see what my body really would tolerate. When I told my doc that I was eating my own home-grown tomatoes every day and doing fine his jaw almost hit the floor. Point is - anybody who thinks they have it figured out - they have it figured out for themselves, not for you. YOU need to figure YOUR body out.
Posted 1/22/2008 1:45 AM (GMT 0)

This is so interesting to me!  I had my second resection in June and the dr. told me I could eat anything.  While it is true that nothing will get stuck (all that narrowed strictured area is gone), I have found that I can't eat just anything!  I, too, can tread lightly and eat some of the forbidden stuff from before (lettuce in a salad, popcorn -go figure!, some grapes,etc.), but I still have to careful and not overdo or I am back to cramping and even more D. 

It was scary and very unnatural at first to just start eating fiber and roughage.  I was on a low residue diet for so many years prior.  I was so conditioned to NOT touching a lot of that stuff. 

Jules, I can totally sympathize with you!  I hope you are very pleasantly surprised at what you can tolerate and enjoy again.  It is SO nice to be able to sample things that have been forbidden for so long!  Happy eating!

Posted 1/22/2008 5:04 PM (GMT 0)
For those of you who react on fibers in veg's and fruits:

we need the antioxydants and vitamins.

Buy a veggie juice machine which separate the fibers away. What's left is all the antioxydants and vitamins.
I did, I mix raw apples, carrots, kiwis and other to yummi juices....

;-) Ingrid
Posted 1/24/2008 7:35 PM (GMT 0)
I haven't had any veggies except carrots for a very long time. And fruit, I have only had apple sauce and bananas. Lately though I have introduced more veggies into my diet but my doctor says to boil or steam the veggies to the point that I can smash them with my fork. And for fruit, I have kept it simple and don't eat anything with a peel. It's crazy that we grow up thinking fruits and veggies are so healthy and to eat right and then when I got diagnosed with CD it was the opposite. No wheat products, no veggies and no fruit . . . no peels of any kind and avoid dairy. I'm very careful but the stuff I have slowly introduced hasn't given me problems yet. I will try a juicer though. Thanks for the suggestion.
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