Diet Diet Diet

Well diet is highly individual. We have members on the low residue, SCD, and Makers diet, etc.  There is no one diet that is best for everyone.  I would suggest starting a food jounral, so you can see if you have any triggers.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/low-residue-diet/MY00745

NiceCupOfTea said...
As you have already worked out, SCD and the low residue diet could hardly contradict each other more. To read more about SCD, there is a book called Breaking The Vicious Cycle by Elaine Gottschall. As for a low residue diet, it sometimes becomes a necessity for those who develop strictures bad enough to cause obstructions - indigestible fibrous matter is more likely to block the narrow opening of a stricture. But, more commonly, people often go on a low-residue diet when they get a flare-up. They say that bland foods are their 'safe' foods, that it settles their guts.

Personally if you're not having any symptoms then I wouldn't recommend a low-residue diet. It's used mainly when people have issues with keeping food down or in, or to prevent obstructions; in other words to manage symptoms. It's not a particularly healthy diet and does nothing to change the course of the Crohn's disease itself.

I wouldn't, in all honesty, recommend the SCD diet for somebody in your position either. I think it's overkill. But it's up to you: it is healthier but you have to be very disciplined and organised to eat well and nutritiously from it.

Has your doctor put you on any meds for Crohn's?

 

Thank you, very informative. I see the doctor on 23 Nov to discuss the medication subject. I suppose that the sooner one starts the better the chances of future complications. Right?

I am one who follows a modified low residue diet ALL the time, and I am currently in remission. This diet seems to work best for "me". I do have the stricturing type of Crohns, although I have no strictures at this time. It just seems to agree with me, and in my eyes if its works, why change it.

Some have success with SCD, others don't. SCD must be followed to the letter to work properly. And speaking for myself, I find the SCD diet to be too much work. But others have had success with it.

I really second Navy's suggestion in starting a food diary to keep tract of how foods affect your system. To find info on a low residue diet, you can google it. Some GI sites have some good info on low residue diet. Good luck!

What I mean by modified is I eat somethings now that are not allowed on the diet. In other words not the typical easy to chew, easy to digest stuff. It probably isn't a diet you should be on for a longtime, but its just what I have found works best for me after having this dd for over 35 years. Hugs!

I really strongly doubt that carbs are bad for you per se. People have been making carbohydrates the mainstay of their diet for about 10,000 years and yet the rate of Crohn's and other illnesses have only risen dramatically in the past 50 years or so. Something else is going on, which may include diet but diet alone almost certainly isn't the whole story.

It's also worth remembering that diet for the most part can't be used to control the course of your disease. Of course some people will swear otherwise, and I believe for a few of them it is the truth. But for every 5 people who swear that so-and-so diet made them go into remission, at least 4 of them seem to be on meds as well. On top of that Crohn's can spontaneously flare up and remit of its own accord, regardless of being on any meds or not.

I'm not recommending ignoring Crohn's - from my own personal experience I can say that doesn't work. But for now, a 5-ASA (Asacol, Pentasa - anything with mesalamine in it basically) should do as a maintenance drug. And eating more healthily never did anybody harm, but diet has not been medically proven to alter the course of Crohn's disease.

I dunno. Like I said, I don't think the disease, even at this symptomless stage, should be ignored outright, but there is such a thing as going overboard, no offense to anybody meant. I know Crohn's can worsen very suddenly, but people with that type of Crohn's seem to present that way from the beginning. Mine come on very mildly and remained that way for 5 years before I got worse.

njmom,

Forgot to ask you? Is your daughter on med? I ask because I may be in the same situation, no to very mild symptoms. Also, is she on the SCD or Lutz?

My doctor puts no foods off limits. He advised me that crohns is very personal and everyone reacts differently to food. I can tolerate almost anything right now with the exception of high fiber roughage things and whole grains. I also have the experience that something that bothers me one day will not the next. I had one day (I call it my most perfect day ever) my sister brought me a pumpkin muffin top, We went to Red Robin for lunch and I ate at Olive Garden (pepperoni pizza) for dinner. Nary a cramp in sight. Now mind you I kept portions small and did not stuff myself. I obviously don't eat like that but one in a blue moon but it was so nice to be able to. I tend to stick to as healthy as I can most days but I allow myself to splurge.

My daughter was undiagnosed and untreated for two years because she didn't have strong symptoms...during that time, a stricture built up. One day she seemed fine, then the next day she ended up in ER because the stricture had caused an obstruction.

-2006-mid 2009:  Entocort, along with a modified form of the SCD diet (she cheated by eating potatos and rice), got rid of the symptoms AND the stricture. No symptoms while on just one pill of Entocort (2007-2009) and the modified SCD diet.

-mid-2009: she had tried tapering off the one pill of Entocort in 2006 but landed in the hospital because of the stricture...so she was afraid to try tapering off it, again. So she used an experimental medication, LDN, to succesfully taper off Entocort in 2009. Still no symptoms.

- mid-2009 - mid-2010, she enjoyed the best health of her life...didn't catch so much as a cold while on LDN and the modified SCD. Still no symptoms. Eliminated starches (potatoes and rice), to be fully compliant with SCD. Because she was giving up starches, she started drinking a lot of Red Jacket juice.

- September 2010: examined by a doc and no symptoms.

- October 2010: went off LDN to test SCD...yesterday, 8 weeks off LDN, the doc found out two symptoms were back: gurgling and tenderness in the right lower abdomen. We assumed yesterday the SCD failed to heal her completely, but I found out she had been drinking a lot of Red Jacket juice and today, found out it is probably SCD-illegal...looks like it might have starch. The list of ingredients looked innocent when I saw it, yesterday: pressed apples, raspberry, no added sugar, vitamin C. But I called the juice manufacturer today and found out the vitamin C is starch-based. Dang. SCD is not easy, but she would much rather do SCD than try to go low carb. 

Right now, she is on Entocort to nip the inflammation in the bud. So does SCD work? In clinical trials, one pill of Entocort is no different from a placebo. So how did just one pill kept her from having symptoms, from having a stricture, and from flaring, for years, when clinical trials show most people on even higher doses of Entocort will flare wiithin a year's time? We suspect even the modified diet has at least helped. Can strict SCD do the job, by itself? We don't know. By now, she's used to SCD - she knows how to prepare foods in advance, for instance, and it is a healthy way of eating that has changed our whole family. 

Docs have no way of knowing how fast your disease will progress: if you have inflammation, it is probably going to eventually create issues like malnutrition, strictures, abcesses, fistulas, etc. Crohn's needs to be treated by meds and/or dietary changes. The sooner treatment is introduced, the less likely you are to experience complications. 

 

could you kindly post the pathology read on your biopsies? i'm not sure how inflammation in your intestines by itself would point to Crohn's as the most likely diagnosis (unless it was in the terminal ileum). was there architectural distortion, crypt abscesses, granuloma?