Just diagnosed a month ago

Hi Shoes, an Welcome! I have very little willpower when it comes to food, but I have found that after several times of bad diarrhea and pain from eating foods that don't agree with your crohn's, you tend to start leaving them alone, or at least eating in moderation.

I think of remission as a reduction in symptoms. They may not go away completely, but they are reduced to a manageable level.

Good luck to you!

Hi Shoes... Welcome! When I was in remission, my pain was gone, bleeding stopped and mucous also stopped. I would "go" less, but I still had a degree of urgency. But, I felt like the damage that was being done had slowed, or stopped, and my guts healed to a degree (at least). I think real remission involves healing, but that's tough to really *know* unless you've had a scope to confirm. They can give you a pretty clear indication based on less severe symptoms (probably not completely "normal"), lab work levels within normal (or close to normal) range...

Re: food... I used to eat salads *all* the time. That's the biggest loss for me. Otherwise, foods don't seem to really affect me one way or the other. I went ~3 weeks only on rice, fish, avocados... not much else. No change. So, it's a personal thing for each of us Crohnies. Maybe when you get into a good spot you can slowly try adding your favorites back. If you wanted to try! I guess that maybe I've just gotten used to it, because I used to eat more fruits and veggies, but it's the salads that I miss most. I will eat them now, but sparingly!

I hope the Asacol works for you, too!

If you are curious about diets, you can check out the SCD (Specific Carbohydrate Diet) diet on www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info - it's not easy and by no means a sure thing, but some Crohn's patients swear by it. While it is true that the impact of Crohn's is individual, so some foods might bother others but not yourself, it is highly unlikely that remission can be induced by making up your own diet.

sr5599's diet, for instance, from an SCD standpoint, was doomed to fail because it included rice (no grains are allowed on SCD). On the other hand, some people have seen their symptoms improve just by going gluten-free, so I can see why sr5599 thought it might be worth a try.