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Crohn's Disease
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Posted 4/24/2012 8:45 PM (GMT 0)
devil
On to my next adventure with an alternative treatment, or at least a treatment that does not employ the use of an immune suppressant. Starting today I will only drink ensure and have no solid food for a few weeks. This is called enteral nutrition and according to some studies puts some into remission for a while, anyway. Tea and water are also allowed. Just bought a whole load of groceries for my family and wondering how it will be not eating solid food. I'll let you know if this treatment does anything for me. Good luck with all of your treatments :)
Posted 4/24/2012 9:03 PM (GMT 0)
when my brother was in the hospital, the doctors made him do that for a very long time. But it helped his recovery a lot.
Posted 4/24/2012 10:27 PM (GMT 0)
Hello Big Betty, I wish you luck with your endeavor but I worry that just drinking Ensure could make you very weak, and you know that this disease already makes most of us fatigued.  Will you be taking a multi vitamin or any supplements?

Hope things go well for you.

Posted 4/25/2012 2:13 AM (GMT 0)
Well, I made it through the first day, but my tongue feels weird and so do my guts. Mommy, glad to hear it worked for your brother. Hope he is doing well. Clean Freak, there are supposed to be vitamins in ensure, but there is also tons of sugar and stuff I would not normally eat. Thanks for the concern, it means a lot!
Posted 4/25/2012 5:05 PM (GMT 0)
If posiible, I would try to find something else to drink other than ensure.  If you look at the ingridients in ensure, it is mostly composed of sugar, and if you have read some theories about what possibly causes crohns, some say that it is too much bad bacteria and yeast in your gut producing toxins, and what feeds this bad bacteria is sugar.   No one knows for sure if this is true or not, but in some people who follow the SCD diet,  which eliminates all sugar , some people have great success in going into remission.  If your going to try a liquid diet, at least try to find something that is sugar free.   

Post Edited (NY-Sooner) : 4/25/2012 12:25:33 PM (GMT-6)

Posted 4/25/2012 10:08 PM (GMT 0)
People who follow a liquid diet with drinks choc-a-block with sugar also have high success in going into remission. (Doesn't even matter if the drinks are elemental or not.) True, the remission doesn't seem to last long once you come off the diet, but then the SCD doesn't ensure lasting remission once you come off that either.

There's no harm in following a liquid diet for a few weeks. It's just boring and difficult to stick to for most people.
Posted 4/25/2012 10:16 PM (GMT 0)
I feel like I'm drunk on sugar and then the blood sugar crashes a half an hour later. Urg!
Posted 4/25/2012 11:28 PM (GMT 0)
When I was flaring, I found that the ensure really upset my stomach and I felt worse, which obviously was not my goal! I don't know if it was the sugar, or something else in it. I can't really tolerate most protein drinks. The best I could tolerate was yogurt in a smoothie. I had c.diiff at the time and didn't know it, so it could have been from that. I hope the liquid diet works for you.
Posted 4/26/2012 3:40 PM (GMT 0)
You might want to look into something like Calorie Smart Boost. It only has like 4g of sugar. It is what I drink when I do a liquid diet now. It is a little harder to find than regular but to me it is worth it.
Posted 4/26/2012 4:13 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks Poo Bear, I'll see if I can find calorie smart around here. Did the liquid diet help you? Gumby, I agree, ensure doesn't sit well on the stomach and tastes crazy sweet especially after being on a no sugar diet for awhile.
Posted 4/26/2012 5:56 PM (GMT 0)
Your welcome.. Yes it did help me Big Betty.. I do it on occasion for a day or two to give my GI tract a break. At the most I did it for 3 mths. It is hard but I don't think I was anymore tired than normal most days. To me eating hurt me more than not eating..
Posted 5/10/2012 9:02 PM (GMT 0)
Hi All,

I did the liquid diet for a little more than two weeks, until I felt better, and it did help. Just ate my first solid food a couple of hours ago, and man did it taste good! The liquid diet took quite a bit of self discipline to stick with, but I felt pretty good on it, besides being a bit hungry at times. I couldn't believe how little gas and gut discomfort I had while doing the diet.

I am going to go back to half liquid diet and half regular solid food now and see what happens. If I stay feeling this good then it will have been a success.

If anyone is interested a good book which explains how to do and what the benefits are of a liquid diet go out and get "Beat Crohn's--Getting to Remission With Enteral Nutrition" by Margaret Oppenheimer. I would highly recommend this book, very well written and understandable.
Posted 6/1/2012 11:01 AM (GMT 0)
Vegetable and fruit juices are rich in vitamins and minerals. It may be beneficial to include vegetable and fruit juices in your diet but not as a complete replacement of solid food.
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Beyond diet review
Posted 6/1/2012 9:24 PM (GMT 0)
i had a Nutrtionist tell me that Boost didn't have the lactose ...I don't know about sugar should read label.
Posted 6/1/2012 9:29 PM (GMT 0)
I do soups, and bananas applesause bland is good, but hard to stick to. I found cabbage is my worst enemy. someone on here gave me great advice a food journel. thats how i shop if it makes me sick i dont eat it or i prepare it differently. Peper seems to irritate me, tomatoe products. eggs,I can eat them scrambled in microwave but only one. I could go on on and on lol good luck
Posted 6/3/2012 3:20 PM (GMT 0)
Is it possible your doctor will recommend a juice fast instead? If you dont know what I mean watch the movie Fat, Sick, Nearly Dead. You'll get wayyyyyyyy more natural nutrition, lot more energy too than using ensure which has a bunch of crappy ingredients. Anyhow, good luck hope you do find some relief.
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