Makers Diet. Its WORKING for me!!! Lets have makers discussion!!!!

Okay heres the deal. Ive been on the makers diet for 10-12 days and I feel the best Ive felt in over a year! I have ZERO, none, nada,  symptoms of CD and the only med Im taking is Entocort 3mg. ( Im scared to discontinue it ) Just when I thought I was at the end of my rope here and my only options were resection or remicade.

I dont see how this diet could work so fast, maybe its just a coincidence Who knows????? How long did it take for those of you who this diet has helped?

My meals consit of this right now.

BREAKFAST- 2 eggs, orange, turkey sasuage (EVERY MORNING)

Lunch- chicken salad with lots of tomatoes

Dinner- beef, fish, chicken, or lamb with fresh cooked veggies and a fruit plate ( banana, strawberries, bluberries, orange) and a raw veggie plate (tomato, onion, broccoli, with TONS of fresh chopped GARLIC!!!!!!

Im going broke but I feel like Im 17 again. Who cares right.

I have not touched 1 grain of sugar, milk, one slice of bread, or and fast/junk food. Everything is fresh and in its natural state!!

From what I understang garlic and onion have natural antibiotic properties. I take flax oil double the directed dose for inflimation. And I drink camomile in the AM and green tea at lunch.

Also I do not drink lots of fluids around eating time so that my digestive juices are not diluted. I drink alot of water around meals.

CHEW up that food so the gut dosent have to work so hard..........

GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

redspot, I'm sooooo glad you're having such great success! I love your enthusiasm, too!

I don't know exactly how long it took the diet to help my son, but it has definitely helped. His last blood work was about 1 month after we began the diet and the nurse who gave me the results over the phone kept going on and on about how EXCELLENT the results were. That says something!

I think any diet that removes sugar and other processed foods probably helps, but I like the Maker's Diet because it stresses putting the highest quality of whatever you are eating in your body.

Are you really going broke? I know we used to eat out at least twice a week (either lunch or dinner) and now we hardly ever do. I figure for a family of four that we're saving somewhere around $100 a week by no longer eating out. Also, as I've posted before, I'm saving money on doctor bills and antibiotics. None of us have had the usual cold that inevitably morphs into a sinus or bronchial infection this winter! YAY!

Good luck! I'm excited for you!

Thanks everyone. I really hope this is not a 2 week tease LOL...

Also let me say that I have CD of the terminal illeum with constipation not D. I dont know if that makes any difference.

Heres the kicker. Before I was diagnosed I had absoutly no pain in the RLQ. I just had one big bowel obstruction. At that time my GI told me to stay away from fiber and to start a low residule diet. He also told me not to eat any thind acidic as it would aggravate my crohns. So I followed his instructions and have lived off of LOTS of Ceral (2 x a day), white bread, pasta, and commercial yougart. I then over the next 6 months started to develop RLQ pain which worsened as time went on. I avioded and was scared to death to eat any of the foods in the SCD or makers diet. I thought these meats, salads, fruits and veggies would tear me up!!!! All I ate was pure carbs and sugar.


over a year ago a co worker handed me the makers diet book. I returned it in 2 days and said " I just read on the internet that Jordan Rubin is a fraud" I read that somewhere. I didnt even read the book.

They were giving the book away at my local health store and I took a copy. Once I picked it up I couldnt put it down. I am in no way saying The Makers Diet is the best, It just happens to be the one I happend to pick up. from what I understand any diet that eliminaes carbs, sugar ect like the SCD are the key.

When I started reading the book it was a real eye opener! It just seemed like common sense!!!

Sugar - fuels bacteria (look what it can do to your teeth)

Humans lived for thousands of years without processed, bleached, and fast foods. These Items are realitivly NEW to us and our bodies cant recgonize them. People back then never had CD.

Milk contains antibiotics that kill your flora

Chlorine is put in pipes to KILL BACTERIA ..whats it doing to your pipes?

A dry seed is a dry seed. It will be nothing if left in the drawer. What happens when you soak them overnight and put the seed in the sun? The life of the seed is turned on, It grows. Things and enzymes (that I dont understand) are unlocked. Almonds ect are unocked when soaked and provide all the nutrients that plant needs to begin life. Eat some once your CD symptoms improve.

We need animal fats to make good cholesterol as well as bad

Some enzymes we need to break down food can ONLY be found in RAW fruits and veggies
The list goes on and on......


As far as money goes. I never eat out, Its just the way it is. I usually shop at walmart for food but have recently been shopping at natural food stores and meat markets for find the best and freshest foods.

Tuna 17.99lb
Lamb $13.00lb
Salmon 9.00lb
Alvacodo $$$$
Fruit$$$$
GOOD Olive oil$$$$


I have a family of four, and the list goes on

congrats! i've been doing makers for like a year and a half. i noticed improvements in like 3 days. it was super cool cos i was facing ostomy surgery at the time due to colonic inertia and in like 3 days of being on the diet i started to be able to go to the bathroom again. thanks to the diet i am now med free and feeling the best EVER!

if you've been on it for like 10-12 days, you are cheating by having an orange. you gotta be honest, especially when just starting. i wasnt when i first did it. i was too intimidated and started at phase 3. i saw results right away too (see above). but in order to get to where i am at now, i had to do it over again, from phase 1. i met jordan rubin this time last year. he gave me a personalized version of it and it made the book version a walk in the park. imagine doing phase 1 for 3 months but counting carb with a total carb ceiling (total, not net mind you) at 80 grams/day. that sucked. then one month on phase 2. it was brutal. there were other tweaks too. but man, that did the trick for me.

as an anniversary of it, and to start off the new year, i am doing it over again. but i am doing the book version which takes 40 days, not 4-5 months as i did before. today is day 2 for me. i figure it will be good to detox myself from all the little cheat times over the year.

i think the maker's diet is better than the scd in that it addresses the quality of food - organic. scd also lets you eat some artificial sweeteners which really are poison (imho). i incorporate some things from the scd with the maker's diet. both are good, but i prefer the makers diet.

Lyn and Zanne, I was in your boat until my hubby went on South Beach. I started trying thos veggies again and this time I am feeling great. I don't know what changed. I hear where you are coming from though. I was the number one opposer to diets but I have been cutting wayyyyy back on sugars and carbs and I am really feeling a lot better. It was not on purpose... like I said it was an accidental diet due to hubby dieting and being my chef lol. But I agree it is not for everyone and you have to be in a fairly safe place crohns wise before you feel up to experimenting.

Congrats on finding something that works for you!
I do Atkins and it's worked for me. It's eliminated my trigger foods : )

Hi,
I just wonder: Crazy Harry, do you eat raw fruit in phase 1? Or do you have to wait eating it untill your intestines have calmed down?

I have considered The SCD diet earlier, and I have followed some of the advices from both Maker's diet and SCD diet. I make my own yoghurt, and I avoid eating too much sugar and milk products. I buy gluten free pasta. I make all the food at home, I use a lot of fish, poultry and vegetables. I bake my own gluten free bread. I don't buy processed food at all. Everything I make is fresh and raw products. And I mix fruits like ripe banana, oranges and kiwi in the blender and add apple juice (sugar free of course).

I use a lot of spinach, brocolli (tops), and other veggies with less fibers. Just to avoid a stop, because I may have another partial obstruction, and I want to avoid that. The last one I had was while tapering prednisone in the middle of september. (used to get those once or so every month).

From september I started using Low Dose Naltrexone. Within a week all my symptoms was gone. Goodbye to diarrhea, bloating, the pregnant look, pain from after dinner and all night while sleeping. Gas problems...gone..terrible cramps in my legs and feet..gone..It happened I could feel some pain if I had been eating food with some long fibers.
This kind of pain have now also disappeared.

The group "low_dose_naltrexone at yahoo.com suggested a mix with gluten free products, no diary products and no sugar AND low dose naltrexone. They claimed that this was a good solution, when I registered and asked for advice. Some of us Crohnies in there gets well really fast, as I, but some need more time, often some weeks to notice a different, and even some months to notice more differences.

I would anyway suggest, for those considering LDN: stay at a minimum dose of prednisone or entocort as a maintanance medication while starting with LDN. If the dose is around 5 mg for pred or 2 mg for entocort it's not a problem to use LDN, even asacol and LDN is ok to mix. The latter isn't even contraindicated at full dose.
But full doses of prednisone is contraindicated. Remicade or humira as well. All other immunemodulators or suppressors are not used with LDN. And you must never use pain killers containing narcotics with LDN!

LDN is taken in a low dose; only 4.5 mg per night (always taken by night between 9.00 pm and 2.00 am.
LDN must not be taken in a bigger dose than this. You can buy it yourself at a pharmacy, and mix it from 50 mg tablets without rx. Please, be sure to know how to mix it down to 4.5 mg with sterile water. Ask the pharmacy how to do it correctly!. But it's sure much better to ask your doctor for an rx, if he / she is willing to write a note. Some are. My GI thinks LDN is interesting, he is satisfied to find what it has done to me.
It's an off label prescribtion, it's originally prescribed for another groups. But then again: 50 % of all medicine prescribtions is off label. Even humira is off label for Crohns disease. It's approved for another disease (reumatoid arthritis, i think), but many doctors prescribes it for Crohns.

LDN is a good help as is Makers or SCD diet or other diets. LDN costs 65 cents a day. It doesn't give you severe side effects. You'll have some sleep issues (tired for some weeks, or more energy than usual in the very early morning;-) Some get a headache for some mornings, some have funny dreams for a week. Then it's over. I got the headache for some days, I got the funny dreams, I was tired and needed a nap once a day. I was also tired earlier than usual in the nights.
But it's all gone.

The best solution is always telling your doctor for advice. But a lot of doctors have never heard of LDN, and a lot is sceptical. Some listens to what you tells them, and let you have the receipe.
There is a good site: www.gazorpa.com that tells you what to know before you make the doctor a visit.
Good luck in trying another alternative. You may get a better health. So consider it.

I am not a doctor. I don't try to act as one. I am just another Crohnie who has tried another medication.
I have the deepest respect for YOUR medicine choice and your values. I don't earn money by telling you this. I just want to share.

Dr. Jill Smith at Penn State Hospital / University / is now doing a phase 2 trial: IBD versus LDN. The result will be ready around this summer, I hope.
Ingrid

skjura - yes, i eat raw fruit in phase 1. phase fruits are really just berries and i've never heard of them being trigger foods for any one. i seem to tolerate them fine. i get an assortment of frozen kinds and use them in smoothies. i have found that phase 1 calms my intestines down, especially if you put a carb ceiling to it. i try to eat my fruits and veggies raw when ever possible. i do better with fruit than veggies. i find that i have to watch my intake of raw veggies as sometimes if i over do it i may get a tummy ache or bloating/gas. i cook more of my veggies in the winter time (soups and stews, etc). i have read and found to be true that cooked veggies are better for us cos the fiber matrix is broken down, making them easier to digest. i still have some danger foods, like broccoli and corn. never cared much for broccoli, but i always loved corn. now i dont miss it as i've learned more about it and i have no problem abstaining from it.

one of these days i plan to get into juicing. i just dont have any more room for any more gadgets as my kitchen is too small. my counter top has become storage!

i also have been incorporating parts of the scd into the makers. i was glad to hear that i can eat baked goods and cookies by using nut flours. however i havent had much success with them. they do not want to rise and set, even if i double the levening agent and let it cool in the oven with it partially open so as to not shock it with a quick dramatic temp change from the oven to the stove top. any advice???

I dont want to ruin peoples parade of diet being a cure all, but the first line of chas036 kind of implies that some of us are kind of dumb in the sense we dont realize that these VERY hard to follow diets will make anyone with Crohns a new person again. I personally followed the SCD diet to the T, like literally not one cheat in 3 months, and it didnt help one bit, in fact i had many negative effects by the diet. The diet made me feel exhausted, there was no way i could eat enough calories to sustain myself, so i ended up losing a lot of weight, including a LOT of muscle mass. I was desperate at the time as i didnt want to be on Pred, but after seeing all the negative side effects the diet caused i decided that going the Pred route, while having the chance of side effects, was just healthier for me as at least i could live an active lifestyle while on it.

Diet may work great for some, but it can be just as negative for others. Drugs are kind of the same way, i hear people claiming that Prednisone is the work of the devil due to the severe side effects they get from it, me on the other hand am on 250mg/day of Imuran and the usual dosing of Pred depending on whether or not i am in remission at the time. Out of both these drugs combined i have the following horrible side effects....a little increased acne...and thats it, zero other side effects. So for me, the drugs are great, feel better, no side effects, what more can i ask for.

Please dont take this reply as being attitude filled, i just dont like when people make bold statements that because something worked for one person they know that its going to work the same for me.

tsitodawg said...

I am with the previous post about diet alone not being a cure.  I am not sure if anyone else noticed, but the person who started this thread also posted recently about being in the hosptial and is back on steroids and other medications again. (Redspot, I hope you are doing fine and my prayers are with you) 

This disease is a rollercoaster of ups and downs.  It is very easy to gain a false hope when something seems to be working for a short time.  Please remember that success is not for a few weeks or months, but for the long term.  Diet is very important for remission, but diet alone will not achieve it. 

Im back! I couldnt agree more. Thats why I try to put out little disclaimers like "me" "my" etc.

I still do maintain that I have never felt better while being on the diet. My T illeum did look inflamed on my CT as expected,  but my problem this time was an abcess or mesenteric infection which could have been brewing for a long time. The jury is still out for sure. I think this "shot gun" type western medicine is why Im back on a full regime of meds. Ill continue the makers diet and see what happens.

As far as weight loss goes. I went from 165 to 158 in the 3 weeks prior to being hospitalized. Im sure I have dropped at lease another 5-8 from not eating for 3 days.

I still within my normal weight limit though.

CrazyHarry

you wanted to know what to do with your nut cake: due to SCDiet the baking powder isn't allowed. Even baking soda is a problem. Eggs are raising agents too. You could either add one more egg or try to add some dried yeast? If Maker's allow yeast....Remember: to get a good result while baking: have the same temperature on everything you mix together. If you have room temperature on the milk, then you need it for the eggs as well, - in short: for every thing. To get more air in the mix: whip the eggs and honey (?) first, use a mixer, then mix in the dry stuff. And let it mix to get "air bubbles", the more air, the more swelling.

Yes, I also use a lot of fruit and berries, I mix them in the blender then I add either jogurt or juice to a jummie smoothie. The vegetable juicer is really good, but you need to buy a ton veggies to get a glass of raw juice. Just to warn you ;-) I use the raw juicer in seasons when I buy all veggies a lot cheaper, otherwise one gets broke in a week or two..;-)

For you that may consider LDN or Makers diet, why not do a combination with Makers and LDN to get to feel fine in shorter time, the combo is a match made in heaven! for sure!

LDN costs $17 a month!

jordan rubin, the author of the maker's diet, explicitly states that the diet is not a panacea. (i've said as much in my threads on diet as well). however, like him, and also from experience, i believe that it may help reduce symptoms and for those lucky enough, possibly even achieve some form of remission. the caveat is that it individual results WILL vary, and that is stated up front.

we are all different and thus have seemingly different forms of this disease. why do some people just need a b-12 shot while others are in and out of the hospital their whole lives? some meds work for some and dont work for others. we all have different danger foods too. with that being said is it any wonder that some have better results on this diet (and the scd and any other diet) than others? of course not. i feel very fortunate and blessed for the results i have achieved thus far on the diet. do i feel or consider myself in remission? no, but i am virtually symptomless and feeling the best i can remember. i dont consider myself in remission because i feel that word is a misnomer. the disease will always be with me. i will always have it. right now my symptoms seem to be very mild or non-existent. that doesnt mean that tomorrow or next week or next year i'll be hit hard with a flare. also because i feel ok doesnt mean that i am. i felt great when i was taking remicade. however in hindsight i now know that my bowels were getting worse even though i felt good for the most part and i eventually had to get surgery, losing about a foot of my colon. so to me, feeling good doesnt mean the disease is inactive, or i am in remission. however right now i feel good so i'll take what i can get. i plan on having a colonoscopy done again this time next year (doc recommends every 3 years cos of elevated risks of colon cancer) and with those results i'll determine if i was perhaps in remission for those past 3 years.

i do believe that there is a diet connection to all of this, more so than just staying away from your danger foods. but that is what i believe.

so even if you try this diet and your symptoms dont get much better, if at all, find solace in the fact that you are eating healthier (and finally properly) and that it could help you live longer and prevent other forms of physical ailments from developing later in life. the diet itself is really nothing new. everyone now is coming out with some kind of version of this - eat more fruits and veggies, drink more water, eat lean meats, eat less sugar, processed foods, junk foods, and carbs. we've known this for years but we dont do it cos it means we have to change our eating habits. i noticed i am digressing, perhaps too much, so i'll stop here on this side bar. anyhoo, the book provides, imho, a lot of nutritional and dietary insight that should be followed regardless of your condition and health status.