Bagels

My GI told me not to eat bagels. I think it is to do with the fact that they are the equivalent of 4 slices of bread or something like that. I think it is the overload of carbs. They totally sit in my stomach and I feel like they are very hard to digest. Having said that, there are some lighter style ones that I sometimes eat a half of. They don't seem as dense. Also, as a rule they are made with white flour and don't have any fibre. I know fibre is an ongoing debate with people here, but I find that when I am not flaring fibre is very helpful to me.

As for the cream cheese, it is full of bacterial cultures which eat most of the lactose so I think it probably is OK for most people. I however cannot eat the stuff because of my experience at Great Canadian Bagel several years ago. I found a bandaid in the cream cheese which I brought to the attention of the manager. After checking with her staff (none of whom had cut fingers or were bare handed) it was established that it came from the cream cheese provided to the company by Kraft. The way it works, apparently, is that many bagel shops get the plain cream cheese from Kraft and then mix in their stuff to make up the various flavours, like spinach or whatever. After that I have been unable to eat cream cheese!!

Nanners...I know you said you are not gluten intolerant but bagels have TONS of gluten in them...way more than your standard loaf of bread. Additional gluten is typically added to the flour that used in bagels. You may not be intolerant to gluten but perhaps its just more than your body can tolerate. I miss bagels like crazy myself...I have made some gluten free ones that are really good but I have since given up yeast as well...so no bagels for me :(

A bandaid in the cream cheese? Eeeeew, that's disgusting!

I was diagnosed over 30 years and had two surgeries.......after my local doctor retired I went to see Dr. Henry Janowitz. Dr. Janowitz founded Crohn's disease with Dr. Crohn and he still had the same office too!!! Anyway, he asked what i ate that made me sick so i said raw carrots, popcorn and he stopped me mid sentence....he said young lady, no popcorn, no corn, no raw anything except sushi from a reputable restaurant, no beef, no oysters, no clams, no mussels and absolutely NO Bagels!!!!! He said they were like eating plaster for anyone with the disease.......I was shocked because I love bagels.....so i stopped eating them and a very long time and have recently been addicted to them, but notice that I'm getting constipated(rare) so bagels be gone for now, until I am back on track!!! Don't think it's what's in them, I think they are very very hard for us to digest. hope this helps!