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Diet/Nutrition Ideas?

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Crohn's Disease
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Posted 6/5/2011 9:40 AM (GMT 0)
Hey everyone! I have been steadily losing weight due to loss of appetite and general laziness, so I was wondering if you had some ideas for easy, healthy meals/snacks? Meal shakes sound really appealing to me (eg Orgain) but I really am up for any and all suggestions!

Thanks in advance!

PS: I looked through the forum and could not find a similar post, but if I missed one (or several hah) then please accept my apologies for reposting!
Posted 6/5/2011 1:49 PM (GMT 0)
The lose of appetite is easier to overcome than the laziness! I know when I have no appetite and no one is around, I can go all day and not eat. I have to force myself to eat at meal times, and even then sometimes its just a bowl of cereal.

The best trick I have is to have a small snack every hour or so. 100 calories snacks, they aren't enough to fill you up or effect your appetite at meal times but if you can sneak in 5 or 6 of them a day, that's 600 extra calories, over the course of a week it can really add up. Things like an ounce of cheese, a few crackers with some peanut butter, one hard boiled egg, a banana. I have a cookbook that lists a bunch of snacks, but I'm sure a quick web search would give you tons of ideas.

Of course that only works if you continue to eat meals in addition to your snacks. If meals are a problem, then you need to make the snacks more substantial and try for several small meals every day. That also can work because it doesn't seem like you are sitting down to a big meal and isn't so overwhelming when you have no appetite.
Posted 6/5/2011 2:32 PM (GMT 0)
I agree with Zanne, you need to find things to eat. We are all individual in what we can and cannot eat. Try to eat as Zanne states in small meals all thru out the day. I am not flaring but I still eat small meals thru out the day. This seems to help me to get more food into me. I can only eat a little bit at time, just not a big eater.

But you do need to get some nurishment into you. That will help some with the fatigue. With not eating your body is just using up all your energy using up your reserves. But eating a few small meals a day will help some.

Even if this question has been asked before it is okay to repost it. I prefer folks not bring up old posts as folks tend to ignore them thinking they already answered it. Good luck!
Posted 6/5/2011 5:08 PM (GMT 0)
How about some avocados + homemade yogurt + blueberries + OJ + honey? Should be very high in calories.
I'm sure this is a lot healthier than drinking Ensure or having high caloric protein shakes.
Posted 6/5/2011 11:54 PM (GMT 0)
There is a lot of good information on this topic out in cancer world, so I recommend spending some time looking at cancer sites, even though you don't have cancer yourself.

Here's a good page to get you started, complete with some questions you can ask your doctor:

http://www.canceradvocacy.org/resources/treatment-issues/side-effects/appetite.html

You should be able to find dozens of pages with good, simple, recipes, if you just use some creative Googling.

All the best.

Ivy.
Posted 6/5/2011 11:57 PM (GMT 0)
Scroll down a bit, there was a very recent thread entitled "What did you eat today?"

Some hungry folks chimed in. I def. do the noshing thing as someone else mentioned. The kitchen sink is pretty much my lunch/dinner table. A quick bite here and there, hah
Posted 6/6/2011 2:03 AM (GMT 0)
I never struggle to eat :/

If you can tolerate dairy, easy way to pile on the calories right there. Whole milk, cream, cheese, cream cheese, yoghurt, butter. And strawberry Nesquick. I could drink a litre of strawberry Nesquick milk a day, I am sure; and made with organic whole milk it's about 300 calories a glass.

Failing that, peanut butter or hummous is good. Hummous is dead easy to make if a good quality one isn't available locally. I like hummous with pitta bread. Taramasalata, which is even more fattening than hummous, also goes very well with pitta bread.
Posted 6/6/2011 4:19 AM (GMT 0)
Natural PB w/ no salt added is a good one. Honey Nut chex Mix (Gluten Free) w/ Almond Breeze. Fruit, plenty of Vitamin C things full of anti-oxidants like berries. Baby Spinach and other mixed greens with Bals. Carrots or Yams, more Vit C.
And i will often buy 2 or so pounds of boneless natural chx breasts for the week. Marinate/Grill. And I always have Eggs, tuna, and brown rice around. Green Tea, H2o, and AB.
Crohn's diease diet is remarkably simple once you cut all the garbage out and realize how much you're better off w/o things like red meat and dairy. But cheese pizza and chocolate every once in a while are musts even if you have to pay the price later.
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