What can I eat !?

everyone talks about what not to eat, but it seems to me that it is everything, so my question is can I eat bread, pasta(which kind), rice, honey, home fried food, some cold beverage, soup ?!

Deep-fried foods are pretty much a no-no, but I don't have a problem with pan-fried stuff. I use either a little canola or olive oil to pan fry my stuff (like potatoes) and I don't have a problem with it. I can even eat my grandmother's fried chicken because she pan fries it in just enough canola oil to cook it. Then she wraps it up in a thick paper towel and soaks the excess oil off the surface. I can't handle any other kind of fried chicken but hers--except for Chick-Fil-A. They deep fry everything in peanut oil, and I seem to be immune to this. A pretty good rule of thumb is that trans fats (most all fast food is cooked in this, as well as the sort of junk food you find in the gas stations and vending machines, like Little Debbies and Ho-Ho's and the like) will ruin you. Peanut oil, canola oil and olive oil are considered good fats (for your heart) and, I have found, don't bother me. I think vegetable oil is a bad fat, though, so avoid it too, as well as Crisco.

Avoid all caffeine. I get a little bit in my green tea, but that's the most I can handle. Remember that decaf coffee still contains caffeine, so it's not a viable alternative. If you like colas, but hate the nasty taste of caffeine-free Cokes (I sure do!), then I recommend Stewart's Fountain Colas. They have a black cherry cola that's EXCELLENT. You'll never go back to Cherry Coke again. They have no caffeine in them and VERY low carbonation. IBC also puts out a black cherry cola that's easier to find in regular grocery stores, but doesn't taste as good, in my opinon. I get the Stewart's at Fresh Market or Harris Teeter. I think I've seen them in our big Kroger too. They're not in the small Food Lion, though. They both are made with high fructose corn syrup (what's not these days?), so if you suspect a problem with sugar, you'll have to avoid them too. They're kind of pricey, so I never drink that many anyways.

Scrappy, I can't do fiber supplements either. I took a chewable pill when I was on a diet and was having problems with constipation, and it made it worse. So I tried them some time later when I was having diarrhea and it made that worse too! So you're not the only one who can't handle fiber.

I also refer to my guts as being "mad" sometimes. When I was having gall bladder problems, I made meals off hot dogs and Carnation Instant Breakfasts because it was about all I could eat and not feel queasy immediately. But when it wasn't acting up, I'd overeat a lot to make up for it. So now that it's out, my eating habits are all screwed up and I'm having a tough time not overeating.

Scrappy,
UC and IBS are totally different.  UC is an Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) that affects only the Large Intestines, IBS is a syndrome characterized by dysfunction of motility and sensation (with no inflammation) throughout the

bowels.

This is taken straight from www.UlcerativeColitis.com:

Irritable bowel syndrome Vs ulcerative colitis:

1. The most crucial point is that no significant abnormalities like inflammation or ulceration are seen upon examination of the colon in patients with irritable bowel syndrome. But those with ulcerative colitis have inflammation in the colon lining that can be seen by a doctor when the colon is examined.

2.  In patients with ulcerative colitis this inflammation may lead to symptoms of diarrhea, but not usually constipation, and not always with abdominal pain. While alternating diarrhea and constipation is hallmark of irritable bowel syndrome.

Another way that ulcerative colitis can be distinguished from IBS is that people with ulcerative colitis may have rectal bleeding, a symptom missing from IBS.

I hope that helps you.  Usually both can be diagnosed through a colonscopy with biopsies taken.

                       Thank you all, just reading what you guys write in the forum helped me emotionally and sorry for my poor language, I'm not a native English speaker and I wouldn't mind if you correct my grammar mistakes     I haven't been to a doctor, I had many concerns, embarrassment, the colonoscopy and other diagnosis test, and the final result which is there is no cure, you have to find out which food you can tolerate, it is something that everyone does, there is no reason to be ashamed of etc. just thinking of it makes me really mad.    I'm afraid that if I went to a doctor and he said to me   you have IBS I'll not be able to handle it, I'm living with this false hope that I'll have my normal life again soon, and it has been almost 6 years of suffering with uncontrollable flatulence all the time, chronic constipation with a sudden urgent need of having a bowel movement, stomach fullness and indigestion.   Actually, just today I decided to have a food restriction, and I should tell you that I'm in love with food .  I didn't know what to eat for breakfast, because I always eat eggs, cheese and all the diary products, cornflakes, jam, tomato, cucumber,   lettuce. Guess what? I ate 2 slice of brown   toast, nothing on it with honey dissolved in a glass of water. For lunch there was béchamel meat pasta, green salad and lentils soup, I told my mother I have my period and she made a hot regular soup, I was starving so I ate biscuits. The same problem occurs around dinner time, I ate 2 slice of brown toast with thyme.   I'm still hungry and I have a minor thalassemia, which gives me a headache sometimes, when I don't eat well.   Do you think I should go to a doctor ? or it seems IBS ?   If I start taking probiotics, fiber tablets on a regular basis, is it enough for the flatulence ?

Scrappy, a large part of your problem (nothing says you can't have more than one at a time, unfortunately) may very well be your lack of a gall bladder. That's what my problem is. Doctors tell you that you'll be perfectly normal afterwards, but this is false. You see, the vast majority of people who get their gall bladders out suddenly, and immediately afterwards, develop IBS and/or GERD. Hmm... I wonder if there is a connection???

If you are having problems with diarrhea, try getting your doctor to give you a prescription for Welchol. It's a cholesterol medicine, but it has the interesting side affect that it absorbs bile in the instestinal tract. GI's are starting to figure out that, hey, this helps people with too much bile in their intestinal tracts. I've been on it nearly three years and I don't know how I managed to live without it the first year after I got my GB out. I'm realitively normal (especially compared to most on here).

My GI's nurse said of people without gall bladders: the bile either goes up, or it goes down. The green stuff you're vomiting is most assuredly bile. The GB doesn't break down bile; it just releases it at the appropriate time so the bile can break down your food. Without one, your liver just drips it out continously. When you eat something that typically requires more bile to break it down--like fat--then I think your liver gets cranked up to produce more. Only it's not producing it right when you need it, but after the fact. Which leaves you with more bile than you need spilling down into your intestines or backing up into your stomach.

If certain foods made you sick when you had your bad GB, continue to avoid them now. Because of the Welchol, I can tolerate a lot more than I could without it, but caffeine is still my number one enemy. I can tolerate some in chocolate and green tea and that's it. Remember that decaf coffee still has caffeine in it. Diet medicines, appetite suppresants, and "no-doze" pills are full of it--enough to make normal people sick a lot of times. Also avoid anything deep fried (if you pan-fry at home in olive or canola oil, you should be okay) and avoid all trans fats. Also, red meat, due to its higher fat content, is going to make you produce more bile, so go light on it.

I don't know if the Welchol will help absorb bile in the stomach, and from what I hear, proton pump acid inhibators aren't that helpful (bile isn't the acid they inhibit), and they are starting to find that they are not good to be on long term anyways, because they appear to cause bone loss and greatly increase your chances of getting a bacterial infection in your intestines. It's not for certain if OTC acid reducers cause the same problems (since they are in a different category), because most people take them as needed, not everyday at high doses, like Nexium or Prilosec. One of the best things I think you can do for the acid in your stomach is eat frequently. The food will help absorb that extra bile and hopefully keep you from vomiting it up all the time. An empty stomach is always the worst thing for a person with acid problems. You might want to keep granola bars or rice cakes around to munch on in between meals to keep something on your stomach all the time (without making your liver produce even more bile).

Hi .. I really appreciate all of your help and support. I'm not ready yet to go to a doctor, but I bought fiber tablet, probiotic and charcoal tablet. the fiber and probiotics from puritan's pride, and I didn't find beano so I bought the charcoal, is it good enough? and why is it good to take fiber tablet and not eating food containing fiber ?


anyway I'll start taking them, hopefully something good is going to happen.

Thanx canyonbabe, could you give me the generic name of beano, it seems very useful.

You guys sound just like me - if I eat sugar I get very sick. If I overeat on ANYTHING, I get sick. I have to avoid high fat and sugary foods but sometimes I slip up and eat it anyway, despite knowing what'll happen. I'll get this horribly sick feeling in my stomach and then next thing you know I'm constipated, have terrible intestinal bloating, etc.