Low impact diet

Okay, so at my GI's office I discovered that they hired a dietician... finally!  Seems hard to find one where I am living for some reason (or at least where I was looking).  A little annoying because it cost $30/15min. and I've of course thought a lot about diet and have my views to share and wanting hear hers.  Also didn't help that she was quite attractive, which makes it even easier to talk more as my wallet gets lighter and lighter.  Haha at me.  So $90 later it was recommended that I go on a low impact diet to give my digestive tract time to recover.  This basically means I avoid fiber in all forms, pretty much and other stuff that is harder to digest.  Anyone try this?  So this means I do pretty much the opposite of what I have been doing; that is, now I will have to get enriched white flour instead of wheat, avoid fruit skins and salad and beans, etc. etc.  The last time I heard of this was when I was first diagnosed or maybe it was before they knew what it was (i.e. BRAT diet).  My mild flare is manageable, but remission is my goal.  Just wanted to see if anyone else has had success or failure with this.  I know it is a temporary thing (a month or so), but it is hard to justify it after eating fairly healthy for some time.  Just want to keep my mind open

Hey but otherwise I'm doing great and busy at work.  Even got a promotion a couple days ago. So I'm stoked.

Funny, my GI told me to take fibre supplements (incase I'm not getting enough via foods) daily for the rest of my life and it was the best advice I've ever gotten from a GI...not only did it bulk up my stool (sometimes the TP is clean when I wipe) but it also cut back some daily BM's and along with the bee propolis has put a stop to the mucus and false urges (I do suffer with IBS as well and fibre is suppose to aid with both IBD and IBS)...I'm just glad for all the things it's helped with.

:)

Thanks for the thoughts everyone. I've seen benefits from fiber and considering it feeds the probiotic bugs, it makes a lot of sense to have them, particularly the soluble kind. Not exactly sure what to think of the diet and maybe it is more for a severe flare or it just plain doesn't work, but I'm curious if others have tried it. Sort of kind of made sense that fiber absorbs water and is not digested by our bodies and maybe somehow that makes our body work harder in breaking it down... but I'd like some objective facts. She did say one of her recent crohn's patients was excited because she was finally seeing formed stool.

quincy, it is not that restrictive. soft enough chicken, eggs, fish and the like should be fine. This is something I normally eat a lot of anyhow while avoiding red meat and pork, along with bottom dwelling seafood. The only major change is not eating nuts, beans, wheat/grains, and other fiber foods. So white bread and pasta instead of whole grain and well cooked veggies and fruits without the skins (not sure about pulp). This is not meant to be permenant either. I'm back to normal weight and my bm are 4-6/dy and manageable. My desire is to get in remission and I'm just trying to figure out what will work for me. In the past I had great success with Asacol, but it really didn't seem to make a difference whether or not I took it after that (even colozal). However, I'm working on starting up Lialda again, this time 4X/dy, and the funny thing is that my GI thought the max was 2/dy, so I printed out the doseage and left it with his assistant. And I don't plan on eating less either :) I'll probably get fat from all the junky carbs, if I should go for it.

The fibre supplements I take don't soften my stools, they firm them right up (with the exception during my mentsral cylce, anything goes then because for me it's the nature of the beast) and they're not too hard that it causes issues either so that's a plus...besides that, since taking fibre supplements I'm able to tolerate fibreous foods (yes, even popcorn) without gettting all gassy and bloated).

p/s I use olive oil and some sea-salt on my popcorn because it's healthier then butter and a ton of table salt.

:)

This is also called a low residue diet. I have had to use it several time while flaring. Mainly you want to cut out the roughage part - like others have explained that rubs along the damages intestine and scraps it open again. Foods should be given the fork test - if they can be easily smashed (fruits and veges) or cut (meats) with a fork with little or no resistance, it's okay to eat.

I will stay on this diet until I am no longer bleeding.

Thanks kb and dakota. This was helpful.
It is really hard to want to go back to it when I can tolerate fiber, only I wouldn't be surprised that some of it may be a problem (due to bleeding). I would probably have to eat a lot of babyfood because of my appetite, so maybe applesauce and other things. Since this isn't completely absurd and has worked for some, I'll give it a try and hopefully it will help. Plus, I would hate to miss the obvious. I think I'll go to costco and get the EZ-mac, which was great to eat when I was in bad shape a few years ago. Cooking up some soup until it is very soft would be another option.

Yes, no issues with popcorn or any other roughage, keep in mind, I've never had stomach pain, only lower back issues and eating popcorn and other forms of fibre has never caused me to have D, bleeding or any other issues any more than eating anything eles when I was severely flaring.

:)

Hey PB4 :)

What brand/kind of fiber supplement do you use and how much of it? It doesn't give you gas or D ?  (...............and you can eat popcorn. I'm so jealous:) 

Angievirsep93 said...
Hey PB4 :)

What brand/kind of fiber supplement do you use and how much of it? It doesn't give you gas or D ?  (...............and you can eat popcorn. I'm so jealous:) 

I'm in Canada and use one that's widely available here called Prodiem stool bulker with a mild laxative...not to be confused with the Prodiem laxative as they manufacture that as well...

In the beginning of taking it, it caused extra gas and bloating, this is normal and even happens to healthy people, it lasted 3 months but was well worth it because after that all my bloating was gone (including the gas and bloating I had before I even started taking it) and my gas has been cut down to a very minimal (hardly noticable amount), which is great because that's what eating fibreous foods can do and since taking it daily my system is well adjusted to the fibre I eat as well....it's been 5 yrs now and like my GI told me to, I plan on taking it daily for the rest of my life.

I've always been able to eat popcorn and other fibreous foods, I wouldn't get D or stomach cramps, just gassy and bloated...but that seemed to happen with pretty much anything I ate anyways, that's how I know it wasn't particular foods necessarily causing me issues, it was anything I ate, but not anymore.

:)