Sunflower Seeds and Spinach, Part 2

 

I am on a flare, can I still safely try this sunflower seeds and spinach regimen? If I make a cream out of the spinach (with chicken broth) and eat sunflower seed butter?  Also I read that almonds are anti inflammatory so maybe almond milk instead of rice milk would be good?  I don't know what type of bread I can eat also so If anyone can help on this topic would be appreciated, I don't feel like the white, highly refined bread is that good since it contains a lot of sugars... But I know I can't eat whole grain or wheat...  My main question is about the spinach-sunflower diet , I would like to know how to start  and if anyone can answer my other questions would be great too, thanks!

Rio in Maryland said...
Pink,

 I think it's better to keep the recipe simple to begin with so that you can know for sure that it's working or not.

What is the best and fast way to cook spinach? Some simple recipes will be appreciated!

 

One more question: sunflower seeds butter....It has a lot of sugar in it, doesn't it?

I'm probably not the best person to offer recipe advice because I can get by with very bland food.

I just sautee 1 can of spinach with a little olive oil, sea salt, black pepper - then add some water to let it simmer for a while. You could probably add some garlic to it to give it more flavor, and even mix it with some white rice and light seasoning to give it more substance.

If I need a change, then I mix the spinach into some penne pasta or risotto.

As with anything new, start off gradually and see how you feel. You could have 1/2 can for dinner.

The sun-butter that I have does have a high amount of natural cane sugar (Trader Joe's), but it doesn't seem to bother me.

If you like avocados, you could try that along-side the spinach. Avocados have a healthy amount of fat and fiber and I found that I can digest them without a problem.

An ayurvedic book that I read recommends trying to only eat foods with similar textures at each meal. That means not eating harder foods with softer foods, and if you want to eat them at the same meal then cook them together to try to get a similar consistency. For example, instead of eating rice, lentils, and vegetables separately, you would cook them together as one dish till they're all soft and mixed together well. The aim is to pamper your gut by not giving it too much work to do, and giving it foods that calm it down.

Just eat the things that you normally eat but add spinach and sunbutter or sunflower seeds (if you can tolerate the seeds) daily to your diet. I see people eat from about 3/4 to 1 1/2 cups of cooked or canned spinach a day with good results. And 2 to 6 tablespoons of sunflower seed butter a day or 1/4 to 1 cup of sunflower seeds a day.

Rio , thank you for your help again, what your ayurvedic book is saying seems logical to me! I will keep that in mind, since ive been on a flare for about a month now I pretty much just eat soft foods already.  The spinach soup is good :) , I hope it helps my gut tonight!

I also found some organic sunflower nut butter made with sunflower seeds only.  I bought so many things to eat and I bought some new supplements with the help of the lady there. I will make a post about all this!

Thank you hellokitty, I started with cooked spinach tonight, maybe I will try the raw spinach when I feel a little bettr cause my flare is pretty bad right now, I think raw spinach , even finely chopped, could potentially be a source of trauma for my desintegrating colon...lol

Hellokitty said...
Hi Pink,



I don’t know if this will help you or not. I recently had a flare and was really sick from it. I had diarrhoea, vomiting and a fever. I’ve not felt that sick in a long time, and it was the first time UC had made me ill like this. Anyway I started an 80% raw foods diet, which included blended raw spinach. I blend it as I read UC suffers have problems with whole foods. The raw spinach seemed to really help me. It also helped me with the acid reflux I was having. I believe this was because spinach is very alkaline and it is helping balance the acids in my stomach. Now, if my stomach feels acidy then I take a hand full or raw baby leaf spinach and chew it very slowly until it is a pulp. This seems to calm my stomach. I don’t know if it will help you and I don’t think I have cured my UC but you can try. At the present I have been 3 weeks and have had no diarrhoea, no blood or mucus. Fingers crossed I will keep going like this.

i've started blending my greens as well. i go back and forth between romaine lettuce, red leaf, and spinach. i use a vita-mix and throw different fruits in to keep things palatable. i'm going to see how i do with this without eating the usual canned spinach. it's been a few days and already my poo is nice and thick. cfromutah -- see any problems with the blended greens? i was thinking i might not be getting as much as i usually do since the canned spinach is so condensed. however, i did read that blending greens releases lots more nutrients as opposed to just our diminished mastication efforts.

Since it sounds like your close to or are in remission I don't see a problem with blended greens in place of canned spinach if your eating seeds too. I usually only eat canned spinach about twice a month. But I make sure I get enough magnesium and beta carotene from other foods such as sunflower seeds and carrots often and it keeps me in remission.

caseman, It seems that the magnesium and beta carotene in the diet plays a big roll in making the diet work. The high amounts of pantothenic acid (B-5) and vitamin E in the sunflower seeds probably helps too. If your gut can tolerate raw spinach salads I think you will do ok with that and sunflower seeds or sunflower seed butter. You may want to try adding a few carrots to your diet also for a little more beta carotene than what the spinach salads will provide. Its not a bad Idea to add other foods from that high magnesium foods list to your diet as well. I frequently eat other high magnesium foods besides spinach and sunflower seeds.

Most people that I have seen being helped from the diet eat between 1/2 to 1 1/2 cups of cooked or canned spinach a day. One 13.5 ounce can of spinach contains

1 1/2 cups of spinach. I ate 1/2 or 1 can of spinach a day till remission. I try to keep my beta carotene pretty constant. So if I'm eating a lot of spinach I don't eat any carrots. If im eating a little spinach I eat more carrots to make up for the reduced beta carotene from not as much spinach. Now that I'm in remission I only eat spinach a couple times a month but I eat carrots frequently to maintain my beta carotene levels. I also eat sunflower seeds nearly daily and other high magnesium foods pretty often.

I don't mix my spinach with anything but i have seen others mix spinach with things and still be helped from it.

I eat raw carrots but maybe cooked carrots are better for someone in a flare because they wont be as rough on the colon.

Post Edited (Cfromutah) : 4/25/2009 10:53:16 AM (GMT-6)

I cant answer that for sure. I can substitute other foods for spinach if I get the same amount of magnesium and beta carotene from them. It keeps me in remission the same as spinach. I don't need to eat any spinach if I do this. But its possible that spinach had some healing properties that helped to push me into remission initially that not all high magnesium and high beta carotene foods will have. I guess there is only one way to find out if it will work for you so if you try it let us know your results. Carrots contain nearly zero magnesium, only high amounts of beta carotene, so you will have to find other foods to replace the magnesium, such as eat extra sunflower seeds and or sunbutter and find other foods high in magnesium. Pumpkin seeds are extremely high in magnesium.
There is a good chance it will work for you though. Because if im eating carrots for my beta carotene and sunflower seeds, almonds, walnuts etc for my magnesium but no spinach, and then remove those foods symptoms will start to come back in a couple weeks, and then when I add them back to my diet with no spinach added symptoms go away.

Sorry for acting so clueless about this but do you all eat the canned spinach or do you use the raw spinach and cook it yourself? '

Also, do you think it would be ok to mix the spinach in to rice either white or brown?

I feel like this diet has helped soo many people but my self.  I think it hasnt worked for me because I only really eat 1 block of frozen spinach a week (with 3-4 handfuls of sunflower seeds). 

Thanks!