Another success story with spinach and sunflower seeds!

feeling pretty distraught right now. been in this flare for almost a month. eating the spinach at least every 2-3 days (one can) and munching on seeds almost everyday. my stools have been going back and forth between semi-solid and loose. blood has appeared as streaks on the stool and then some on the toilet paper. tonight i felt like i had a BM. when nothing came out i got up and there was blood in the toilet. i did drink some alcohol (about six beers) almost 5 hours prior. do you think that alcohol has an effect on our healing even when following the diet? i'm feeling discouraged that after a month the bleeding hasn't subsided. i've even started taking my colazal again.

hi everybody,

It's been a while since i wrote here as I've been really busy at work while trying to follow the diet. I thought I should give an update as I've seen a definite improvement over the last week or so. It was quite tough at first and wasn't really seeing the benefits, but decided to persist with it. I noticed a better reaction when i moved from canned spinach to frozen and when i really upped my sunflower seed intake. Also, I realised that I had to roast the sunflower seeds as eating them straight from the bag was causing a bad reaction.

Anyway, the last few days I've had no blood, no D, and only 2BMs/day which is a big improvement on the constant D and B that I was seeing just a couple of weeks ago. I'm not going to get complacent though, as last weekend I had a perfect day, where i felt like I did before I had UC and had only 1 BM all day, and then the next day I had quite a lot of bleeding....but I'm definitely trying to look at it as 3 steps forwards and i step back.

D

Has this post been started anywhere else? I would like to see how people are faring on this. I have trying this for the past few days too.

For the past two days I've been eating spinach to see if it would help with the flare I'm in, since nothing else is working. I have noticed my stools are more solid, my energy levels are higher and I have no aches and pains. This is the second time I've tried using spinach and it's the second time I've gotten good results with it, so I think it's safe to assume that it's doing some good in my case.

I wonder...is there a connection between UC and the Thyroid and/or the Adrenal Glands? The symptoms are idental with the exception of the colon symptoms....so who knows?

NBT

hi again,

Once again i've been really busy with work, but thought I'd give another update. To be honest it's kind of the same as before. I'd say 3 steps forwards and one step back. Most days now I have 2 BMs in the morning and then maybe one more in the evening. The first one has a bit of D, but after that it's normally pretty good. I've had no B for a while now, which is a good thing as I was bleeding a lot when i came off of the steroids for my last flare.

I'm still eating spinach 2/3 times per day. I'm positive now that for me frozen is the kindest on my intestines. I've really got into the sunflower butter, could eat that all day long.

I hope some of you are also having some success with this.

take care all

d

 

Hi Everyone!

I haven't logged on for months and thought I'd check in.  I was so distraught when I started reading about everyone's problems, and then I saw this thread and thought YEA!!!!  PEOPLE ARE DOING IT!!!

First, let me thank love4cats for asking about me - you're so sweet!  I'm doing wonderful thanks to this diet.  I did this back in Oct 2008 when I was so sick I couldn't imagine what would happen if I lost anymore weight.  I was taking LOADS of medication and nothing was helping (docs were talking Remicade and Humira next).  I started this diet and felt worse for two weeks before seeing improvement.  It was important to have canned spinach (instead of fresh) and Sunbutter (instead of seeds) to be more gentle on my stomach. 

I did not change my diet in any other way except that I ate LOTS of spinach and Sunbutter.  I probably ate 1/2 to 1 cup of cooked spinach and 3 tablespoons or more of Sunbutter every day.  To those of you who didn't see good enough results, I would suggest eating more of it and eating it longer than you did.  I was terrified of cutting back my intake of these foods for fear of falling out of remission, so I just kept going and going for several months.  That may not seem fun, but now I probably only eat this stuff once or twice a week. 

I haven't been on ANY meds since January 1, 2009, and I can eat anything I want as long as I don't go crazy (yes, even fried food, mayo, and hard alcohol).  My stomach is more sensitive now than it was before I had UC, but it doesn't even come close to resembling my flare.  At my worst I was a shell of a person who was not living any kind of a life, and now I have my life back thanks to Cfromutah. 

If you are thinking about surgery or very heavy meds, PLEASE try this first.  This was a last-ditch effort before the scary meds, and thank God I tried it. 

I hope you find all this info helpful, and I'd be glad to answer any questions.

Good luck!

 

I tried cutting out all sugars at one point and it didn't help me, so I can't say that I have the same problem.  As I recall, some people have tried making their own sunflower seed butter.  I'm sure you could find a recipe for it online if you googled it.  Then you could control the amount of sugar. 

Hi guys,
Still doing really well. I've upped my intake of both spinach (frozen) and sunbutter over the last couple of days and i've felt a bit stronger. this is positive as i'd noticed (from my food/BM diary) that I always was feeling a bit better over the weekend (when i could sleep more) and then had my backwards steps during the week (when i get up at 5.30 - to prepare my brekkie of spinach and salmon - and as i work in the city i don't get home from work 'til about 8.30pm before preparing my evening meal of spinach/veg and chicken). Anyway, this week i haven't really seen the backwards step, and i'm almost at the weekend, so i'm feeling positive. I have had quite large bms but consistently only 2/day and no B or D!!
I'm a little concerned as next week i will have to go to Italy on a work trip and won't be able to follow my rather strange diet, and I really hope this doesn't mess up my progress.
I'll let you know.
Hope you're doing well
D

Kiss - yep i think it's a good idea. I'm only going for 3 days but I'm taking 2 jars of sunflower butter and a couple of tins of spinach with me in my suitcase. I'll use that as my bae, and then hope to get something nice and healthy from a restaurant in the evening. I'll let you know how i go.
D

you all are lucky, every sunflower butter I've looked at has cane sugar in it, and I look in every store that has it.

This is my first post to the board; I will try this! I have been in a flare (with some good days and bad days) for the last year, prior to that I was in remission maintained for 4 years without taking one pill. During that remission time I even had 2 drs tell me they didn't even think I had UC because I recovered so completely....needless to say, this last year has been really frustrating because I really considered myself healed through diet and stopping oral contraceptives. Sigh.....I am willing to try this, though since next step is steroids, and since I only have the last 6cm of my colon effected, I realllllllly don't want to go on steroids!

So I've been at it for a week - spinach eggwhite omelette in the morning, apples and toast with sunflower butter, and spinach salads...have to say I have seen an improvement. I traveled for a wedding, too, and just popped straight up sunflower seeds. I have to say, it seems better - less blood, less bloating and the bloating I do have doesn't last nearly as long. This can be hard for women, though - because our hormones fluctuate, so maybe this being a good week can be attributed to my hormones? Its not hurting anything, that's for sure!

it did not work for me.