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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 6/7/2011 3:17 PM (GMT 0)
hi people! So I'm still gluten free, have been now for 3 weeks. But the bleeding is back, the urgency, accidents. So anyway.... I enjoy the way it makes me feel overall, the no wheat. But it's kind of pricey & a hassle to buy gluten free stuff for me, regular stuff for my family, etc. I don't know, I'll stick with it for a bit longer- things seem to be a bit better, somewhat- seems to be less blood, but probably not. Also, I can't seem to figure out how to get enough fiber- most of the fiber supplements contain wheat! So constipation has become a mild issue. Ugh... Just get me thru the summer, then we'll deal with things then!
Posted 6/7/2011 3:19 PM (GMT 0)
A great non-wheat fiber source is chia. I put it in yogurt every morning. It's a seed but when added to liquid forms a soft, smooth gel. You can purchase it at health food stores or online at www.getchia.com I like to grind it to a powder in a coffee grinder but you can consume the whole seed.


Sue
Posted 6/7/2011 4:24 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks! When I saw you had replied, I figured you'd be yelling at me for not calling the surgeon yet! haha..... kidding! Sort of.... That's interesting about chia, because in most gluten free baked goods, you'll find chia seed listed as an ingredient. So maybe I am getting a decent amount of fiber, who knows.

Posted 6/7/2011 5:08 PM (GMT 0)
Nope, no more yelling at you :)

I use chia for the omega 3 benefits (don't like fish) not for the fiber benefit. But I really like it. I use hemp also but it's a lot more expensive. Hemp is another good fiber and contains protein.

Sue
Posted 6/7/2011 11:21 PM (GMT 0)
I was gluten-free for over a month and didn't find that it helped at all. There isn't any reason it will, if you're not gluten-sensitive or intolerant.

Recently, I went on a very restricted diet (happens to be gluten-free), to try to finally figure out what, if anything, is really bothering me. I'm in the second week now, and while the bleeding isn't completely gone, a lot of other things are -- no urgency (except in the morning), no mucous, no BMs after 8 AM and only around 2 per day. Less cramping up. I had been going around 5-8 times / day, and bleeding almost every time.

So, if going gluten-free isn't helping you, you might consider something more restricted. It takes planning and a lot of kitchen-work, but could pay off for you too.

Best of luck :-)!
Posted 6/8/2011 1:07 AM (GMT 0)
Sweet potato has lots of beneficial fiber w/o being hard on the gut. / Old Hat (30 yrs with left-sided UC; presently in remission taking brandname Colazal)
Posted 6/8/2011 2:12 PM (GMT 0)
We do eat sweet potatoes fairly often, I love them! When I was flaring badly, they were about all I could eat. Sigh... the restricted diets... I already spend quite a lot of time cooking, meal planning, shopping, etc. I work & am a mother, so I give all the time I can to the kitchen. It's not that I'm averse to devoting more time to it, but I don't have any more time to give! Not knowing if it would help either is an issue- if I were certain food choices affected my UC, I would restrict in a minute. But I'm not. One has to weigh to pros & cons, of devoting tons of time to something that may do nothing beneficial in the end. After so many years of UC, I've found the only "food choice" that makes any difference is when I drink Ensure for days on end, with very little solid food. That's not really how I would like to live the remainder of my days!

Posted 6/8/2011 3:00 PM (GMT 0)

Eva Lou said...
I already spend quite a lot of time cooking, meal planning, shopping, etc. I work & am a mother, so I give all the time I can to the kitchen. It's not that I'm averse to devoting more time to it, but I don't have any more time to give!

I can totally sympathize. I don't have any kids, but I do work, and even with only that the meal planning and creation takes a good bit of time!

Eva Lou said...
Not knowing if it would help either is an issue- if I were certain food choices affected my UC, I would restrict in a minute.

I played around a lot with this and that, restricting dairy, or gluten, or meat. I never noticed any real change. But with the very simple diet I'm on now, I noticed an *immediate* change -- within just a few days, I was much, much better. Only time will tell if this sticks (it's been about a week and a half now), but if it does, I'll post on these forums with details, recipes, etc. So anyone else who wants to give it a try won't have to spend quite as much time and energy as me to get it started wink.

I should say that I was totally ready for it to fail, given my previous experiments with diet. But this is the first really, really dramatic improvement in my symptoms, to the point where I'm almost back to normal. Zero urgency. Zero bathroom trips after the early AM. Probiotics helped too, but nothing as dramatic as this.

So my advice is: diet really can make a difference, even if little changes here and there haven't in the past.
Posted 6/8/2011 7:37 PM (GMT 0)

I tried a gluten-free diet for a while and didn't see any changes. I also was tested for gluten disorders and all come back negative. 

Have you been tested? Sometimes diet works and sometime it doesn't.  It's a hard one to figure out!

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