What do you eat? Can I have coffee, wine or chocolate?

Who told you not to eat all this food? Does it make you sick?

What i can eat has no affect on what you can eat

If you aren't currently flaring, yes have chocolate, coffee, wine and whatever you want. If you have a bad reaction to one now, then avoid it.

I eat whatever I want now that I'm in remission. Cheers,

Food reactions seem to be very personally gut-driven in my experience. Yes caffeine and fiber cause my gut problems, small reactions now but HUGE ones earlier before a long-term diet modification got my symptoms under control.

I would not pay attention to anyone's opinion except your gut's. No doctor, no person with UC, no one's counts for anything except your gut. It took a long time for me to calm my gut down and now I can eat/drink many more things than I could 1 or 2 years ago. 2 years ago my "bad food" list was very long and has very little relevance to what your gut may react to.

When you want to test a food/drink you suspect causes symptoms then eliminate it for 2 weeks and see if things get better. 30 days elimination is best for gluten because for me gluten was pretty hard to identify as a problem since it caused constipation and my gut basically shut down. Hard to say that's a bad thing when you're fighting diarrhea and urgency, but it was a bad thing once I figured it out.

Good luck. The only person who can answer your question is your gut.

Who told you that?

The ONLY thing on your list that I have to even be careful with is sausage, and that's because a lot of sausage has MSG in it, which has always given me bad diarrhea. So that doesn't really even have anything to do with UC, because it's always been like that.

It would depend on when and why you were told this. There may have been good reason if we know who said this, for what reason, and more about your medical history.

If this was suggested that all people with UC should not do this because they would flare - then that is a load of bull.

Post Edited (DBwithUC) : 2/20/2015 11:40:48 AM (GMT-7)

Everyone is different. It's all trial and error. Coffee and chocolate used to KILL me if I had them during a flare. I couldn't eat much of anything back then before my J pouch surgery. Grilled chicken, rice and scrambled eggs is what I lived on.

I agree with others and will add a lot of anecdotal info (you asked):
Some foods may cause scraping (popcorn) so those which are not 'low residue' may impede healing an ulcerated colon; think sandpaper on a sore on your hand; not them causing your immune system to attack your colon.
Too much caffeine (chocolate, tea, coffee) makes my colon spasm (move) so unless you're constipated you would have an IBS type of response worsening the diarrhea (same as drinking an energy drink – makes me go). I drink a cup of tea in the morning for my caffeine fix.

I can eat 1/2 ripe banana, 1/2 pealed, raw apple or pealed pear (just an example that others here may not have that same issue but I have an allergy to the skins.

More than food I watch stress and strenuous exercise:

Associating UC with food is tricky. For me flares are caused by something which triggers my immune system and that has consistently been illness, which occurred about 6-8 weeks before or extreme stress or pushing my body, physically, way too hard. It never failed I would start a flare weeks after I would get sick with something, usually from my kids (small kids just are a petri dish coming home from a daycare or school). Flares teased me by coming and going. I'd have 1-2 days of gurgling colon and loose stool then a few good days until the amplitude and frequency of the symptoms got progressively worse. Before I knew it I was full blown. Before I realized this connection all diferent foods and medications were the blame. I tracked food I ate daily during those brewing storms in my colon and would come up with all sorts of false conclusions.

Food's something we just assume because other people react. But others don't have this immune thing going on. They're more like my wife the day after she eats Mexican, sick because she ate too many grease-laden chips and salsa while waiting hungry at the restaurant. I grew up in Arizona and so that food is a great thing for me and I missed it while trying all those restricted diets. Now I eat just about everything (I have a list of things I cannot tolerate well or am allergic to and each person’s is different in here). It takes time; you’ll figure it out.

I cannot take multivitamins as that vitamin C is too potent ; most here take
those I see.

When younger I didn't think about the grueling basketball games I had on top of pushing myself in other ways then staying up to care for the kids (you can't sleep when they need you in the middle of the night) plus remodeling my home and my real job. No, it was those mashed potatoes with butter and meat loaf that caused symptoms (it makes clear sense now but I always just tracked food versus health/bm’s at first).

I was so often overdoing it at the gym or would get into running and, weeks later, I'd start trail running or doing circuit training and lifting weights plus going and running a flag football team at work. Months later I’d start getting ill and wife or friends would ask 'what did you eat last night' (it had to have been the chili instead of all that buildup of days, weeks and months). The pizza 2 days ago did you in; yea. I ate pizza many times without any issues; ate it tonight as a matter of fact.

Also, certain times of the year I worked much harder in the yard because of mowing, plus additional tree trimming plus added heat PLUS then we'd go to the in-laws and do all these high-activity, water sports, boating, etc.; it builds up. When eventually I started my bm issues I started looking back at my journal of foods/supplements

People say this supplement or diet 'works' or that diet made me flare and I just wonder how do they know unless they're tracking everything about themselves for years including stress, seasonal allergies, sleep, and activates plus considering illness that might be triggering their immune system weeks even months removed.

It takes a while for the immune system to start attacking the colon to a point that you notice symptoms. You might catch a cold and 3-6 weeks later or more your colon acts up and you link it to a current diet or a food you ate the night before. You change your diet and complicate matters further by adding supplements. Now days or weeks later you start to improve. So, was it that you took off work to rest for the cold? Was there an out of town relative at your parents so you rested, visiting with them instead of taxing yourself further with chores or possibly you're drinking more water to recover from the illness and prevent other sickness and the rest and maybe stress level at work subsided 3 weeks earlier and your anti-inflammatory you added is finally working. Very complex I believe.

Frequently I got sick around Thanksgiving. At first one believes it's the stress of the meal planning (I cook). Food around that time is always determined ‘unhealthy’. So, was it the stress of things at work; the fact that every around that time we do our fiscal year planning which is so hectic? To further complicate, during that time I did a ton of outside work which was physically exhausting and different from the summer chores (winterizing a home had me moving a 32’ ladder around, lopping limbs, cleaning gutters plus repairing fascia, painting, etc). Plus it's also football season and the stress from watching my rivals beat my school is high. Maybe I just remember the times I'm sick around holidays because it's so noticeable to relatives and a big deal because I miss out? I'm figuring it out but wish I was wiser early on instead of buying certain products and torturing myself with restricted diets.

You do see patterns. it’s not easy and you have to think of your whole environment if trying. That's why doctors take your thoughts on foods and supplements and other as anecdotal; because they know there's so much more which can influence this. Stop smoking and you change other habits - think of the additional stress that causes on a smoker (they should stop and look for ways to reduce stress)

Now, if I have any sign of bad news in my gut I notify the nurse right away and don't even attempt to try and go change my diet unless I just added some wild and different food. I did that and just lost weight and felt more horrible until pain, blood and mucous was so bad.
Not saying you cannot react to foods the next day or even minutes after consuming but just think about all parts of your life when weighing whether something is ‘okay’.

The wrist bands folks wear are a great aid. Use it along with your food/activity/stress journal. If they had something which measured an acid secretion (?) which related to stress along with the sleep and activity then it would really help I believe.

MSG also and sugar substitutes stimulate my colon
I don't do well with milk in excess; yogurt helps
soy milk causes me gas

Wow! This was so much more help than I even hoped for.

Thanksgiving I ate rice and a tiny bit of turkey, nothing else and still suffered. Makes so much sense that it's stress, not food.

I'm going to widen out in my diet and see what happens.

Tomorrow I plan to have my first coffee in 2 1/2 years.

Everyone seems to have trouble identifying the specific problem foods. Burli's responses are closest to mine but to be honest, I have no idea, after many years of this, what foods cause problems. I've done the food diaries, the exclusion of foods, the intentional tests of 'bad' foods... still can't narrow it down.

When I do well, (and I've been doing relatively well since starting Entyio and being much less conservative with the Imodium), I still have pretty major problems but I often wonder if food choice really makes much of a difference at all. Other than avoiding gas at all cost, I sometimes think chasing causality in specific foods is just chasing ghosts. A plate full of pasta will nearly kill me one time, and eating the exact same thing later is just fine. One bit of good news - capsaicin (the hot in hot peppers) makes no difference to my UC. Good because to me hot peppers=life.

Having just said that I can't identify what foods cause problems, there are ones I am pretty sure do; milk (just tried to reintroduce that after 2 years with awful results), real chocolate and coffee though I can't stop that altogether... I love my [even decaf] coffee. All the other things I've avoided at one time or another (pasta, certain breads, certain fruits & veggies, seeds, nuts, ...) often have no bad effects if I slip up.

But if things get bad, I also have 2 go-to foods that seem good for me - chicken and frozen pizza. If eating out, I get a McDonald's sweet chili chicken wrap to be specific. Plain chicken, simple veggies, not much junk. Odd - someone with gut problems saying something at McDonalds is good for him -- I know. Hold your rotten tomatoes. :) Oh... and frozen pizza helps me sometimes - but that's probably because there is no real food in that.

Wow... that was a long way to say "I dunno - milk, chocolate and coffee: bad; chicken: good ???".
---
55yo male, UC since '06(?)
continuous flair since 3Q13, Entyvio since maybe Sept '14, Imodium more than I want to admit, multivitamins & occasional regimens of cortisone enemas

Post Edited (notdancing) : 2/20/2015 9:47:39 PM (GMT-7)

If a UCer achieves remission, it's possible to eat most foods w/o major problems unless one has additional health issues. Moderation is the key! Don't pig-out! Start with a small amount of whatever you suspect may cause irritation, and see how you do. My gut does better w/o coffee, carbonated drinks, sausage, or pickles, but I can tolerate most everything else on your list-- except that I stick to lowfat lactose-free milk. Beans usually are easier to digest when eaten in combo with rice or pasta. In my early yrs with UC, I feared I'd never be able to tolerate chocolate again, especially my beloved dark varieties. I'm o.k. with good-quality chocolate now, in moderate amounts, but avoid "junk" types that are loaded with sugar or artificial flavorings or preservatives. In the case of alcohol, one has to be aware of possible interactions with Rx meds. Also, some wines contain sulfites that bother people allergic to those chemicals. / Old Hat (34 yrs with left-sided UC; presently in remission taking brandname Colazal)

This list is similar to the one I was given when released from the hospital after being diagnosed in November. I believe it is the low residue diet for when flaring. It's very heartening to know that I will someday be able to eat all of these things again

I agree with Burli, at least for me, it seems to be more stress related and when I physically push myself too hard. Stressing out about diet just adds to the stress.

My flares always seemed to happen around November and April. I read that allergies can have something to do with it as well, and those two months are the worst for allergies.