Suggested diet for UC: Chicken soup and fermented pickles

I've had UC for nearly 10 years, over that time I feel like I've made progress understanding the disease and thought it may be helpful to share my diet.

My belief is that UC is a symptom not an illness. There are likely many underlying causes which explains why some diets work for some but not others. I still take Asacol daily and occasionally use steroid enemas but find this diet critical to keeping things in relative check.

I initially started off with SCD\GAPS but have adjusted slightly.

Breakfast: I regularly make large pots of chicken soup, each morning I boil a bag of frozen vegetables (ie, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, etc) in some chicken soup and then mix it with a hand blender.

Lunch: big salad with live fermented pickles.

Dinner: a protein (usually chicken, turkey or fish), white rice and vegetables.

A few notes:
- I believe the key to this approach is that chicken soup is great for healing your gut lining and the probiotics from live pickles help balance your microbiome.
- Although allowed on the SCD I found fruit, nuts and dairy may be a problem.
- White rice is totally against the SCD approach, maybe hold off if your symptoms are severe.
- Likewise, it may be better to avoid raw vegetables until symptoms improve. That said in general it's best to eat raw, cooked and fermented vegetables daily.
- For the 'chicken soup' I use: turkey necks, bones, carrot, celery, onion and apple cider vinegar and cook it over night.
- If your diarrhea is severe consider trying 2 tablespoons of psyllium SEED (not husk) powder morning and night in water, being sure to drink extra water throughout the day.

Hope this helps...

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Post Edited By Moderator (iPoop) : 9/12/2016 5:55:23 AM (GMT-6)

Chicken broth was one of the few foods that I could tolerate when flaring. Chicken soup itself was problematic since it could contain noodles, etc., that don't help me. Haven't tried pickles but I am sure that fermented foods help.

There are many advocates of powdered psyllium seed here, including myself. I take it with probiotics. Supposedly the internal flora feast on it creating butyrate that nourishes cells in the colon. I almost feel as though it acts like plaster of paris to patch up my colon.

Unfortunately for the past several years I can no longer tolerate any/all cruciferous veggies including the superfoods like broccoli.

hey dee, why not make your own broth and leave that crap canned stuff, with all it's crap ingredients on the store shelf - and are you buying regular store bought pickles or are they fermented ?

Jarred pickles usually aren't fermented, they are pickled. If they are fermented, they are in the refrigerated section. Wouldn't it be great if we could all sustain remission on pickles and chicken soup?

I always get the refrigerated pickles (find them in the supermarket Kosher section) - they are nice and crisp and always my favorite. If I am in a bad flare, I do need to remove the skin.

It's amazing how different people react to different foods. Even I change week to week. One week I can eat cooked spinach, the next week it can run through me like a river. I never know what to eat when dining out, nothing is completely safe (except maybe a baked potato without the skin).

I can confirm fermented foods and the SCD diet works. This is my first time posting here in a few months. I've had a pretty stable remission after being diagnosed with pan colitis. I've been on the SCD diet for about one and a half years and about two months ago began adding in fermented foods. I began adding fermented foods after I heard a podcast by a microbiologist talking about how good bacteria in the gut increases and larger numbers with fermented foods rather than probiotics.

Wishing all of you well and good health