Just Diagnosed - Diet Advice

I was just diagnosed with ulcerative colitis 6 days ago. I am currently in the middle of my first flare up, it has been nearly 3 weeks since it started. I am trying to learn as much as possible about my condition, quickly, as the bleeding is quite bad at times.

The diet I have been on the last few days has been a more or less SCD diet, and it seemed to be improving until about 12 hours after I had a salad that included eggs and a little bit of Parmesan cheese. I have been eating a lot of raw fruits and vegetables, and was making the mistake of eating nuts.

What is the best diet during a flare?

I am hearing contradictions, like to avoid raw vegetables, fruits, nuts during a flare, yet the SCD diet recommends these.

I also hear that white rice can be good to eat in a flare, but SCD prohibits rice.

What has worked for you in stopping a flare?

Thanks for all the help.

Hi and welcome to the forum!

My general rule is that during a flare I stay away from things that are scratchy (salads, raw veggies, corn, nuts) and things that are spicy.

If you want to have nuts, maybe try nut butters?

UC is not "one size fits all" in any way, unfortunately. Some of us respond to diet modification, and others do not. The best thing to do is to experiment and see what helps you.

Did the Dr put you on any medications?

I like this book:

VIEW IMAGE

Michigan47 said...
What is the best diet during a flare?

Bland, well-cooked, non-spiced, and low-fiber are your best friends during a flare. Stick with soups, broths, chicken, potatoes, rice, and other simple things without anything spicey added. When we flare most foods will disagree with us. Eat smaller more frequent meals and snacks, as a full lumberjack meal can sit heavy on top of the large intestine and cause discomfort. Stay low fiber as it is bulking and abrasive which is not what you want within a swollen, raw, and bleeding large intestine.

Michigan47 said...
What has worked for you in stopping a flare?

How you will fare in a flare is always a guessing game, we all hate flares and want to be out of them ASAP. You need a strong enough medication or better yet combination of medications to treat your flare severity and extent. Every flare is different in what will ultimately conquer it. Never a diet for me, as I seem to not respond to them in any positive way, for me personally. I've beat flares with only anti-inflammatory mesalamine like with 4 daily Lialda and a nightly Rowasa. I've had flares from hell incarnate that only prednisone, remicade and all of the big guns tamed. When it comes to flares, much like the toy-surprise in a box of cracker jacks, you never know what you are going to get (but I hope it is a secret decoder ring)!

Michigan47 said...
I am hearing contradictions, like to avoid raw vegetables, fruits, nuts during a flare, yet the SCD diet recommends these.

Yes, that's UC in a nutshell: rife with contradictions that only you can sort out via trial-and-error. As what is one's miracle treatment for UC, does absolutely nothing for another, and even makes another's symptoms a whole lot worse. Your results will vary wildly, and no one-size-fits-all treatment that works universally for everyone, unfortunately. Have a number of potentially good tools within your UC treatment toolbox, try them out with a fair amount of time to work, and discontinue and use another when they do not work. Many things won't work to help your UC, and only a few cherished few will!

One thing to remember though is our gut hates absolutely everything when we are flaring. So what works in a flare and what works when we're maintaining a remission are two entirely different animals (flares are more like a fire-breathing dragon in Game of Thrones, while remission is much more like a cute puppy with a wagging tale and big, brown eyes both wanting entirely different meals!). Or to use another analogy, know whether you are working with Dr Jekyll or Mr Hyde as there is a real duality when it comes to UC.

Here's my take...

UC is a symptom not a disease, it can have many possible underlying causes which may explain why something which helps one person may not help another. A common cause of UC is an imbalance of gut bacteria and/or leaky gut, with that in mind the diet should focus on improving gut bacteria and healing the gut lining.

I personally find the the SCD diet helpful. You may also want to look into the GAPS diet, it’s very similar to SCD but has (in my opinion) a better intro diet. Although the SCD allows fruits, nuts, dairy and honey it’s important to eat it in moderation and pay attention to how your body reacts to it.

Here are some things which may help
- Wheatgrass juice (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11989836). I use frozen melted in a bit of water.
- Lots of chicken soup. For breakfast I usually boil frozen vegetables in chicken soup and blend with an immersion blender.
- Natural probiotic foods such as fermented pickles.
- If I’m in a flare psyllium SEED powder can help with diarrhea.

Hope you’re feeling better soon!

I buy frozen wheatgrass juice at a local organic shop.

If you were only on SCD a few days and started eating salad, then you are going to fast with SCD. Raw vegetables aren't supposed to be added until symptoms have started to settle. Once you finish intro, you should be adding VERY cooked vegetables and only certain ones that are easier to digest (carrots, zuchinni, etc), cooked fruit such as apples made into sauce or just peeled and diced, older spotted bananas .. with UC your body has a hard time breaking down and digesting foods, the idea is to introduce foods that are much easier to digest at first. And if you want to go SCD all the way, definitely start with the intro. Anytime I'm in a flare I do intro for 3-5 days

MarjieKay said...

Poo'dPiper said...
with UC your body has a hard time breaking down and digesting foods, the idea is to introduce foods that are much easier to digest at first.

Can some of this be mitigated by using digestive enzymes, or are they contraindicated for some reason?

Also, is this true of even distal UC (primarily the rectrum)?

Thanks, sorry for the intrusion, OP.

To be honest, I'm not sure! I know that even with my flare pretty much controlled I still don't digest many foods- for example, had an asparagus incident just last night. UGH! I do have distal inflammation as well, but have increased Lymphocytes (microscopic patchy inflammation) all throughout the entire L and R colon , so maybe that is why I personally don't really digest much. I don't think there are really many digestive enzymes to help with the breakdown of vegetables, etc.. but I've heard of them for dairy. For me though, I just choose to mostly avoid dairy I only eat SCD legal dairy so I don't really have much use for enzymes.

If you DO find enzymes that help for digestion of other foods, please let me know!

@Poo'd Piper

I forgot about this thread, I meant to mention that I am using Super Digestaway by Solor Ray. This is supposed to help digest carbs, protein and fats.

Ingrediant list:

PANCREATIN 4X - (EQUIVALENT TO 700 MG PANCREATIN
Papain - (From Papaya)
Peppermint - (Leaf)
Ginger - (Root)
Papaya - (Leaf)
PEPSIN 1:10,000
Betaine Hcl
Bromelain - (From Pineapple Stem)(150 Gdu/G)
Aloe Vera Gel 200x - (Equivalent To 1g)(Leaf)

OTHER INGREDIENTS:
Gelatin (capsule), magnesium stearate, silica, cellulose and maltodextrin.

At some point after I feel I am in a better place and for long enough, I am going to stop using these and just eat specific fruits with my meals known to help. I suspect that I do have an underlying digestion issue, but I don't want to delve into that right now until I have reached a place of being symptom free for a chunk of time.

Glad to hear you are improving and having less bms a day, keep doing what is working for you.

Dark brown stool is good and absolutely of no concern to you, so do not worry about it. Blood is very red (either bright red or red-wine colored) and quite obvious; no guesswork needed.

Mucus happens without inflammation (our IBS friends can get mucus in stool and they cannot have inflammation), so it is the very least concerning symptom we can experience with UC.

You are still having diarrhea, so sorry you haven't yet reached (and are not close to) the fabled, promised-land of remission. Internal-healing takes a lot of time, so be patient. I know all too well, that we want our flares to be over yesterday as they absolutely suck and we want to be well. However, healing is a process that can take multiple weeks or multiple months to achieve. So, keep your eyes on the goal of a remission, but don't expect an easy-pass as there is no such thing.

Remission would be free of UC symptoms. In my remission I had 1 solid, non-urgent bm a day without signs of blood or anything you'd associate with UC. It was bliss.