HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

Diet and inflammatory bowel disease

Support Forums
>
Ulcerative Colitis
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 7/29/2019 7:49 AM (GMT 0)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12664-019-00976-1
Posted 7/29/2019 1:37 PM (GMT 0)
That's a big amount to read and I didn't except glancingly.

Diet modification is the reason for my remission that 10 years of oral RX did not come anywhere close to helping. My life belongs to me now, not this sucky disease. But I know from reading this forum that no single diet mod. works for everyone and for some people diet has no effect. So what can the average GI do about diet recommendations? Very difficult for them.

My life before diet mod. finally worked was so bad that many days I didn't leave the house and when I did it was hopscotching from restroom to restroom while driving. Last week my car was in a serious accident, truck with trailer sideswiped my car and tore the whole front end off my car. I was unhurt (thanks Volvo) but stood in the rain for an hour talking to police. Not a peep from my gut but in the bad old days I'd have run across the street and begged to use the bathroom (leaving the scene would look pretty guilty) or had an crap accident immediately.

I don't know if bad diet made UC happen for me, I ate pretty healthily, vegetarian and organic. But I do know that removing some foods from my diet got me to remission that has never wobbled into flaring since I got there. But it took a long time, progress was slow but visible.

My spouse (non-UC) has been having big skin problems and diet mod. is helping him. Doctors hand out RX pills and lotions and he used them with no success. Diet mod. is making him so much better. His inflammation is on the outside, mine is on the inside. It's about the inflammation, little else.
Posted 7/29/2019 2:14 PM (GMT 0)
That is great that only diet modification put you into remission.

I think that this statement is significant:

"Epidemiological studies indicate that adoption of Western diet (low in fruits and vegetables, rich in fats, ω-6 fatty acids, red meat, and processed foods) contributes to the increasing incidence of IBD in developing countries."

I believe that processed food contributes to development of IBD.
Posted 7/29/2019 3:46 PM (GMT 0)
Oligadar: I don't claim that "only diet modification" got me to remission, I've always taken RX meds for UC. But "RX meds only" did not get me anywhere near remission. Only when I added strong diet mod. did I begin to see symptom improvements.

Per the epidemiologial studies: When I got UC I was a vegetarian eating lots of fruits and veggies, so I don't fit the Western diet profile as UC pre-cursor. But I completely agree with processed foods being a factor in more people getting UC. I've become "whole food" eater and know exactly what's in my food.

Many, many studies point to red meat as a health issue, however meat was valuable in my path to remission, including red meat because it was very gut-friendly. Even today red meat causes me no gut problems but we limit our intake (insert sad face) and eat chicken mostly and lots of resistant starch and low-fiber veggies.
Posted 7/30/2019 12:55 PM (GMT 0)
It wouldn't surprise me that my UC began from taking so many vitamins and supplements over the years while ignoring those added junk ingredients they might contain (e.g. maltodextrin, polysorbate80, etc.) that promoted and nourished bad bacteria and the formation of stubborn biofilms.

I still take plenty of supplements not just for IBD but several years ago I had multiple surgeries in my eye that began when an incompetent doctor treated my retinal detachment. Afterwards I was prescribed eye drops to take permanently but their long term side effects can eventually lead to macular edema and glaucoma. But that is another story other to say that my doctors were astonished when I found several natural supplements that allowed me to taper off the eye drops. The bottom line is that I really go out of my way to find 'clean' supplements without added junk.

Also about 20 years ago I thought I was being a 'good boy' snacking mostly on healthy whole grains and 'wholesome' soybean foods like tofu, miso and soy nuts etc. But that was when over 90 percent of the corn and soybeans began to be saturated with glyphosate (Roundup) which was originally patented as an antibiotic. Not just any antibiotic, but one that mostly targets the good bacteria in our guts.

So here I was gradually destroying the good bacteria with 'healthy' snacks and whole grains while nourishing the bad guys with the junk found in my vitamins etc. That might be how I ended up with IBD especially since by avoiding those mistakes I can remain in remission.
Posted 7/30/2019 1:24 PM (GMT 0)
I have discovered that my intestines are super sensitive to sulfur derivatives. In my country these are additives E220-E228 (SO2, Sulfites ...). They are used mainly as preservatives. Basically they inhibit microbial growth. They are used in many supposedly healthy foods like fruit juices, fermented vegetable, dried fruits. I try to avoid them as much as I can but in some cases producers are not obliged to declare that they used for example SO2 for preserving food.
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply