Preventing Inflammatory Bowel Disease with Diet

LOL...what's more important is what YOU think of him.

There are vegans and vegetarians who have UC.

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I was eating an organic, WFPB vegan diet when I was diagnosed with UC, I don't think my diet could have been any cleaner but I still ended up with UC. I think diets work for some people, but not every diet works for everyone.

I just came through the worst flare since my diagnosis. The only foods that worked for me during the flare were animal proteins, sourdough bread, and the typical low fiber vegetables and fruits. Before the flare I was 80% plant-based just because I prefer to eat that way, not because I was trying to cure or aid my UC. Hopefully, I will be able to get back to eating more fibrous vegetables, but right now the animal proteins and thoroughly steamed vegetables work best. Just do what works for you and feels good for your body.

Curious, if there's any evidence as to the TYPES of vegetables we should eat.
I mean it seems everything points to eating more plant based, but maybe the types and variety matter. I'm only learning about this stuff and haven't quite figured it out but I believe we should eat clean, and somewhat omnivorous, and whole real foods. But not meat heavy and certainly not processed foods.
I think understanding how to eat is sometimes more important than a fad diet. Example when eating plant based, are we eating ANY meat, what kinds. Are we eating starchy vegetables and fruits, enough soluble fibre or all leafy greens. Enough variety?

I don't know the answer but I'm happy that there is being research done in the area. We should never be afraid to make progress, even if not every lead is a cure or works for everyone depending on their circumstances.
Research is definitely pointing to lack of fiber in our diets and plant based eating but obviously some here have already said that doesn't help them. A bit discouraging I guess, but still happy to see research beyond only meds.

Only genetic level microbiome testing can tell you what your gut flora ratios are, and then you can use that info to modify your diet. Otherwise it's a shot in the dark and it's why a lot of UCers have given up thinking that diet alone can put them in remission.

The one thing all UCers must focus on is consuming things that enhance the populations of short chain fatty acid producers in the bowel. These produce butyrate which feeds the colonocytes, which are the cells of the bowel wall. UCers all have one thing in common, which is that they have low butyrate producers, and high lipopolysaccharide bacteria (like e. coli, bilophila, etc.). The bacteria with high LPS release that from their cell walls when they die, and then it causes leaky gut and bowel inflammation. Then the immune system moves in to attack, causing more damage, bleeding, and then the LPS bacteria feed on the blood and tissue, creating more of themselves.

So far they have discovered that the following gut flora produce butyrate, and tend to be low in UC patients:
- anything from the firmicutes phylum
- faecalibacterium
- ruminococcaceae,
- eubacterium rectale
- roseburia spp
- clostridium butyricum

There are others but I don't remember them right now. You can't take probiotics to get these, even if you could. You need to eat the foods and prebiotics that feed them while avoiding the foods that feed their harmful competitors:

Partally hydrogenated guar gum (PHGG)
Psyllium seed powder (not husk, but seed)
Colourful foods high in polyphenols: grape skins (grape seed extract can help), blueberries, bilberries, small amounts of red wine (low sulphite if possible or no alcohol red wine)
Apple pectin
Brown rice
Chickpea or brown lentil

There are others. The PHGG is awesome. It doesn't get rid of my flares outright but if I take it twice a day, my bleeding reduces a lot within days, and my transit time slows down.

about the western diet... yes, it is generally very deficient in butyrate supporting prebiotics. Some of the researchers I know who are looking at infectious causes of IBD (especially Crohn's) believe that food contamination with resistant organisms is also a major problem. Most of the foods the average westerner eats feeds dysbiosis, and if the foods contain antibiotics or destructive chemicals, then the biome suffers further.