Can You Eat Olives Without Any Issues?

Do you ever experience gut problems of any kind with olives, do you consider olives safe to eat?

What kind of olives do you eat? How much and how often do you eat them?

I have read about baked/roasted olives, I may try them to see if they are more tolerable with Crohn’s.

Michelejc said...
I can eat them with no issues at all

That’s great. Do you eat black or green olives? How do you eat them, and how much, how often?

The only time I eat olives is in pasta salads, black & green chopped. In all honesty the only way you will know if they agree with you is to try & eat some. They may bother some people, then not others.

Thanks for the replies so far.

@poopydoop it’s great that you haven’t noticed any negative effect on your bowel with olives even when flaring. Thanks for sharing. I want that kind of info with whole olives instead of chopped pieces in pizza or salad because it’s hard to know what is affecting you in those scenarios.

Michelejc said...


I eat all sorts of olives. I eat them right out of the jar. Love them! Keep a food journal because what someone might eat with no issues, someone else might have issues.

about five years ago, I tried olives a few different times and they hurt my gut, so I stopped experimenting with them altogether. I am considering trying them again, but wanted to ask other patients as problematic foods can sometimes cause big troubles for my intestines.

I too love olives and intend to eat them right out of the jar. It’s great that you eat them as a whole, right out of the jar, and experience no issues with them.

Guigsy said...
Ferrous gluconate (iron) is a common additive used in canned olives. Maybe that irritates your gut? Iron supplements can seriously bother even “normal” guts. I buy a product called “Simply Olives” that doesn’t have that additive in it.

Iron is used to turn ripe olives completely black. I only buy organic certified olives that don’t have iron or other bad things in them.

As for what could have caused my reaction to olives; I have thought of two suspects. 1) the edible, fleshy part of olives’ skin is tough. Even though I’ve tried to chew them well, maybe they were irritating my intestinal lining. 2) the way olives are salted and treated to make them ready to be eaten might be causing them to be fermented, the fermentation end products or the live microorganisms might be causing the increased inflammation by triggering an immune response, especially because of increased intestinal permeability (leaky gut). That’s one of the reasons why I’ve been considering not eating them right out of the jar this time, but cooking/baking them before eating them to kill all the microorganisms, dilute/change the structure of fermentation end-products, and maybe turn their skin softer. Before I do that, I will put the olives in a jar and pour olive oil on them to completely cover them in olive oil, as that can also have an antibiotic/antifungal effect on the aforementioned microorganisms on them.

Post Edited (xy123) : 12/25/2023 7:16:33 PM (GMT-8)

I take ferrous gluconate daily with no issues. Your gut not liking olives isn't a UC issue.
q

poopydoop said...
I buy the fresh ones from a specialist
deli/market and they're already coated with olive oil so maybe that's why I don't react to them. I noticed early on in my ibd journey that in many cases i would react to processed/preserved/quick-cook versions of a food yet not react to the fresh versions, I figured it was to do with the chemicals added during preservation.

Thank you for sharing. When you say fresh, you mean the harvested, completely unprocessed olives right out of olive trees, to be made ready at home? I suppose not, but wanted to be sure.

Post Edited (xy123) : 12/27/2023 4:00:08 AM (GMT-8)

Does anybody know what happened to Miranda (NCOT)? I read she has been using Reddit.

xy123 said...

quincy said...
I take ferrous gluconate daily with no issues. Your gut not liking olives isn't a UC issue.
q

Heather, clearly, you didn’t read/understand what I have written.
1) I don’t have UC.
2) the olives I have consumed never had iron in them.

I kindly ask you not to write replies to any of my threads.

-----------------

I'll forget...so put me on ignore.
q

clo2014 said...
I have a colostomy.... But have a large portion of my colon still.

My Colorectal surgeon told me to take a couple of either green or black olives, rinse them and soak them in cold water for a little while... I do 30 minutes in the fridge....and then eat those and chew each olive 70 times. I laughed out loud when he told me but he said he was serious . The soaking removes some of the additives that make IBD patients have a harder time with olives and olives are hard to digest... Plus for some reason they act like "glue" in your intestines and can bind things up some for some people. He told me to start out with 2 olives and I could gradually increase that amount by 1 a week to up to 6 in one setting. (Although he's really not comfortable with patients that do that. He prefers they stick with 2 or 3.)

I eat green and black olives out of the can... I try to buy less processed if I can... And I seem to do ok .. but I only eat a max of 4 at a time.

Clo
P. S. I tried to eat a piece of pizza that had it on them last night. It didn't go well. It could be a result of my imagination and thinking on this post though.....

I’m in the same situation as you with regards to your colon and such.

OK, your post made me grin. Chew each olive 70 times? That’s a jaw and deal breaker. But I get what he means, they really need to be chewed well.

Eat only 2-3 olives in one sitting? Nah, I would rather not eat any olives. If I can’t eat at least about ten olives in one sitting, what’s the point of eating? 3 olives wouldn’t cut it for me. That’s like a tease; I want the actual stuff, the real deal. I’m a man, and I refuse to not eat like a big animal.

What I’m wondering about your conversation with your surgeon is, why did you start talking about olives? Like, what was the setting, the context?

Pizza is a loaded gun. I wouldn’t play with it.

I have both UC and Crohn's. I was very ill, I started Remicade, fast fast healing, scar tissue, obstructions requiring surgery 4 + times so far....

Since my last surgery the CRS has tried to go over a list of foods I can eat, (low residue), things I can have occasionally and never ever foods. (As I recover we move the foods around. I see my CRS and GI about every 3 months...) I was trying to get bagels, some salads, fresh veges, black olives and pizza moved to the occasional list... And that's when he about had a fit.

I have to be honest. I cheat on the number of olives but not on the chewing. I can eat 12 olives during one episode....but I drink copious amounts of water when eating my "danger foods". And the 12 olives made me have some issues.... So I probably won't do that again.

Pizza... I can eat one slice--if thin crust, chewed 70 times per bite, while drinking at least 24 ounces of liquid during the time I'm eating the pizza with another 12 ounces 2 hours later ... That's the best way for me to eat pizza if I have to have it. Pizza is the loaded gun for IBD people.... that and bagels. Pizza is on the rare occasion list. Bagels are still on the never ever list. 😞.

The directives on chewing plus on the liquids came straight from my CRS. It's part of our negotiation process. He also has me drinking 16 ounces of water before my meals. I've started sloshing when I move!

Post Edited (clo2014) : 12/28/2023 7:59:16 PM (GMT-8)

Michelejc said...

xy123 said...

Michelejc said...
I can eat them with no issues at all

Michele, do you know what happened to iPoop (John)?

Also, are there any ways to block certain users in HW forum?

In the upper right hand corner there is an "options" button. In there you can check off "ignore"

Can the users I “ignore” see my posts and threads, when they are logged in?