Once again eating like crap all weekend makes my BM's more normal...

So I have sort of a strange situation and I'm not sure if anybody else experiences this (I'm guessing its rare). But for some reason it really seems like the worse I eat the better my BMs are. If I was in a full blown flare with bleeding that would not be the case, but trying to get into remission it seems to be.

Over the weekend at my parents' house for Easter I ate just horrible (as always happens if I'm away).  I had the most formed, normal (even a little hard) BM Saturday night. A sampling of my food:

Friday: normal breakfast at home of cereal. Lunch - chicken dumpling soup, a few breadsticks. Chocolate peanut butter egg. Peanut butter fudge graham custard sundae (at an awesome local drive-in that was luckily open already!).  Dinner - noodles with alfredo sauce and breadsticks. Assorted chocolates at night.

Saturday: Breakfast - scrambled eggs/cheese, toast, half a donut, a bit of almond danish.  Lunch - at 80th bday party for my mom started with a piece of vanilla cake (good frosting!), turkey sandwich, assorted fried appetizers.  A few chocolates all day from a homeade local chocolate shop (yum!). Dinner - chicken dumplings, hash brown casserole. Chocolate covered peep!

Sunday - breaded chicken sandwich and fries, then back home to MN and back to eating normal (although I didn't eat lunch).

The same thing happened 2 weeks ago when I was in San Diego for the weekend. I pretty much ate whatever I found for meals, plus dessert every night. Even had mexican one night and a margarita. Had a totally normal, formed BM the morning I left.

Is this completely weird? I'm not complaining that I can eat these things, that's for sure!  I actually hardly ever eat like that as I try to eat healthy on a regular basis. I allow myself one day a week (saturday) to eat what I want, but lately I haven't even been doing that as I'm trying to lose the Prednisone weight.  Sure enough back home now and my BMs are ok but not as normal (no blood or anything though, haven't had that in a long time). 

 

I personally am a big believer in different diet choices affect everyone differently. For some diet makes no difference at all. Others claim success with healthy diets and going gluten free. I personally also seem to fare better on an "unhealthy" diet. Having a burger, fries, and peanut butter pie are much kinder to me than eating a bunch of veggies, fruits, and fiber. Now I don't use this knowledge to eat unhealthy choices. I eat a farely well balanced diet. There is nothing really I avoid but I'm not scared to eat unhealthy foods but I do make a conscious decision to not overdo on those "healthy" things that cause me troubles. I think it is very possible that there can be an allergic or intolerance type thing going on that may be specific like in some eating unhealthy foods doesn't cause the reaction whereas maybe eating brussel sprouts or ocra may cause the allergic/intolerance thing to kick up and make your UC worse. I think people are way wrong just to assume the unhealthy foods are bad for your UC and the healthy foods are better for your UC. I believe the whole process is much more complicated than that.

gary, I do totally agree with you. I've never felt that diet plays a big role in everybody's UC. It may help for some people, but I don't think everybody is the same.  I've never felt it affected my UC much other than when I am really sick (bleeding or in the worst point of a bad flare).  And when I'm really sick I pretty much can't eat anything so I think in that case its more any food in my system rather than certain types of food.  Over the years I have learned of certain foods that I just try to stay away from as they either make me very gassy/bloated or just upset my whole digestive tract.  Most of those foods are things that many people on here use as staples of their diets.  Foods like raw veggies, whole grains, wheat, beans, nuts, many fruits (especially apples and grapes).  Any of those items really don't sit well with me but I notice alot of them are part of diets people follow for UC.  I think it definitely shows everybody responds differently to different therapies and one certainly does not work for all.  I do consider myself lucky to still be able to eat things like burgers, fries, ice cream, cake, etc.  I'd be very sad if I couldn't have those things every once in awhile!  Especially since I love to experiment with baking and even cooking now and then.

So are you sure eating crap helps your UC? Or does it just not make a difference? For a lot of people it does seem like diet doesn't change anything, but if eating crap actually helps, then you're not one of those people. I doubt it's the fact that it's crap food that makes it better for your UC. There is probably something much more specific in there, and maybe you could find it with some experimentation and comparing the difference between your healthy diet and your crap diet. One thing I see a lot of in your list is chocolate. It sounds nuts, but everyone's different, maybe chocolate is your medicine? I've already found out it's not mine xD

I think there is a fibre connection. My colon just doesn't deal well with fibre. People sometimes look at me in surprise eating a white bread sandwich when they know I have bowel problems but the fact is I'm fine with that, whereas a "healthy" multigrain roll, which I might love the taste of leaves me with cramps and pain.

A bag of chips from the chip shop (English speak there )would give me trouble, that might be due though to the fact that prepared potato products are often preserved with sulphites but french fries in a good restaurant, no problem.

All this new research on the microbiota might suggest that the bacteria that deal with certain carbs and fibre is gone. I read for instance that the bacteria that digest rye live in the distal colon, where I, like many, get UC flares. Rye bread is one of the worst for me.

Trouble with the "junk" is that colon handles it but I know the body isn't getting the nutrients it needs from it. I also would prefer to be vegetarian as I hate the idea of killing to eat but there's just too much fibre for me in the things that veggies usually get protein from.

The other thing is, there's a lot to be said for being happy as stress hormones seem to contribute to dysbiosis. So if you are having a good time with family and getting feelgood highs of chocolate, without stressing that this is going to make you sick, it helps too I'd have thought. Chocolate highs should not be relied on in the long term though! and I do know that sugar is going to give undesirable bacteria a good base to grow.

I actually think that gentle, regular, enjoyable exercise is one of the keys to keeping well for me, more important than diet. I always seem to let it slip though. My flares usually coincide with when I am in a period of sedentary weight gain.

I think it's completely unrelated. Probably just regular ups and downs of UC.

The low fiber idea of junk foods makes sense to me.  Anything high fiber is just a big no-no for me.  Funny though, usually going back to see my family causes me more stress, so I don't really consider it vacation. :)  In fact, I usually worry about getting sicker while I'm staying at my mom's rather than feeling better. 

I also do pretty hard workouts each week, Mon-Saturday, but when I'm out of town obviously I don't do these. Although I always take Sunday off from working out and I don't usually feel any different that day so I doubt that plays too much of a factor.  Other than feeling the effects of the workout a bit more while I'm tapering Prednisone. 

I'm still going to stick to my healthy diet, which is always low in fiber anyway. But sometimes I do feel like food with sugar in it makes me feel better, I'm not sure why though.

I also agree with the idea that maybe the crap food is low in fiber and that is what helps some people's UC. Before I was diagnosed, my diet devolved through trial & error to mainly crap food. Potato chips, chocolate (Toblerone for some strange reason), chocolate milk, tuna sandwiches, alphagetties on toast... as I recall these were my diet "staples" by the time I started going into spontaneous remission. I jokingly said a couple times that I should tout potato chips & chocolate bars as my miracle cure, right next to the 20 bananas a day post. But maybe it wasn't complete and total coincidence, I sometimes think? Could the low fibre have given my colon a rest, along with other forces at work (like abstaining from all alcohol, cutting all stress out of my life, physically resting around the clock) ??? Who knows.

Obviously that's not the way anyone wants to eat on a long-term basis, it's not good for your body in general. But for the short term, maybe it actually helps a very few of us with our UC.