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Diet Tips for UC?

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Posted 4/9/2013 9:48 AM (GMT 0)
After two long years with UC, I've tried (and failed) many different diets. I love food too much to do SCD etc even though I did try! What kind of diet tips do you go for?

For me, my three daily essentials are porridge (made with water) with banana, peppermint tea and 1-3 tbsps of olive oil. I find the porridge really helps to line my stomach and the peppermint tea is soothing. I also try to avoid having a lot of dairy and have been avoiding milk more and more. I also avoid most caffeine (tea/coffee) and alcohol. I try to do very low gluten and avoid bread Mon-Fri. I allow myself some bread at weekends as I don't want to make myself completely intolerant to it! I have also eliminated onion, spice and u avoid nuts and popcorn! I've recently started to only drink filtered or bottled water too. Still can't let go of my beloved chocolate though !
Posted 4/9/2013 11:21 AM (GMT 0)
I will add just a note about chocolate. I started eating chocolate again a few months ago and have zero side effects. I've never been one for too much sugar-so I eat the 86% or 90% cocoa bars and they taste great to me. Maybe I do OK on them because they aren't packed with sugar, I don't know.

I do fine with popcorn, but like you limit milk, caffeine, nuts (except cashews) and bread. As you know, diets are different for everybody.
Posted 4/9/2013 11:43 AM (GMT 0)
If you're going to eat chocolate maybe you should eat the darker kind the majority of the time and limit the milk chocolate.
Posted 4/9/2013 1:57 PM (GMT 0)
if you have a gluten issue, limiting is not gonna fix the problem - get yourself tested if you can't give it up completely for 3 months (that's approx how long it takes to get out of your system) -
Posted 4/9/2013 7:28 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks, I bought some Green&Blacks 70% cocoa dark chocolate today to try to get used to! I asked them to test me for Coeliac just in case but nothing showed up. I've never found myself to have an intolerance.. I just feel that gluten on general isn't great for the gut - let alone an ulcerated gut! Off steroids 10 weeks so Im trying to keep a flare away through diet changes.
Posted 4/9/2013 7:35 PM (GMT 0)
just curious - how did you determine that you did not have an intolerance ?
Posted 4/9/2013 10:58 PM (GMT 0)
I don't find gluten to upset my stomach in any way, even when I'm flaring, it doesn't run through me like some other foods! Would that be how I'd judge it? The blood tests for indications of celiac came back negative too.
Posted 4/9/2013 11:03 PM (GMT 0)
Gluten takes several weeks to clear your system, so judging your reaction based on a meal taken the hour before, the day before, two days before...is not sufficient. You need to be gluten free for at least 3 weeks to see whether there's a change.

Blood tests for celiac will not identify all gluten intolerance.
Posted 4/10/2013 2:42 AM (GMT 0)
I still say that just like drinking a big milkshake to see if you are lactose intolerant, eating a bunch of gluten to see if you get worse is the best test for it. If you eat a bunch and you don't get worse then you don't have a gluten problem. Why go for weeks trying to test something where you could get inconclusive results when you can do it in just days?
Posted 4/10/2013 4:34 AM (GMT 0)
Minners,

I would say that COMPLETELY eliminating certain types of foods for 1 or 2 weeks and adding them back is the best test of intolerance. You sound confident in diet changes you've already adapted but you did start this thread. Makes me think you do want to make a few more changes to feel even better. Why not try totally eliminating gluten & dairy and you'll know for sure.

It's day 6 on the GAPS diet and my symptoms are steadily improving.

God bless you for being able to eat chocolate! It is unfortunately one of my trigger foods.
Posted 4/10/2013 5:34 AM (GMT 0)
ya, what kaz & jj are saying - intolerance is not allergy - it's not immediate, i.e., minutes/hours/days even - it takes months for it to catch up with me - then it takes those same months to go away - that is an intolerance -


gary is absolutely wrong - the results are totally conclusive -
Posted 4/10/2013 8:56 AM (GMT 0)
Thanks everyone. My mother was just diagnosed as celiac last year which has made me question gluten. The longest I went gluten free for was 15 days but I was in a flare by then and when I'm in a flare no diet alterations make a difference. I'm 11 weeks off steroids as of today which is my longest yet so Im trying to be meticulous with diet to try help my gut keep from flaring again! The more I go without gluten, the easier Im finding it. I'm not a big bread fan any more. So I think I'll try the gluten-free whilst I'm still well. My tum has been slightly dodgy and a bit crampy but no major symptoms back yet and only 1-2 bms a day! I definitely notice i feel worse after a bad nights sleep! I'm still hopeful that the Humira is working! Giving up my beloved chocolate today! I never gona day without having chocolate! I've bought gluten-free macaroons in case of cravings!
Posted 4/10/2013 10:40 AM (GMT 0)
Enjoy Life makes gluten/dairy/soy free chocolate chips...
Posted 4/10/2013 12:40 PM (GMT 0)
I still say that just like drinking a big milkshake to see if you are lactose intolerant, eating a bunch of gluten to see if you get worse is the best test for it.

That's not the way my gluten-intolerance presented itself. What you describe is more like an anaphylactic reaction and my gut's response to gluten was more subtle. I could see an improvement when I quit gluten but could barely see a link to gut problems while eating it, it was not in-my-face AHA! it's YOU gluten, you're the problem!

Dairy was a bit easier to link. When I ate/drank dairy late in the day then I'd have major gas overnight and the next morning.

I think of food intolerance and UC like this: my gut is wounded and I want to give it the least difficult food to handle so it can heal. It is not an overnight cure but my gut has healed and now I'm able to eat more foods that caused problems earlier.

If you yourself don't have food problems I don't understand how you can tell other people how their food intolerances might manifest themselves. Many of us have no other way of controlling symptoms other than diet modification.
Posted 4/10/2013 1:07 PM (GMT 0)
Wouldn't it also be conclusive if you ate a bunch of gluten and looked for the results in just hours or days instead of the weeks or months it would take to go gluten free? Why go gluten free for weeks or months, only to eventually discover that you didn't even have a gluten problem in the first place (obviously some would and some wouldn't)?
Posted 4/10/2013 1:35 PM (GMT 0)
ya, if you WERE NOT gluten intolerant - but if you knew that already .............................

i don't understand gary - what is it that you're not getting ????

Posted 4/10/2013 5:01 PM (GMT 0)
If you know ahead of time that you have a gluten problem that's one thing but if you don't then I don't see the sense of going on such a restrictive diet for weeks or months to find out when it is much easier just to sort of overdose on it for a day and see if you get worse. If so, then you know ahead of time that you probably do have a gluten problem. If you don't get worse than more than likely you don't have a gluten inolerance and therefore wouldn't have to go on a very restrictive gluten free diet for weeks or months for no reason. I was under the impression that most gluten free believers don't think that a negative test result concering gluten intolerances is reliable.

I really believe that in 99% of cases people did not get UC from eating gluten, although I do believe that the damage done to the colon by UC can cause people to come down with a gluten intolerance (the same as it can a lactose intolerance) and that going gluten free can help with your symptoms, although it will never actually cure you because it was something else wrong with your system which caused your UC in the first place and that is not going to just disappear because you stopped eating gluten. It will still be present. In this scenario going gluten free could help your condition and adding some other strategy could possibly fix your original problem. If your original problem were to get fixed and your colon was healed you could return once again to eating all of the gluten you wanted. This is all assuming that you actually were gluten intolerant which I believe only happens to a percentage of UC patients. Many have reported going gluten free for weeks or months with no benefit whatsoever.
Posted 4/10/2013 8:04 PM (GMT 0)
huh ?????
Posted 4/10/2013 11:13 PM (GMT 0)
Sorry, English is the only language i know.
Posted 4/11/2013 12:22 AM (GMT 0)

Minners said...
After two long years with UC, I've tried (and failed) many different diets. I love food too much to do SCD etc even though I did try! What kind of diet tips do you go for?

For me, my three daily essentials are porridge (made with water) with banana, peppermint tea and 1-3 tbsps of olive oil. I find the porridge really helps to line my stomach and the peppermint tea is soothing. I also try to avoid having a lot of dairy and have been avoiding milk more and more. I also avoid most caffeine (tea/coffee) and alcohol. I try to do very low gluten and avoid bread Mon-Fri. I allow myself some bread at weekends as I don't want to make myself completely intolerant to it! I have also eliminated onion, spice and u avoid nuts and popcorn! I've recently started to only drink filtered or bottled water too. Still can't let go of my beloved chocolate though !

I have tried them all and removing sugar always worked but Resistant Starch diet is what I am on now and its good for everyone UC and non-UC.

I am tapering fast and nearly at zero due to this diet. When I tried to taper from 40 prior to an angiogram for safety it resulted in more blood. Not this time I have less inflammation hence needing less prednisone and tapering fast. I created a thread or two here on the RS diet. Studies show it is beneficial for preventing UC flares and colon cancer and helps with insulin resistance...the list goes on.
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