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How to improve diet with intollerances

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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 1/9/2014 10:46 PM (GMT 0)
I'm finding it hard to work out what foods and drinks are causing a worsening of symptoms, but I have worked out that tomatoes are probably not good for me and additives are also not good so I am trying to avoid these now.
I have a bunch of food intollerances that seem to be caused by a leaky gut so I already avoid dairy, gluten, eggs and maize. I looked at the specific carbohydrate diet cause I know that there is some talk about that helping for UC for some people, and I feel like some dietary changes could help me, but I am not sure how I can do it. It wouldnt be too much different from what I am doing now, but importantly I would lose rice and oats and these are my two most important foods right now for ensuring i get enough energy.

I am still losing weight because of the UC, though less than I was before I started treatment. I want to ensure I get enough food that I don't risk losing even more.
Additionally, I am pretty sick, not just from the UC but from Lyme/Bartonella/ME so I need stuff that is not a big drain to prepare each day.

So is it possible for me to do the SCD?
What could I eat for breakfast for instance? All I can think of right now is fruit and maybe some nuts, but that doesn't seem like enough.
Posted 1/9/2014 11:08 PM (GMT 0)
if you haven't had any testing done, I would certainly consider it - otherwise the whole process can be time, money, and health consuming -

never did scd myself - I'm not that dedicated !
Posted 1/10/2014 12:24 AM (GMT 0)
I think it will be difficult. I did full-compliance SCD and it took time and I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what to eat and making meals, etc.

When you remove carbs and grains you remove a lot of calories, not especially quality calories but they do keep weight up/on. You'll need to replace those calories with healthy calories which means good fats (olive oil, coconut oil, etc) and not much sugar (fruit is in this category).

Knowing what I do now (gone through SCD a couple of times) I would add healthy starches like cold potatoes and cold rice (do a search here for "resistant starch").

My gut did not agree with many legal SCD foods but perhaps you will do better.
Paleo diet plus potatoes and nuts works for my gut.

Keep a food diary. Give SCD 2 weeks and see if you get improvement.
Let your gut dictate what direction to go with food choice.
Good luck.
Posted 1/10/2014 12:30 AM (GMT 0)
To be honest, SCD is a very hard diet to do. I've been doing it for nearly two years. it's hard, no doubt. But, it's pretty clear to me that I had to do it if I wanted to start to get well. I wasn't interested in the pharmaceutical route. Diet was the only other option (except, of course, for suffering, continuing to get worse).

After being on SCD (well, really, its "SCD minus" because I'm not up to the full SCD diet....lots of foods they allow that I can't tolerate) for almost two years, I have the view that it is a great set of guidelines, but I wouldn't take it as a healing-by-diet bible. The folks on the SCD diet support page/group are very well-meaning, but some (too many?) portray themselves as having all the answers. These digestive diseases we have are individual enough that there is no one-size-fits-all. At least, not yet.

Until then, I can only suggest that you do remove what clearly causes you troubles. If you're like me then, unfortunately, that list may grow a bit until you reach the point where your body is no longer being attacked (that's probably not strictly accurate, but it's a reasonable way of thinking about it), and it can start to heal. Only after that can you add some foods back in (this is my direct experience).

Yes, absolutely definitely keep a food diary. And keep in mind that some symptoms take a while (days!) to show up or go away. My body likes to take a week to react (negatively) to eggs.

I certainly hope you're NOT like me!
Posted 1/10/2014 1:53 AM (GMT 0)
Thanks for the suggestions and sharing your experiences.
What do you mean by testing @soystud? I've had testing for food intollerances, is that what you mean?

I feel like I am in a catch22 with weight. I was around 14/15 stone and quite overweight nine months ago, but now I am below 12 for the first time in years and I can probably only afford to lose a few more pounds before it's a problem. Restricting my diet may cause weight loss, but then again if i carry on as I am I am losing weight anyway, so I feel like I have to try.

I think I am going to go toward the SCD and keep a food diary and see what happens but not get too wound up if I can't stay strict to it because I have to do whatever I can to maintain weight. My feeling to date is that potatoes aren't too bad for me, and rice...I'm not sure. I think it is better than many of the alternatives I have right now, but i might try and limit it more and see if i benefit or not.
The main problem I have is breakfast because I usually have rice cereal or oat cereal with oat milk. I am going to try making some kind of nut and bannana loaf even though I'm going to need to put some egg in it and see if I tollerate it ok or not. If I do then that at least would give me something easy and fairly nutritious to eat some of the time for breakfasts or snacks.
If anyone has any other suggestions then please let me know!
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