Share something positive about UC

The one positive thing, for me and I think many of us, is that we take a more conscious and healthy approach to the food that we eat (or at least we should).

I have always eaten home-cooked meals. When I was a child a home, growing up, and now that I'm married, we have always taken the extra time every evening to cook a good meal and we seldom ever eat out. I know, I know, I don't have kids yet and that can make things harder, but I remember my mom teaching me how to cook at a young age with good whole foods. She worked full time and would come home and cook dinner. Sometimes it means eating a little bit later, but it's worth it. You can better control the preservatives, sugar, salt and fat in your foods when you prepare them and choose healthier preparations like baking, steaming, and broiling.

I remember when I was first diagnosed my GI doctor told me food has nothing to do with the disease. I quickly found after a few flares what my food triggers were and that food can absolutely affect my UC (I understand this is not the case for everyone). Now, my wife and I eat red meat maybe twice a month as a treat and usually eat fish, chicken, turkey or lean pork and in much smaller quantities than before. We eat many more servings of fruits and veggies and use them as the main part of our meal. We also regulate how much we eat, which can be difficult at first, but I think eating smaller meals also helps with my UC.

I've started making my own kefir, I've made my own sauerkraut, I'm drinking kombucha and trying to eat more probiotic foods, which I feel have really helped. I also make myself a smoothie in the morning with all kinds of fruit and kefir. I think it was one of the factors that helped me out of my last flare.

So the positive for me, is taking a more active role in my daily food preparation and reading the labels of the foods before I buy them. I think about it like owning a nice BMW or Mercedes - would you put regular fuel in it? They require premium fuel... and so does your body. Good, home-cooked, balanced meals without all of the junk in the standard North American Diet.

Food, for some of us, can be a big help for our condition and the value-added benefit is that your overall health should improve too.