During Flare Diet Ideas/Regimen

Ive recently started meds about a day ago but before that i was trying to tackle this darn disease with diet. Well now that im going to attack it with a differrent approach what are some diet/ food ideas are people eating while in a flare and how much calories are people taking in? Im losing way too much weight and right now im just trying to stop from withering away. Thanks for any help.

I eat a low fibre diet, as low as possible, when I am flaring. It's not the healthiest diet (almost no fruit or vegetables) so it's just a temporary measure. Easy things for me to eat during flares are white bread/toast, mashed potatoes, eggs, rice krispies, chicken, fish.

I'm not sure who you are asking that question of, but the low-fibre diet I eat during flares is very high in calories. I wasn't losing gobs of weight and in fact, because I am not skinny but on the higher end of the "healthy weight" range, I had to watch it so I wouldn't gain weight.

Your doctor can't tell you what to eat because everyone reacts differently to different foods. What I eat during flares has worked very well for me... but might not for you. For example, I eat bananas and eggs... Others have reported those are the worst things for them to eat.

When I am in remission, optimal nutrition is my top priority when it comes to diet. Not when I am flaring. I have not been able to juggle both so if that's what you are looking for I can't help you. I would even drink Boost if that's what it took yet the nutrition police here would scream in horror and tell me I am killing myself.

While flaring, well cooked and non-spiced: chicken, potatoes, rice, soups and broths all seem to work well for us. Broad no nos while flaring are raw foods, spicy foods, caffeine, alcohol, and foods high in fiber.

You're going to loose weight while flaring badly, unavoidable. I lost 17-pounds in about 3-weeks. If you're loosing weight rapidly then you really need to be on prednisone. As you're only going to regain weight once your flare is mostly under control.

I won't answer for iPoop, he has a great knack of explaining scientific things in a very understandable way. I'll just say that high fibre foods are difficult for the human body to digest. When you are healthy that is a good thing! You are encouraged to eat high fibre foods because it stays in your system longer (so you feel fuller longer) and your system gets a good workout. But when your digestive system is ulcerated and inflamed, it is painful for it to have that "roughage" scraping along and your system wants it out of there as fast as possible hence the urgency and running to the bathroom nonstop.

Your post is why I wouldn't look to a doctor or nutritionist to find out what works for you to eat. It's so individual. How can they possibly tell you what YOUR body can digest during a flare. Many on this board suggest keeping a food diary, also known as "trial and error". I found out what I could eat during a flare by trial and error. (Also did some basic internet research looking up what foods are high or low fibre as a starting point).

So for example, I saw that cantaloupe is a fruit relatively low in fibre. I tried eating some. Felt fine. It's as simple as that, I learned I can eat cantaloupe during a flare. I don't really like avocados so I have never tried eating them so I can't tell you how I react to them. I did try a very small amount of chopped raw onion when I mixed up a can of tuna. PAIN! Urgency!! Running to the bathroom! Okay, raw onion is out. I tried boiled carrots. Fine, no problem. Steamed zucchini, fine no problem. Whole wheat bread - PAIN! Urgency!! No good. White bread - fine no problem. Eggs - all good! Lettuce - PAIN!!! And so on and so on.

Once I got to the point where I was eating all foods that caused no pain and urgency - meaning my system could digest things easily (and in my mind I pictured these foods traveling easily through the system not scraping the ulcerations), I slowly started healing. Not losing any weight, in fact trying hard not to gain it (but I would just need to eat more servings of everything if I needed to gain).

DISCLAIMER: This approach does not work for everyone. I don't see why you wouldn't try it though. Find out for yourself what you can eat. BTW, many UC'ers cannot eat gluten or dairy while flaring, though I can. Oh also coffee is another common one. I cannot drink it while flaring but can (must!) during remission.

Yes, there's lots of contradictions within UC recommendations among various doctors and patients as well. Standard disclaimer, always listen to your body first and foremost as it is the cop, judge, and executioner (and it implements some truly awful pain and torture upon us...).

Sure, always glad to elaborate on my why's.

Avoiding high fiber diet during flares: When we're badly inflamed the walls of our large intestine thicken (expanding inward) leaving less room for waste to pass through, and those walls are raw and bleeding. Fiber is rough and abrasive and bulks up stool size. Letting those two meet can result in considerable discomfort. Generally they say "low residue diets" in flares which this is alluding to. A little fiber is allowed and necessary for digestion, so we're talking about limiting it.

Avoiding raw foods during flares:
First point, raw foods take much longer to digest than well-cooked foods do. When we're flaring badly our mouth-to-anus time decreases dramatically from about 24-hours to as little as 4-hours, which leaves food less time to digest. Our digestive system is full of various holding areas where food is bathed in acids of various PHs and enzymes which break down complex foods into the nutrients we need. When that process isn't given ample time to work, we end up crapping out undigested or only partially digested foods. Sorry if is TMI, but I've seen recognizable pieces of lettuce leaves in my stool before during flares.
Second point, raw foods are commonly high in fiber.

I'd assume eggs (cooked however you please) would be fine during flares: neither raw nor high-fiber.

Regarding the avacados, that comes down entirely to your body's own reaction. You could try skipping them for two days and see if it helps, and if not resume eating them. Certainly they are harder to digest as they're raw and high in fiber. But if you're only eating one or two a day it is likely not a big deal. Eating a pile of them per day might be

Certainly, you must eat, as you're loosing weight while flaring badly. Eating is important. Just try limiting raw foods and high fiber foods: skip the salad and skip the dinner rolls. If you're really bad off, then just eating chicken, potatoes, and soups and broths is kind of the DEFCON 1 (most severe) response-mode, when all food is pain you limit that pain to those least likely to be painful.

Post Edited (iPoop) : 10/18/2018 9:17:36 AM (GMT-6)

Thanks for all the helpful responses. Thats exactly what im doing. Im turning this into a mental problem when it comes to food. Im not scared to eat, i have a healthy appetite. Ive just been micromanaging every darn thing that goes in my mouth that in getting such anxiety that i check the toilet everytime to see whats in there. Im am gonna repeat exactly what i eat right now. avocados, brown rice, cooked carrots, and eggs. My symptoms are mild gas, very mild to hardly any bloating. Very limited diarrhea in the morning before first bowel movement. Then afterwards very, very small amount of clear feces, not exactly mucus, and the bowel movements. Then all the rest are formed stools. Everytime there is some blood, sometimes more than others. I know everytime i intruduced chicken seems blood increased. Has anyone ever done protein shakes for the extra calories or for the protein or just for weight management? I know irs nearly impossible not to lose weight but im just pulling at straws here, lol Anything to help slow it down.

My next question is do skme food cause more bleeding than others? Cause i dont necessarily get any stomach pain with food. The thing is i dont have a starting point to begin with. Ive tried all the diets, chicken broths, and everything else. But im pretty sure chicken is one of my trigger foods. Sucks man cause i love chicken. Im gonna give it one more try, everytime ive ate it it was either with something new and then i would always elminate both. So i never did pinpoint it. But the one constant was always chicken. Is salmon an option? Yeah iPoop and quincy yall hit the nail right on the head. Im becoming obsessed with food and diet I AM driving myself insane. im givijg myself severe anxiety over it. Reading both of yalls posts literally woke me the hell up. Quit it man, just eat. Get over it and get on with it. Gonna add some patotoes first and see how that does.

I was flaring while pregnant and loosing weight. Not good! It was a chiropractor who helped me by telling me to eat as many avocados as I could. Makes sense as this is one of the first foods you would feed a baby, meaning it should be easy to digest.