The Diets

When you ask people about diet, make sure you know if they are on medication or not; if they ever have pain or not; what their BM's are like; when their last flare was.  If someone tells you to eat white bread or rice and they are on medication, they are not using diet to control their condition in the way that I am being off meds.  Maybe there are people who eat those things after years of remission, but within the first year I doubt it.  Yes for 7 years I ate what I wanted and didn't think about UC at all, but I have been flaring off and on for 3 years so with this level of sickness, it's important to know from where you are getting your information.

The word diet has the connotation of something temporary that’s specialized and only done for a short period of time.  A diet is what you eat EVERY DAY…write down what you eat everyday and that’s YOUR diet.  The only difference between your diet and a diet that someone else has come up with is the name.  You can name yours “Tiffany’s Eat Whatever the Heck I Want Diet” and it’s still a diet.

  

I started doing some research while I was visiting family in Florida and I came across Amazing Paleo after googling Ulcerative colitis cure diet or something like that (please note that for MY purposes the term cure and remission are interchangeable).  There was a blog on there by a man who had UC who had gone into remission by using Paleo diet.  I told my sister that I was going to try it and immediately cut out wheat, sugar, etc.  I noticed a difference within a couple days and it was enough to decide I was going to stick with it, but when I would go out to eat I wouldn’t be so strict and definitely cheated on the diet a lot in the beginning.

I wanted to learn more and more about people that had cured themselves so I continued my research and in February I found Specific Carbohydrate Diet, or SCD, I think via one of the support groups on Facebook.  I borrowed the book from the library and upon reading it found that it resonated with me so I decided I would give it a go.  I started the diet in March but I didn't do the intro diet of chicken soup.  I basically did an elimination diet where I ONLY ate banana pancakes, chicken, kale, provolone cheese, and tomato sauce, and nuts for about 3 months.  I was living with my Mom and I wasn't working full time so I was able to be pretty strict with it.  In June I found out about the supplements that I now take.  I had been getting better but there was still blood and urgency having to go quite frequently.

When you add food back into your diet, make sure you give yourself about 4 days at least to see if there is a reaction.  Obviously if it makes you sick right away stop.  Now that I have come to a good place, I know I can cheat a little and be ok, but since I've been on for so long I don't crave things like I used to. 

IMPORTANT: The first two weeks of eliminating wheat and sugar are the hardest because you actually do go through withdrawals and you feel like crap, but that's the feeling you want (hunger, cravings, headaches, short temper, tiredness, etc).  That's how you KNOW it's working.  I also look at those things as poison to my body.  Kind of a mind trick to make sure I don't give up. 

Healing via diet is hard ONLY because it's easy to get discouraged when it takes a long time or maybe you move five steps forward then all of a sudden you are three steps back again.  If you are strict about it, it should take a year to get healthy and then it's recommended to stay on the diet for another year.  Once that is over moving to Paleo is the next wisest choice; or you can always stay on the diet if you like.  I would probably add in some root veggies at the most.

Now, 8 months into it, about 85% of my diet is SCD.  I don’t think any of the supplements are SCD legal, but they’ve helped so as long as they are working I will continue to use them.  I went from having bloody diarrhea 10-15 times a day to no blood, going with mixed stool a few times in the morning and maybe once at night.  I don’t wake up in the night anymore and there’s no pain or swelling of the abdomen.  The terrible arthritis of the knees that I had in the beginning of the year is gone as well.  It felt like razors every time I would kneel down or stand up - it was awful.

For me the diet didn’t put me 100% into remission, but it set up my gut to be able to accept the supplements I use.  If you eat junk or food that your body has to work extra hard to break down, there’s no way you’re going to be able to get healthy with the supplements.  Do yourself a favor and eat clean, make your own meals and if you do cheat (once you’re healthy), do it within reason (e.g. last night I had 1/2 slice of 1 tier of a 3 tiered cake my roommate made.  Granted it wasn’t a whole slice, but at least I got to try it…then I went and had a brownie I made LOL)

Please read Breaking the Vicious Cycle by Elaine Gottschall for more info on SCD.  Other diets are FODMAP and GAPS, but this one resonated best for me.