Colitis Crimes
My ulcerative colitis / Crohns* has been flaring up a lot lately. I had it under control for several years. Most months I enjoyed few symptoms because I controlled them through diet (more to come on that). I knew I had made some bad dietary choices in the last month since Jerry got home from California but now things have gotten out of hand. I relaxed my diet as far as eating out and what groceries we bought (label reading got lax) and I ended up eating several trigger foods.
My Dietary Crimes Included:
A Big Mac & Fries (triggers – high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and seeds on the bun)
Peanut Butter (trigger – nuts)
Sonic Toaster with BBQ Sauce (trigger HFCS)
Terrible’s Como Café preserves and creamer (trigger HFCS and milk)
Mr. Pibb at Del Taco (HFCS)
Yoplait Light Yogurt (HFCS)
Almonds (nuts)
Chili’s dessert and beans (HFCS and beans)
Jerry made scrabbled eggs with milk (milk)
Hamburger bun (HFCS)
Ham (honey)
I’ve been in intermittent pain with symptoms for about six weeks, and constant pain with symptoms that had me in the tank now for about a week.
I’ve gotten so bad this past week I’ve had to go back to square one and reorder and read “The Self Help Guide To Colitis, IBS and Crohns” by DeLamar Gibbons M.D. at Amazon. This book saved me back in 2003. Unfortunately I resold my copy and forgot a lot of the crucial dietary wisdom inside.
What’s unique about this book is the author is a medical doctor and a colitis sufferer who received inadequate relief from conventional treatment (so did I!) Like Dr. Gibbons’ doctor, my doctor prescribed dietary practices and drugs that proved harmful in the long run. Through job changes, becoming self employed, and other circumstances we’ve been medically uninsured several years and pay our expenses out of pocket. (And I did the math. Medical insurance premiums for our family over the past seven years would have been over $84,000 out of pocket. Our actual 7 year out of pocket cost was $3500). This seeming hardship has – in hindsight – spared me further long term medical mismanagement. I learned to self manage through diet alone.
Ask any gastroenterologist and they will swear diet has no effect on colitis, Crohns, IBS, and other digestive diseases. They’ll prescribe dubious, often harmful drugs and diet (fruit juice and fiber are stressed) sure to keep you sick and symptom riddled. Dr. Gibbons discovered most people with intestinal diseases are fructose intolerant and fiber exacerbates their condition. Fructose and its nasty relatives (high fructose corn syrup, corn sweeteners, sorbital, mannitol, malitol, and even honey) ferment in the gut of fructose intolerant people and wreck havoc.
Before I started this colitis diet, I had gone through an over two year ordeal (August 2001-May 2003) of abdominal pain, cramping, constant diarrhea, explosive gas, sometimes being home bound for days – duh - fatigue, weight gain (maybe 10-15 pounds over that time) and mental and emotional fatigue. I ate a lot of fruits, fruit juices, and fiber rich foods (including wheat). I managed to care for Bruno who was a toddler, write a few cookbooks, and do chores, but my life was not optimal. Constant pain – even intermittent pain – along with an uncontrolled disease is draining on all fronts.
I don’t think I ever told Jerry – he’s a worrier – but I seriously wondered if I’d live long enough to see Bruno graduate high school. That level of pain is often a sign of serious inflammation, damage, and colitis / Crohns sufferers have a high risk of colon cancer. This past week this prospect occurred to me again and I knew I had to revisit Dr. Gibbons' advice and implement it to the letter. No more casual eating that lead to dietary crimes against myself!
In about a week on the colitis diet the first time I had less pain, rarer episodes of diarrhea (once a week then once a month as opposed to every few hours). And I slowly increased my energy and my mental and emotional outlook. Eventually I lost body fat and gained muscle mass (again after a long break from resistance training while sick) through a careful high protein diet, watching carbohydrates, weight lifting, aerobics, and sticking to the Colitis Club diet principles. (I’ll cover more on this diet later).
While this diet is not low carbohydrate by definition as it allows colon friendly white potatoes and oatmeal, it can be low carb if you omit certain foods and because protein and fat are not restricted.
The bottom line is if you have a serious and painful intestinal / digestive disease such as colitis, Crohns, IBS, Celiacs, or diverticulitis, your food choices can kill you in more ways than one. Eating properly for your disease, as opposed to common wisdom and standard medical advice, can make a huge difference between a life worth living and well lived, or a life of pain, low energy, constant struggle, and embarrassing symptoms.
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On a side note, last night I watched the BBC America special ‘Super Skinny Me” in which a 37 year old attractive journalist complained her body was not what it once was. She went on to do an extreme low calorie diet (quote “I’m eating under 1000 calories a day and guilty about eating that much”) with dubious results. Duh! Starvation always backfires.
What? Is she crazy?! She was attractive, 137 pounds at 5’7” and healthy!
People, don’t worry, struggle, or obsess over being a few extra pounds overweight. If you’re healthy, pain free, and not limited in food choices to boot, count your blessings and be grateful.
*UC and Crohns are often hard to differentiate diagnostically according to Dr. Gibbons. My symptoms match both and I didn’t have health insurance at the time my symptoms were at their worse. A trusted relative who happens to be my brother is a medical professional and he told me he’s seen Crohns in people like me with Cerebral Palsy more frequently than the general patient population.. I still have no definitive diagnosis (the original was gastroenteritis / acute colitis diagnosed by a humorous redneck Physician’s Assistant at our local Urgent Care whom I’m still fond of (the big handsome PA and the walk-in affordable Urgent Care). After an X-ray of my colon he told me – literally – I was “full of shit.” My X-ray showed a distended colon. Despite constant diarrhea I was seriously backed up.
Unfortunately his drugs and fruit juice diet only gave me relief until the pain meds ran out.
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Here’s the homemade chili recipe I promised. Bruno went nuts over it and ate two bowls the first night. I ate a little but was scared what the spices would do to my colon. Although it’s based on a traditional Texas chili with no beans (beans are a no no for colitis type conditions) I added two unusual spices (unusual for chili) from my garden, basil and chives. Boy those fresh ingredients stand out! If you use dried spices your results will differ.
1 ½ pounds stew meat
1/8 cup olive oil
½ cup red wine
½ cup water
2 tablespoons Worchestershire sauce
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
½ teaspoon liquid smoke
6 medium tomatoes
¼ cup red peppers (I used grilled)
3 tablespoons fresh basil (oops! it was cilantro. They look alike fresh).
2 tablespoons fresh chives
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon black pepper
salt to taste (optional, I didn’t use any)
Saute meat in olive oil in a large skillet until brown. Add wine, waters, liquid ingredients.
Puree tomatoes, peppers, basil, and chives. Add to meat and wine mixture. Add dried spices. Simmer on low heat stirring often and add water as needed about 1 ½ hours or until meat is tender. Sauce should be thick. Serve hot.
