Kickas.org Forums Treatments, Drugs and Alternatives NSD and diet-related; NSD when you have colitis

Does anyone have both AS and ulcerative colitis? I'm looking for tips on how to adapt NSD.

I've found (and posted a month or two ago on this forum) that some foods that I increased a lot on NSD are flaring up my UC consistently, greatly distending my lower abdomen and causing a lot of red blood when I go to the bathroom.

Various internet sources suggest that when you have UC:
- eliminate all fruit, especially berries, except apples, bananas and melon
- avoid broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, mushrooms, asparagus
- only eat small quantities of leafy green vegetables like spinach, kale, lettuce
- limit your intake of nuts
- reduce dairy
- reduce or eliminate chocolate

But eliminating all starches, PLUS all the above foods- leaves even fewer options!

If anyone has had experience putting together NSD meals when you have AS and colitis, please let me know - I would really appreciate your tricks of the trade!

Didier

I have both..
Fruit is definitely inflammatory IMO, chocolate too I'd say. Maybe nuts(tons of salt can't be good but maybe not inflammatory?) I'm not sure been forever since I've done this diet. I kind of stopped believing in it but I think I'm going to have to be uber strict. My old rule of thumb was if it tasted good then it was inflammatory. I really need some tips myself for this undertaking.

And yea certain things did flare up my UC when I was doing that diet. In fact being super strict like that for some reason made my colitis real sensitive to certain foods(I think nuts was one of them) but now its a lot different. The fasting/NSD is really good for the colitis now(its behavior has changed).

Hi!

I highly suggest you check out the SCD diet. I did this diet a few years ago, before I also added the starch free / low starch eating way.

The SCD diet is super easy to follow and designed for people with advanced stages of Crohns and colitis, it has a chart of foods to eat to get the bleeding to stop and heal the gut. SCD is also the diet that inspired the GAPS diet.

Read the Book, Breaking the Vicious Cycle by Elaine Gotschall. http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/

Then you can google up all sorts of other helpful SCD websites and support groups, like the BTVC (Breaking the Vicious Cycle) on Yahoo groups is a very helpful group.

I think you sound like the perfect candidate for this diet, and it is mostly low starch, just omit the banana and squash they use.

It is set up to follow at your own speed, but most stick to it for at least 6 months to a year and slowly introduce foods back into your diet, starting out with bone broths, eggs, meats, pureed veggies, and later adding in nut butters, then fresh fruits, etc.

This diet will likely change your life as it did mine, It is the only true way to figure out what you tolerate and don't, as you introduce one new food each day or two. It might sound challenging, but it is much easier than just following a low starch diet that you make up as you go, from scratch, when you are suffering from the GI issues that you mentioned. Also, you can move through at whatever pace you like while on SCD.

I truly believe this will help you! I spent a good year on SCD a few years back before learning I needed to omit starches too. It truly has helped me heal my gut and I no longer suffer from IBD (of course if I were to add back in grains, refined sugar, etc, IBD would come with with for sure).

-Andrea

Also, if the foods on SCD seem to limited with the no starch aspect too, I personally find that I tolerate squash, both summer and winter much better than grains, potato, bread, etc. So you might experiment with a little squash if you go full force into SCD to stop the bleeding and heal your UC.

Here is the intro diet: http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/p/the-intro-diet/

(I will also note that I LOVE my current raw food diet very high in fruits, veggies, raw nuts/seeds (no roasted nuts, ick, equal a stomach ache for sure, very hard to digest) but I also have been at this for many years, and my gut is very happy these days. I think that if you feel you are running out of options, you might find great results with SCD)

-Andrea

a combination between NSD and SCD works well for me.

keeping a food journal is best. i started it 3 years ago and i'm still doing it.