Using a Food Calendar When You Have Ulcerative Colitis

Before my problems with ulcerative colitis, I could basically eat anything, even though I suspect that my recklessness with my diet may have contributed to the onset of my illness. Suddenly, as if overnight, anything I ate would give me horrible diarrhea and stomach pains. Pretty soon, I had eliminated practically everything from my diet, and I was subsisting on crackers for a while. However, such a meager diet not only made me drop far too much weight, making me malnourished and sickly, but also made me highly ill-tempered and miserable as well. My diet was so awfully unbalanced, I was so deficient in essential minerals and nutrients. My body felt weak all the time and my brain felt constantly foggy.

Finally, I realized that I needed to get some real food into my diet. Apparently, my body couldn't take even fruits and vegetables; however, I realized that there should be no reason for my body to reject such nutritionally valuable foods. Humans were meant to eat plants, and I decided to use them to my advantage. Slowly, I would begin adding cooked and steamed vegetables to my diet. I rotated the vegetables I used, so that I would not develop any sensitivity to them. Rotating foods is a good idea, since experts believe that any food, no matter how good, could cause the body to develop an allergy or reaction to it if it's eaten in excess. So to avoid that, I created a little calendar: carrots on Monday, spinach on Tuesday, broccoli on Wednesday, yams on Thursday, vegetable medley on Friday and so on. I discovered over time that I don't tolerate tomatoes very well. That discovery led to another one: I was sensitive to members of the nightshade family such as peppers, potatoes and eggplants. I still have problems tolerating fruits, and so now I juice them with vegetables; this way, I can digest them better and better assimilate the nutrients.

I had completely eliminated dairy, and that decision came with both pros and cons. While I had always known that I was a bit lactose intolerant, particularly when I ate ice-cream or consumed milk, I was sure that it exacerbated my ulcerative colitis symptoms to the point that my cramping would leave me nearly debilitated. Therefore, I developed an obsessive fear of all dairy foods. Unfortunately, along with my other deficiencies, I became so deficient in calcium. This could be seen in the pallor of my skin, which had once been rosy. Also, my anxiety worsened. Later, I would find that calcium is a nerve stabilizer, and therefore I now take calcium citrate supplements. I take them before bedtime, and find that not only is my anxiety alleviated, but I can sleep much better at night. Although I still avoid milk and ice-cream, I make sure to eat yogurt today, to replenish the supply of friendly bacteria in my intestines.

I also found wheat to be a trigger; every time I ingested Mini Wheats (a wheat cereal), I would get horrible cramping. I realized this not only with cereals, but with breads, cakes and other foods with gluten. Though I do not have celiac disease, I find myself unable to tolerate wheat products. Therefore, they were kept out of my diet. In fact, at one point, all starches had been omitted from my diet. However, these days, I eat rice at least once a day, and find it to help diarrheal conditions.

Another thing that aggravated my condition was soda. Not only did the carbonation cause flatulence, but the caffeine content disrupted my stomach's equilibrium. The same went for coffee, which was an even more offending substance.

The lack of protein in my cracker-based diet caused me to be fatigued all the time. I decided that I needed a protein source. I tried seeds, thinking they'd be a great choice, but it turned out that I had trouble digesting them. I would see them in my feces a day after I had ingested them, and they caused soft stools and even some diarrhea. Beans caused flatulence, but added bulk to my feces, so I started incorporating them into my diet in small increments. The best sources of protein for me are organic poultry and lean beef, as well as fish. The EPA and DHA in fish help inflammation, which is one of the keys to reducing symptoms.

Of course, monitoring my diet so carefully can often be an annoyance and also a great inconvenience when I need to eat out. Sometimes, it's downright depressing to be on such a restrictive diet. In addition, being on an extremely restrictive diet (such as the one I was on before I learned more about my digestive system) can lead to malnutrition, particularly when entire food groups are left out. However, some of the advantages of watching what I eat is that I choose foods that are healthy for me and avoid unhealthy ones such as sugary foods and fast foods (some of the worst triggers). Diet is not about weight loss; it's about health maintenance. Of course sometimes I slip up. We all do. If I splurge on something that I'm not usually able to, such as ice-cream, I take lactase pills, which help me break down the lactose in dairy products. Digestive enzymes are a godsend for us with compromised digestive systems. When I eat out at a restaurant and want to also indulge, I'll take an "Advanced Enzyme" which has amylase (to break down starches), lipase (to break down fats), cellulase (which breaks down cellulose in plants), protease (to break down protein), bromelain (from pineapples) and papain (from papayas). This has all of my digestive needs covered, and I've found that since I've begun using digestive enzymes, I don't have to be as austere about regulating what I eat as I used to be. After all, life is too short to live on crackers.