No fruit and mushy vegetables only? How do I stay healthy?

[Aria2012]

Hi all,

I am still learning to cope with LC and the dietary restrictions. My physician explained that I cannot eat fruit and can only eat overcooked vegetables due to my body's inability to break down food. Does anyone have any tips for maintaing a healthy diet with such extreme restrictions? This cannot be good in the long term. My understanding is the more you cook vegetables, the less healthy enzymes are preserved. I know I cannot rely solely on vitamin supplements. I am trying juicing (spinach and carrot juices) since the fibrous part is extracted out. I have not had a reaction to the drink, but it's not very tasty to be honest. I miss my crunchy green beans and carrots. Nuts are not an option. I had a belly burn reaction to a banana, strawberry and pineapple smoothie recently, which I suspect was due to the blender not being able to extract out the fiber in the berries and pineapple.

As a side note, I have eliminated dairy from my diet since I am also lactose intolerant according to a blood test and symptoms. All of the LC articles also indicate that lactose promotes inflammation. After reading articles and this site, I have decided to try a gluten-free diet (just for the last month). My inflammation has gotten worse and fatigue is my biggest issue along with those surprise and unwelcome flare-up's. All blood tests indicate that I do not have celiac's disease, but it seems many people with LC have an intolerance or sensitivity which a blood test cannot detect. Does anyone know of a gluten intolerance/sensitivity test? I see Entero Lab mentioned frequently. I also experience pain in the back of my neck and along my middle spine area from time to time. The information online seems to provide some link between the back pain and LC. Does anyone else experience this?

I am happy to finally know what was causing the awful bloating, jabbing pains and stomach burn. I wish there were more information out there on non-drug related remedies. There does not seem to be a one size fits all approach. Eliminating coffee and dairy (which caused the most dreaded of LC symptoms), eating smaller meals, eating "clean" foods from the health food store, discontinuing snacking at late hours or eating late dinners and cooking my own meals have allowed me some control of the symptoms; but I am not completely symptom free.

Thanks!

[tex]

Hi,

Welcome to the board. Until we are able to get our symptoms under control, and our intestines at least partially healed, maintaining a health diet is just a dream, because it does little good to eat a healthy diet if it just goes right through us.

Experience shows that the only lab tests available to accurately and reliably detect food sensitivities are the stool tests offered by EnteroLab in Dallas, TX. The blood tests and skin tests are pretty much worthless as far as this disease is concerned. One blood test, known as mediator release testing, (MRT), provides helpful results for some members here, but most of the results still have to be verified by trial and error testing of the respective foods, so it's not as useful as the EnteroLab tests. Many members find it to be helpful for tracking down additional food sensitivities after they have applied the results of the EnteroLab tests to their diet.

Back and neck pain is very common with this disease. Those were almost constant symptoms for me until I eliminated all my food sensitivities from my diet.

It's not just the lactose in milk that's a problem. Lactose intolerance is merely a problem of poor digestion (due to a deficiency of the lactase enzyme). Everyone with enteritis has lactose intolerance, but that condition is temporary and will resolve after the enteritis is resolved. Most of us are also sensitive to the primary protein in all dairy products, casein. Casein sensitivity (once triggered) is permanent, similar to gluten sensitivity. Casein causes autoimmune-type reactions, similar to gluten, for those of us who are sensitive to it. IOW, along with gluten, it contributes to the inflammation that results in microscopic colitis. About half of us are also sensitive to the primary protein in soy.

It sounds as though you are fortunate to have found a doctor who understands the disease. Most GI specialists are still unaware of the food sensitivity connection with MC. Again, welcome aboard, and please feel free to ask anything.

Tex

[JFR]

It is perfectly possible to stay healthy without fruit. In fact most fruits are very high in sugars so you may be better off without them. The only fruit I eat right now is blueberries, and not too many. I also cook all my vegetables until mushy. If I cook them in plain water I make sure to either drink the vegetable water afterwards or add it to bone broth. Sometimes I just cook the vegetables in my homemade bone broth and eat the both. That way I do not lose the vitamins. It's funny, when I was a child my father would always drink the vegetable water from the pots still on the stove after a meal. I thought it was weird. Now I am doing exactly what he always did. Good luck with all this. Sounds like you have an enlightened doctor.

Jean

[coryhub]

I make carrot, apple, ginger juice. Can you eat raw bananas? I really don't eat fruit....the last thing I tried was cantaloupe, to no avail. I use my crock pot to cook my veggies with a piece of meat. Yes, they are mushy but the cut of meat makes them flavorful. The sad thing is that our disease has no set diet. Everyone has to find their own way by trial and error and subject to change. Bone aches, like you describe, along with fatigue and headaches are suffered by many of us when in a flare up. Keep reading on this informative site and I wish you good health!

[MBombardier]

Welcome to our little internet family! I suspect that you are having trouble with other things besides the dairy. I am glad you have gone gluten-free. Sometimes it takes several weeks to begin feeling better. We're all different. I would suggest, like Tex said, eliminating soy, too. You'll see many threads on how soy is evil, and it's in so many things. Sometimes we think we are reacting to many different things when the common denominator in all of them is soy, or dairy, or gluten.

Welcome again! Have a great weekend!!