About the 4 safe foods

[birdlover3]

About the 4 safe foods.... meat, broth, rice and soft veggies.... do you eat this for breakfast also? Do I need to eliminate coffee? Anything else I can add here? Thanks, Barb

[carolm]

Barb, when I was in a major flare before I took Entocort and while trying to recover while taking Entocort, I did eat those safe foods every meal. I ate rice and ground beef many times for breakfast,or baked chicken and mashed potatoes. What it really came down to was I ate whatever I thought I could stomach at the time (within my narrow list of safe foods) and what would give me decent calories that I desperately needed at the time. I was not able to have coffee, tea, soda pop, or any acidic drinks at that time. In fact I didn't add coffee back for another year (and I was a coffee junkie, believe me). Acidic fruits were off the list as well. You probably want to back off any raw fruits and vegetables. Everything needs to be easy to digest. Almost no sugar and no artificial sweeteners.

I'm sorry, I can't remember if you said you were on Entocort right now or not. Do you take Entocort?

Carol

Ps- edited-- Barb I probably don't need to mention this but I approached the food issue like a research project. If I add this factor, what is the result? It kept me neutral and focused on the results.

And I wasn't joyous about eating the same 5-6 foods every day. In fact I had food 'burnout' many times. There were times I was literally poking chicken and rice down because I knew that I needed the calories, I was dropping 2-3 pounds a week just laying around, I was losing muscle like crazy, and I was getting weak. Was I happy about it? NO, but it gave me the best chance I had at getting well. And that 's all I really wanted-- a chance to get well.

[Gabes-Apg]

Barb,
As I couldn't afford the enterlab testing, I found out my major intolerances via elimination diet. I would have gooey rice and chicken cooked together. And each week or so if I had no d, try a new ingredient.

For me, even now 3.5 years on, my very safe low inflammation healing meal is gooey rice, chicken and sweet potato. Any time I am unwell, cold/flu, dental work etc.... This is what I have 2-3 meals per day.

My advice, figure out your safe meal, no more than 4-5 ingredients, have it 3 times a day.
If you think histamines are involved take the anti histamines.
Use Carol's breathing techniques and calm things down for a few weeks, aim to have days with minimal symptoms.
Focus on healing and nurturing.
And once you are feeling better, gradually add other safe ingredients, preferably, low histamine....
Try to keep ingredient numbers per meal low. Relax and enjoy the meal.

Noted, there are some where chicken and rice is not their safe meal, figure out your low ingredient safe meal.

Right now due to other health issues, I am having gooey rice, chicken, sweet pot and cauliflower for 2 meals a day, most days. (Breakfast and evening) This has been the case for a few weeks.
My body is struggling, so to have meals that are healing, and easy to digest is helping it.

[Leah]

I know this seems really hard Barb. I have to say that I never had to go to eating only 4-5 things and I always had eggs. I love rice cooked in coconut milk. It sits really well in my tummy and is creamy and has extra calories

leah

[birdlover3]

Barb, when I was in a major flare before I took Entocort and while trying to recover while taking Entocort, I did eat those safe foods every meal. I ate rice and ground beef many times for breakfast,or baked chicken and mashed potatoes. What it really came down to was I ate whatever I thought I could stomach at the time (within my narrow list of safe foods) and what would give me decent calories that I desperately needed at the time. I was not able to have coffee, tea, soda pop, or any acidic drinks at that time. In fact I didn't add coffee back for another year (and I was a coffee junkie, believe me). Acidic fruits were off the list as well. You probably want to back off any raw fruits and vegetables. Everything needs to be easy to digest. Almost no sugar and no artificial sweeteners.

I'm sorry, I can't remember if you said you were on Entocort right now or not. Do you take Entocort?

Carol

Ps- edited-- Barb I probably don't need to mention this but I approached the food issue like a research project. If I add this factor, what is the result? It kept me neutral and focused on the results.

And I wasn't joyous about eating the same 5-6 foods every day. In fact I had food 'burnout' many times. There were times I was literally poking chicken and rice down because I knew that I needed the calories, I was dropping 2-3 pounds a week just laying around, I was losing muscle like crazy, and I was getting weak. Was I happy about it? NO, but it gave me the best chance I had at getting well. And that 's all I really wanted-- a chance to get well.

Carol,
Thanks for your advice and comments. It appears I'm going to have to change breakfast too and go with the rice, chicken, soft veggies 3 times and day and no coffee and let's see what happens. If I go down to that bare minimum, what would be your prediction of watching for change? Probably right now my breakfast is the irritant. I was changing off lunch and dinner with beef/chicken and carrots/green beans per another person's post. I will go to 3 times a day on the chicken/rice/carrots. Does that sound like a good plan, or should I change off to the beef and green beans for the different meals? Would that be too much change?

Someone else suggested rice cakes which are pretty good. Is that too much?

Please give me a suggested eating plan to try. I'm desperate and I'll follow it. Thanks, Barb

[birdlover3]

I know this seems really hard Barb. I have to say that I never had to go to eating only 4-5 things and I always had eggs. I love rice cooked in coconut milk. It sits really well in my tummy and is creamy and has extra calories

leah

It is Leah and I realize everyone is so good by trying to help me...my brain is just whirling.

I just to find that safe food you guys talk about. I realize now I'm going to have to give up my Chex cereal and probably coffee in the morning for now.

As I asked Carol, should I try chicken,rice,carrots 3 times a day ONLY to start out and give it a week? Or should I alternate with beef and green beans as someone else earlier posted? Is that too much to figure out my safe food?

It's funny but I just want to scream "JUST TELL ME WHAT TO EAT" and I will :) but I know it's probably not that easy.

[Leah]

If you are already eating rice, then rice cakes should be fine ( as long as there is nothing in it but rice and salt).
Carrots and squash seem to be the easiest vegetables for all of us to digest.
I had to give up coffee and tea ( and haven't been able to put it back in).

If you are sure that both chicken and beef are safe, you could eat both.

Good luck
leah

[Leah]

It's hard for us to TELL you what to eat because you are the only one who can tell what feels right.
I ate Rice and corn chex while I was healing, and was fine, but maybe you need to take a break from it for a week or two. Then when you try it again, you should be able to tell if "something is happening" when you eat it. If it does, then maybe substitute coconut milk for almond milk. You just never know what will work until you try. just don't do too much experimenting when you are trying to heal.

leah

[carolm]

Barb, Leah is right in that only you can identify your safe foods. I think Jean and Gabes both have mentioned that they too will eat the same safe foods 3 times a day. The truth is I wasn't eating at the usual meal times. I had such intense nausea with my LC that I had to take my meds and wait a couple of hours for the nausea to pass. Usually by 10am it was starting to fade so I'd eat about 10:30 or 11:00. Then I'd snack about 3:00ish, then eat about 5:00pm and that would be it. I wasn't eating 3 specific times per day and frankly eating small amounts was so much better for me than eating a larger serving. Even now smaller is better.

Check your test results before you decide but find 4-6 foods that you know from experience are safe and help your system settle, then rotate them around, avoiding the things we've named earlier like acid, sugar, artificial sweeteners, caffeine, fiber, etc. Consider a homemade soup of broth, carrots, lean finely chopped meats, and mild seasonings. I'd say trust your instincts too. I dropped dairy before I even had my diagnosis because I just knew it was a bad idea to eat dairy, so months later when Enterolab said I reacted to dairy it was frankly no big deal to me at that point. So listen to your body and look at your results. Your answers will be there. The best plan will be the one you design, not the one we describe.

I don't know how soon your discomfort will ease up--but I would hope you could see a difference in a week/7-8 days. It depends on how much the inflammation you are having decreases. I know it's never as fast as we want it to be. Remember that you are not at war with your body--- you want to nurture it and help it heal. That's the goal. Once you get a safe diet (I call it my baseline diet) and your flare lets up then you can look at adding one food. Try it for 3 days and if you have no reaction then its safe and then challenge another food. But don't add or challenge any foods until your flare is calm.
I hope you feel like you have a plan now. Please keep us posted on how it's going.
Carol

[Gloria]

And also realize that if you're not getting better on a very limited diet, then some of those foods are bothering you. For example, I can't eat chicken or carrots, so a soup made from them would have continued my symptoms. I had to substitute turkey for the chicken and cauliflower for the carrots.

Gloria

[JFR]

Barb - The reason for eating a very limited diet is to make it easier to figure out what foods you are reacting to. If you are eating a lot of different foods or foods with long ingredient lists and/or the occasional "cheat" it is impossible to know what is causing you to react. Consider the limited diet like putting a cast on a broken bone; it creates the conditions that allow your gut to heal by not allowing any more damage to happen. That is also why you have to give it some time. If you take a cast off in a week, your bone will still be broken. It isn't because the cast doesn't work but because you have not given your bone enough time to heal. One difference between a cast and a simple diet is that a cast is a pretty sure thing but the simple diet requires a bit of guess work about what foods are most likely to be ok.

If you are expecting total symptom relief in a short time (a few days or a week) you will most likely be very disappointed. I would say give yourself 2 weeks and expect not total symptom relief but a lessening in symptoms. That suggests you are on the right track. If there is no improvement remove one food that you think might be causing the problem and then look for symptom improvement, once again being patient and not expecting a total elimination of symptoms. This all involves a bit of detective work but if you simplify the diet you make the detective work easier. I spent several weeks eating ground lamb and kale chips and then added ground pork and swiss chard, almond butter and macadamia nut butter. It has to be a slow and careful process. Like Carol suggest, some deep breathing techniques to calm yourself down can be very helpful. Also meditation can help, which in its most basic form is really another breathing technique.

Finally think of your Enterolab results as a guideline but not the final answer to what you can eat or not eat. If Enterolab says that you are sensitive to a food stop eating it. If Enterolab says you are ok with some food but you find out you are not, stop eating it. Maybe you will be able to add it back in later but listen to your body more than your tests results.

Jean

[birdlover3]

Well, I've been doing the chicken, rice, broth, carrot thing 3 times a day over a week now and absolutely no change. All absolute "D". I'm REALLY hungry.

Going to a new GI doc next week. He told me on the phone to widen my meals a bit ...that I can't survive on these 4 foods, so I'm staying GF but adding in a few changes here and there. Added rice cakes (plain) and bought some coconut non-dairy ice cream. Hopefully that will help. Thinking of trying a potato instead of the rice sometimes too, and maybe some green beans (canned) instead of the carrots. Disappointed...I realized I would not be back to normans yet, but hoped to see at least a LITTLE BITTY improvement. The saga continues..... Barb

[carolm]

Barb, I'm sorry to hear that. if these foods were all safe according to your Enterolab results then it makes me wonder if you've developed new sensitivities or if something else is contributing to your situation like a C. diff infection. You may have to consider Entocort again. I know none of these possibilities are attractive. But neither is the alternative which is to continue as you have been.

Your new GI might be surprised to know that many of us have survived for 6+ months on so little food-- both in variety and quantity.
But if they've not been through it then they won't understand the lengths we've had to go to.

Carol

[birdlover3]

Barb, I'm sorry to hear that. if these foods were all safe according to your Enterolab results then it makes me wonder if you've developed new sensitivities or if something else is contributing to your situation like a C. diff infection. You may have to consider Entocort again. I know none of these possibilities are attractive. But neither is the alternative which is to continue as you have been.

Your new GI might be surprised to know that many of us have survived for 6+ months on so little food-- both in variety and quantity.
But if they've not been through it then they won't understand the lengths we've had to go to.

Carol

I did get new blood work done (includes c-diff) and stool sample for things like parasites. I don't know the result of those yet. I had a c-diff test done not that long ago and it was clear. It would be nice to find something in those tests that was easily corrected...we'll see.

[birdlover3]

Your new GI might be surprised to know that many of us have survived for 6+ months on so little food-- both in variety and quantity.
Carol

Carol,
How much did you weigh at your lowest point with this?? Barb