Interpreting symptoms while trying elimination diet

[Betsbrooks]

I'm pretty new at this, but I feel very hopeful that the elimination diet will help my condition. I have a question about how to interpret symptoms - specifically constipation. After a couple of weeks of eating limited foods, but starting to add foods now, my D has gone and I am constipated. This is the second time trying an elimination diet, and it happened last time also. I am thinking it is because of limited fiber in the diet, but I wondered if adding a food that my gut is irritated by could also cause constipation. To put it another way, is constipation one of the symptoms I am looking for when adding foods?

If it is because of limited fiber, does anyone have any suggestions about the best things to add to my diet to ease constipation that may be relatively safe for most people with MC?

Thanks!

[tex]

To put it another way, is constipation one of the symptoms I am looking for when adding foods?

For some of us it is. But it can also be caused by a lack of fiber in the diet. Normally it takes a relatively long time for most of us to heal enough for lack of fiber to cause C problems. Your response was so fast that I'm inclined to suspect that something in your diet is causing inflammation. What foods did you add before C began to be a problem (and what were you eating as an elimination diet?

IOW, the correct answer to your question is, "It depends".

Tex

[Betsbrooks]

I probably went too fast on the elimination diet, thinking I already had established some facts and could avoid going back to square one. I was eating chicken and beef and pork, garlic, almond butter and flour, tea, coffee, egg yolks, honey, olive oil, ghee, coconut oil, rice, avocado, bananas, cooked broccoli, cauliflower, carrot, onion, and squashes. Just added applesauce but that was after the C began. Just before it began I added a vitamin d supplement. Maybe that was it, it has some ingredients that might be bad such as stearic acid, silicon dioxide, magnesium stearate, croscarmellose sodium and pharmaceutical glaze.

[Gabes-Apg]

In early days of healing onions and/or broccoli would cause issues for many....

I would also encourage to increase water intake

The other thing that comes to mind, is inflammation caused by histamine, depending how many bananas, avocado, eggs you are having, you might be having histamine reactions. Have you tried anti-histamines.

Hang in there, there is lots of trial and error with figuring out our individual MC eating plan.... The time and effort now will pay off....

[tex]

Those ingredients in the vitamin D sound worse than they are, and normally they shouldn't cause problems for most of us, so I doubt that the vitamin D was the problem. As Gabes mentioned, many of us cannot tolerate onion, and some of us have problems with garlic and ghee, but of course that doesn't mean that you might not be able to tolerate any or all of them.

I really don't see anything in your list that should be constipating (except possibly for the ghee), so it may just be a problem of slow motility. I would see if doing without ghee for a week or so helps. If you feel OK otherwise (no aching joints, backache, headaches, or migraines), then maybe you just need something to speed up your motility a bit, such as extra magnesium, or more honey (honey is a natural laxative).

Gabes is correct of course about the histamines. While those individual foods may not cause problems in small to moderate amounts, their sum total adds up to a significant amount of histamine, and for some of us, that total amount of histamines can cause digestive problems.

Maybe someone else will spot something else that I'm overlooking.

Tex

[Betsbrooks]

Thank you for the specific input. I started taking an antihistamine and topical magnesium, and I went back to fewer foods. Right now for a week I have been eating only turkey, lamb white rice, squashes, olive oil, coconut oil, and small amounts of well cooked apples and not too ripe bananas. I'm trying to drink more water. I do have a mug of coffee most days.

What is happening so far is that I go 2 or 3 days with no elimination, then I go but it's not really constipation, because it's pretty easy to pass and is formed but very thin.

It doesn't seem like remission, so I'm wondering what I should aim for before adding additional foods. I feel pretty good - even went on a two hour bird walk today and I am not taking extra clothes to work anymore!

[tex]

Some of us go directly from D to normal BMs, and others go through transition stages. You are apparently going through a transition stage. It's always nice to be in full remission for at least several weeks before trying to add in additional foods, but some of us tend to alternate between D and C. So if the "ribbon" stage tends to transition to C (rather than N), then you may need to begin adding in some foods that contain more fiber, before much more healing takes place.

We are all different, and sometimes we have to modify the rules as we go. Early on we often have to do a delicate balancing act, but as the healing progresses, stability is almost always much easier to maintain. You seem to be well on your way.

Tex

[Gabes-Apg]

If your poop is good colour, good size etc then stick with what you are doing....


Try and stick with the bland small amount of ingredients as long as possible... Let some good healing kick in!!! Like when we break an arm or have surgery, healing like that takes 6-8 weeks... This is an awesome foundation for long term wellness...

Go really slow adding new things. Small amount, egg cup serving size, one thing at a time...

[Betsbrooks]

Thank you, Tex and Gabes. I will stick with the limited diet for a while. I like that phrase "ribbon stage." There's a lot of interesting terminology to describe bms on this forum!