New Member With Ulcerative Colitis

[kenday4491]

Hello all,
I have been suffering from Ulcerative Colitis around twenty years at increasing levels of severity and finally got a diagnosis about one and a half years ago. I have been gluten free for most of those twenty years. and I also eliminated eggs and dairy from my diet about four months ago. Then I found Persky Farms and Enterolab on the Internet about two months ago. I have the results from the Comprehensive Gluten/Antigenic Sensitivity Stool Panel and have Wayne Persky's book and one on Allergy Friendly Comfort Foods by Kelly Roenicke. I have been following Enterolab's suggestions religiously and am working on incorporating recipes from Kelly Roenicke's book. I also eliminated fiber from my diet when I saw your page on the Internet maybe prematurely. I still have some preliminary questions:
1.) Should I have followed advice from Enterolab and Persky Farms for some time before eliminating fibre from my diet?
2.) I recently ate lentil soup which is a legume and had colitis for two days Must I avoid legumes in general?
3.) Nightshades. Potatoes and tomatoes have been a large part of my diet. How many potatoes and tomatoes should I allow myself if any?
4.) Beans. These have been common in my diet. I am starting to follow recipes from Allergy Friendly Comfort Foods by Kelly Roenicke.
Many of these recipes include Black, White, Great Northern, and Navy Beans. Should I be avoiding these?
5.) Chickpeas and also peas. Are these considered beans or even legumes. Should I be avoiding these?

[Gabes-Apg]

hi there
welcome to the group and for posting

what were your enterolab results?
did you have a high score for Soy
if so, Question 2 and Question 5 - yes lentils, chickpeas peas etc are part of the legume family, and those that react to soy, tend to react to most legumes.

re Q1 - Fibre is something that is quite inflammatory if the gut is inflammed from other triggers. Once there has been good healing, then the ability to handle some salads etc returns for most. We recommend to minimise fibre where there is inflammation

re Q3 - Regarding nightshades, if you have read some of the discussions here, you will see that things in Colitis world tend to be very individual. Some handle potatoe AOK and others can not... i can not provide a scientific reason for. most here do a bit of trial and error to come up with an eating plan that suits them best.
what many have found over time is that there are food items that are staples - we can eat them every day. and there some food items that are sometimes foods, you can have them 1-3 times a week with no issues, any more than this and niggly symptoms creep in.

Q4 Regarding Beans, this is similar to the nightshade, some have no issues at all, and others do have issues. via trial and error and process of elimination you can figure out if they are ok for you..

on other key topic discussed here, have you had your Vit D3 level checked?

[Martha]

I am sensitive to soy, and cannot eat any legumes--no lentils, no dried beans, no green beans, no peas, no chickpeas. I tested green beans after 3 years of eating no legumes, and still reacted.

I am able to eat lots of other vegetables--squash, carrots, zucchini, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, cucumbers.

I don't seem to have trouble with nightshades, although I haven't tried eggplant. Potatoes and tomatoes are okay.

If the lentils bothered you, it would be wise to eliminate all legumes for a while until you heal, and then try them again.

Martha

[tex]

Hi Kenday,

Welcome to the discussion board. I took the liberty of moving your post here so that other members would be more likely to see it, and you've already received some excellent responses to your questions, so I'll just throw in my 2 cents worth on a few of your questions:

1.) Should I have followed advice from Enterolab and Persky Farms for some time before eliminating fibre from my diet?

No, fiber is very irritating when our intestines are already inflamed, so the sooner we start avoiding/minimizing it in our diet, the sooner we will be able to recover. After we have been in remission long enough for our intestines to do some serious healing, we can usually slowly increase the amount of fiber in our diet without any serious problems.

3. Nightshades. Potatoes and tomatoes have been a large part of my diet. How many potatoes and tomatoes should I allow myself if any?

Most of us can handle potatoes OK, but the citric acid in tomatoes tends to be a serious problem for most of us until after we have been in remission for a while. Tomatoes are actually a citrus fruit.

5.) Chickpeas and also peas. Are these considered beans or even legumes. Should I be avoiding these?

Chickpeas and other types of peas are definitely legumes, and should be avoided during recovery (and possibly forever) if you are sensitive to soy.

Again, welcome aboard, and please feel free to ask anything.

Tex

[HappyBird]

Welcome to the group Kenday.........


Jen

[kenday4491]

Hello all, again,

Whoops! When I sent the original message to you I got my wife to bring the Enterolab results downstairs where my computer is. Then I forgot to include these results for you. Sounds like a retired professor !
Those results are as follows:

Gluten 72
Casein 16
Eggs 14
Soy 17

Plus 10 antigenic foods at +1: Corn, Rice, Tuna, Chicken, Pork, Beef, Almond, Walnut, Cashew and White Potato, And one antigenic food At +2: Oats. My present understanding is that these are not the issue right now, But that the sensitivities above are the focus.

[Gabes-Apg]

Kenday
based on that Soy score, I would strongly suggest avoiding all legumes, as per the reply above.

I would also check other products in the home for soy and possible contaminates;
-what cooking oil you are using? be cautious of olive oil as it may have soy in it. Coconut oil, rice bran oil are safe options
-be cautious about processed gluten free type products as they can have soy flour and other flours that you may react to,
-have you got new cooking pans and utensils? is your wife still having gluten in the household? Yes, small amounts of cross contamination and wheat flour dust in the air is enough to cause issues, especially when we are inflammed.

[tex]

My present understanding is that these are not the issue right now, But that the sensitivities above are the focus.

You are correct, except that if your overall score on the 11 antigenic foods is relatively high (for example over 25 or 30) then you would certainly need to avoid the oats (most of the rest of us here are also sensitive to oats), and you might need to avoid (or rotate in your diet) some (or possibly most) of the foods in the +1 category as well. On the other hand, if your overall score is very low (10 or below) it's very unlikely that any of those foods would cause any major issues.

Tex