Hi - I really appreciate this site and the foundation web page. I am learning. I was diagnosed in Oct 2023 with symptoms for 8 months before that...so living with this for almost a year now. Since last year, I eliminated all the big AI foods...gluten, dairy, sugar, soy, corn, and alcohol. I do have coffee one cup a day but only when in remission.
With advice from here, no raw veggies (except cucumber from time to time), very low fibre and increased protein. I was also doing Low FODMAP diet as recommended by GI.
I can't seem to get a remission period of anymore than 2 weeks. I am working with a dietician who doesn't know much about MC but was shocked I was doing Low FODMAP for so long so we are trying to introduce new foods and it's not working...everything I try seems to throw me into a flare.
I recognize some flares are caused by stress...the last one over thinking about getting on an airplane for a trip!
Based on Wayne's experience and research that it can take up to 2-3 years or more to heal the gut...what's the opinion on introducing new foods right now? Should I just stay with safe foods for a longer time? Will I get proper nutrition? These are my foods right now...cooked low fat, no spice except salt and pepper and fresh ginger.
White fish
Small amounts of wild caught salmon
Crab
Prawns
Small amounts of pork
Small amounts of beef
Small amounts of turkey breast
Small amounts of chicken breast but no dark meat
Avocado Oil for cooking
Eggs
Pumpkin Seed Butter
Banana
Yellow Potatoes
Black Olives
White Rice
Rice crackers (these are my go to snack, likely the most unhealthy as they are processed)
Rice cakes
Rice noodles
Peppermint Tea
No sugar liquorice
When in a flare, I only eat rice, congee (rice porridge) and white fish, yellow potatoes and bananas. When not in a flare, I can also eat real crab California roll sushi and cucumber rolls...my only restaurant food!
Any ideas welcome with gratitude....
Lengthening remission periods
Moderators: Rosie, Stanz, Jean, CAMary, moremuscle, JFR, Dee, xet, Peggy, Matthew, Gabes-Apg, grannyh, Gloria, Mars, starfire, Polly, Joefnh
Re: Lengthening remission periods
If you're taking in enough calories (in other words, eating enough of your safe foods) you should be getting More than adequate nutrition. Meat is a source of every essential amino acid, and an all meat diet is not only safe but provides very good health, as long as you take in enough fat to prevent what's known as rabbit starvation, or protein poisoning.
The problem is, if you can't maintain remission for more than a couple of weeks, your intestines are never able to make any progress healing, because healing is a long-term project. Why would you want to introduce more foods? You're already eating at least four or five times as many different foods as I am, and I've been in remission for about 20 years. Humans don't need to eat a huge variety of foods. Our ancestors didn't devolve eating more than a few simple foods. The trend toward eating a huge variety developed because of affluence, and curiosity about other lifestyle. But despite what some dietitians and other "dietary experts" try to tell us, humans don't need a huge variety of foods in the diet in order to thrive. And we surely don't need variety when were trying to put this disease into remission.
Eat larger helpings of the few foods that you know are absolutely safe, and cut out most of the variety, if you want to maintain remission. Eating a huge variety of foods virtually guarantees that some of them are making you react. The time to experiment with new foods, is after you've been in remission for at least six or eight months, so that your digestive system has actually accrued some degree of healing.
Most dietitians don't have the slightest idea how to treat an MC patient. They know a little about treating Crohn's and ulcerative colitis, but those dietary recommendations normally don't work for MC patients. I'm aware of one dietitian in the US who actually understands how to treat MC, because she actually has the disease, and she was a contributing member of this forum for years. But eventually, like most members here who manage to get the disease under control, and get their lives back, she rode off into the distance and hasn't posted in many years. And at last report, instead of giving dietary advice, she has become a marriage counselor. But my point is, members here have found no benefit in following dietitians' advice. And the FODMAP diet is basically simply a low histamine diet, which is fine, if you have a histamine problem, but it's not an optimum diet for MC patients.
Anyway, those are my observations on your situation. I hope this helps.
Tex
The problem is, if you can't maintain remission for more than a couple of weeks, your intestines are never able to make any progress healing, because healing is a long-term project. Why would you want to introduce more foods? You're already eating at least four or five times as many different foods as I am, and I've been in remission for about 20 years. Humans don't need to eat a huge variety of foods. Our ancestors didn't devolve eating more than a few simple foods. The trend toward eating a huge variety developed because of affluence, and curiosity about other lifestyle. But despite what some dietitians and other "dietary experts" try to tell us, humans don't need a huge variety of foods in the diet in order to thrive. And we surely don't need variety when were trying to put this disease into remission.
Eat larger helpings of the few foods that you know are absolutely safe, and cut out most of the variety, if you want to maintain remission. Eating a huge variety of foods virtually guarantees that some of them are making you react. The time to experiment with new foods, is after you've been in remission for at least six or eight months, so that your digestive system has actually accrued some degree of healing.
Most dietitians don't have the slightest idea how to treat an MC patient. They know a little about treating Crohn's and ulcerative colitis, but those dietary recommendations normally don't work for MC patients. I'm aware of one dietitian in the US who actually understands how to treat MC, because she actually has the disease, and she was a contributing member of this forum for years. But eventually, like most members here who manage to get the disease under control, and get their lives back, she rode off into the distance and hasn't posted in many years. And at last report, instead of giving dietary advice, she has become a marriage counselor. But my point is, members here have found no benefit in following dietitians' advice. And the FODMAP diet is basically simply a low histamine diet, which is fine, if you have a histamine problem, but it's not an optimum diet for MC patients.
Anyway, those are my observations on your situation. I hope this helps.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
Re: Lengthening remission periods
Thank you Tex...this is helpful and confirming of my own suspicions that I need to be in remission longer and address the inflammation. Wondering what to do about fat when it seems to be a trigger? Hard time getting enough protein and fat at every meal. Also, too much food at one meal can trigger, so I've opted for smaller amounts more frequently.
I don't have any rashes or hives so I think I'm ok with histamine...maybe because I do react to chicken sometimes but not shellfish. Seems eating some things and the same thing everyday is a problem...which is one reason for having more variety. I have also read here that sometimes there is no rhyme or reason that food triggers reactions. It's like chasing a ghost!
I'm thinking it might be time to try bone broth at each meal but I am thinking beef. In other posts you recommend turkey, lamb, venison, wild type meats, but not pork, beef, or chicken. Is there a reason why to avoid pork and beef. I try to eat organic and grass fed. Would you be willing to share what protein you might eat in one day?
I hope one day I am able to heal and move on with my life too...
Thanks kindly, Jennifer
I don't have any rashes or hives so I think I'm ok with histamine...maybe because I do react to chicken sometimes but not shellfish. Seems eating some things and the same thing everyday is a problem...which is one reason for having more variety. I have also read here that sometimes there is no rhyme or reason that food triggers reactions. It's like chasing a ghost!
I'm thinking it might be time to try bone broth at each meal but I am thinking beef. In other posts you recommend turkey, lamb, venison, wild type meats, but not pork, beef, or chicken. Is there a reason why to avoid pork and beef. I try to eat organic and grass fed. Would you be willing to share what protein you might eat in one day?
I hope one day I am able to heal and move on with my life too...
Thanks kindly, Jennifer
Re: Lengthening remission periods
Foods stored in the refrigerator continue to accumulate histamine, so if we have a histamine problem, foods like chicken have to be absolutely fresh or stored frozen. If chicken, or even chicken soup is stored at refrigerator temperatures for two or three days, the second day, it will cause me to have bloating, and the third day it will cause me to have diarrhea. Since I don't know how chicken has been handled before I buy it, I simply avoid it almost always. Storing everything at below zero Fahrenheit will stop histamine from increasing.
Re: protein, I react to beef (it doesn't cause diarrhea but it causes upper back pain, bloating, and a headache the following day), so I eat nothing but pork, and occasionally venison. Fortunately, I don't react to eggs, so for breakfast I usually have (two) bacon, eggs, and pork sausage, wrapped in a corn tortilla.
I get up early, and usually eat breakfast before 6 AM, so by midmorning I'm ready for brunch, which is usually a bowl of pork chili (occasionally a bowl of pork stew). For lunch, about half the time I eat pork sausage, or sausage made from a pork/venison mix, wrapped in a tortilla. The other half of the time, I usually you eat pork country ribs, or porkchops. That's my last meal of the day, and I eat it before noon.
Tex
Re: protein, I react to beef (it doesn't cause diarrhea but it causes upper back pain, bloating, and a headache the following day), so I eat nothing but pork, and occasionally venison. Fortunately, I don't react to eggs, so for breakfast I usually have (two) bacon, eggs, and pork sausage, wrapped in a corn tortilla.
I get up early, and usually eat breakfast before 6 AM, so by midmorning I'm ready for brunch, which is usually a bowl of pork chili (occasionally a bowl of pork stew). For lunch, about half the time I eat pork sausage, or sausage made from a pork/venison mix, wrapped in a tortilla. The other half of the time, I usually you eat pork country ribs, or porkchops. That's my last meal of the day, and I eat it before noon.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
Re: Lengthening remission periods
Thank you - makes sense about stored foods in the fridge. It is true that when I have freshly cooked chicken I am OK. Leftovers next day not good. Same with prawns recently. I will learn (and coax my husband) to buy lesser amounts at a time and freeze what is not used right away. Thanks for the typical eating day in Tex's life! Gives me hope...and glad that pork is OK too.