eating fruit & veg
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eating fruit & veg
Hi im new to this been on g/f diet for 18 months or so going faily well.have just flaired up again and been put on a two week prednisone program hope this sorts it.what fuit and veg should I be eating all was going fine till I came across our new season corn.before hand I eating 3-4 pieces of fuit a day and many veges including iceberg luttuce which I see some class as a no no.any help appreciated cheers vince
Hi Vince,
Welcome to the board. With this disease, the intestines tend to become hyper-inflamed during a flare, and so in addition to avoiding any foods that cause us to produce antibodies, we also find it very helpful to minimize foods in our diet that tend to irritate the gut, and we try to avoid them at least until our gut shows evidence of some degree of healing.
That means that we minimize fiber, and sugar (especially fructose and the sugar alcohols). That implies that any vegetables should be peeled, and overcooked (to make them easier to digest), and most fruits should be avoided (with the possible exception of bananas). If any other fruits are eaten, they too should be peeled, and overcooked, and portions minimized (in order to reduce amounts of sugar and fiber).
If the corn was in the roasting ear stage, that means that it was loaded with sugar. The sugar in the endosperm does not begin to convert into starch until the kernels begin to dry down. So too much sugar may well have been the primary cause of your flare.
The reason why sugars are a problem with this disease is because the inflammation associated with the disease tends to interfere with the production of the digestive enzymes that allow us to digest sugars. This takes place in the duodenum (upper section of the small intestine). As the inflammation develops, we first lose the ability to produce normal amounts of lactase enzyme (which then causes us to become lactose-intolerant), and as the inflammation continues and/or becomes more severe, we progressively lose our ability to produce enzymes that allow the digestion of other sugars.
As we recover, and the inflammation subsides, we slowly regain our ability to produce these digestive enzymes again, in reverse of the order in which they were lost, with lactase being the last to be restored. Many of us find however, that we do not fully regain our ability to produce these enzymes at their previous normal levels, which can leave us unable to digest large amounts of some or all sugars. Undigested sugars end up in the colon of course, where they are fermented by bacteria, resulting in gas, bloating, cramps, and diarrhea.
After you are fully-healed (which can take a couple of years or so of carefully avoiding your food sensitivities), you may once again be able to eat those roasting ears of corn in reasonable quantities, without experiencing any more problems than someone who has normal digestion. Bear in mind though, that virtually no one in the general population can eat unlimited amounts of fresh corn without developing at least some degree of diarrhea, because it contains a heck of a lot of sugar.
And yes, iceberg lettuce is probably the one most gut-irritating food in existence for someone who has MC. After we recover though, we can usually tolerate it again.
Again, welcome aboard, and please feel free to ask anything. I envy your weather this time of year. It's colder than a well-diggers butt around here most of the time. We're averaging much colder weather than normal, here in the States so far this winter.
Tex
Welcome to the board. With this disease, the intestines tend to become hyper-inflamed during a flare, and so in addition to avoiding any foods that cause us to produce antibodies, we also find it very helpful to minimize foods in our diet that tend to irritate the gut, and we try to avoid them at least until our gut shows evidence of some degree of healing.
That means that we minimize fiber, and sugar (especially fructose and the sugar alcohols). That implies that any vegetables should be peeled, and overcooked (to make them easier to digest), and most fruits should be avoided (with the possible exception of bananas). If any other fruits are eaten, they too should be peeled, and overcooked, and portions minimized (in order to reduce amounts of sugar and fiber).
If the corn was in the roasting ear stage, that means that it was loaded with sugar. The sugar in the endosperm does not begin to convert into starch until the kernels begin to dry down. So too much sugar may well have been the primary cause of your flare.
The reason why sugars are a problem with this disease is because the inflammation associated with the disease tends to interfere with the production of the digestive enzymes that allow us to digest sugars. This takes place in the duodenum (upper section of the small intestine). As the inflammation develops, we first lose the ability to produce normal amounts of lactase enzyme (which then causes us to become lactose-intolerant), and as the inflammation continues and/or becomes more severe, we progressively lose our ability to produce enzymes that allow the digestion of other sugars.
As we recover, and the inflammation subsides, we slowly regain our ability to produce these digestive enzymes again, in reverse of the order in which they were lost, with lactase being the last to be restored. Many of us find however, that we do not fully regain our ability to produce these enzymes at their previous normal levels, which can leave us unable to digest large amounts of some or all sugars. Undigested sugars end up in the colon of course, where they are fermented by bacteria, resulting in gas, bloating, cramps, and diarrhea.
After you are fully-healed (which can take a couple of years or so of carefully avoiding your food sensitivities), you may once again be able to eat those roasting ears of corn in reasonable quantities, without experiencing any more problems than someone who has normal digestion. Bear in mind though, that virtually no one in the general population can eat unlimited amounts of fresh corn without developing at least some degree of diarrhea, because it contains a heck of a lot of sugar.
And yes, iceberg lettuce is probably the one most gut-irritating food in existence for someone who has MC. After we recover though, we can usually tolerate it again.
Again, welcome aboard, and please feel free to ask anything. I envy your weather this time of year. It's colder than a well-diggers butt around here most of the time. We're averaging much colder weather than normal, here in the States so far this winter.
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.