Diet for Remission Update

I have reached the 6th week of my Crohn’s disease exclusion diet. Half of my daily calories are from enteral nutrition (Kate Farms chocolate flavor nutrition shake). Half of my calories are from fruits and vegetables, mostly smoothies, soups, and the occasional salad.

I actually guess I haven’t been following the diet, per se, because I am not eating the required foods, which include chicken and egg. I have eaten 2+ green bananas every day, and cooked and cooled potatoes most days. I have been eating a lot of blackberries, hemp seed and spinach in smoothies. I have also been eating carrots, celery, garlic, onions, and beets regularly in soup form. Salads usually have a lot of herbs, avocado, and some red leaf lettuce.

I have been tracking symptoms, mostly BMs. In the first week, I was having diarrhea every day. By the 5th week, I had diarrhea once, and this week has been pretty regular. However, I am still experiencing some abdominal pain, bloating and gas pain, and intense fatigue. (Fatigue coupled with difficulty sleeping! The best.)

Next week I will reduce the amount of enteral nutrition to 25% of my calories (from 4 shakes a day down to 2). I am also going to start juicing vegetables, so I can get some extra nutrients and enzymes not available in their cooked form.

I tried adding in some excluded foods, and this is what happened!

• Phò caused me abdominal pain and bloating (possibly due to overeating)
• Roasted broccoli didn’t digest at all
• Brown rice didn’t digest at all
• Oats didn’t digest
• Lentils I think were fine? But hard to tell because I cooked them into a paste/soup consistency.
• Nut butters and hemp seeds have been fine (and delicious)
• Tofu, which gave me some problems before this flare, was terrible on my body!!! GI issues, plus nausea the next day. Killer tofu!!!

Based on this experience, I am definitely going to hold off on adding in more grains and legumes for now. I am going to focus instead on diversifying the vegetables I am eating. I am going to keep on with smoothies and soups, as those seem to go well, and add in raw juice.

We just finished the school year, so I have two solid months of health sabbatical until going back to work in August. It’ll be about 4 months in total, which seems like a long time, but 6 months is typically the time frame for mucosal healing.

We’ll see what the future holds.