On Friday I met with a new doctor. He is a functional medicine doctor at the institute for functional medicine at Cleveland clinic. We had about an hour long meeting, and by the end I was signed up for 40 blood and stool tests and a handful of supplements to help even out some of my body processes. This is more information than any doctor has ever gathered on my body.
My doctor told me I was on the right track with using diet to put Crohn’s in remission, and we would probably only need to tweak a few things to restore my vitality and banish fatigue. Wow! That’s a big confidence boost, considering the other doctor treating me for Crohn’s wouldn’t even DISCUSS diet with me.
Today marks the end of week 10 of my dietary intervention. I have not been drinking nutritional shakes daily for the last week or so. Instead, I am trying to shift to all solid foods. This week I started eating a lot more raw veggies, which have changed my BM patterns. I had 3 days of not perfect BM this week, but before this raw veg I had a 2 week streak of digestion perfection.
As I am incorporating raw veg, it has become much more important to CHEW!! I’ve noticed when I eat with friends that I take 3+ times longer to eat, because if I skip on the chewing phase I won’t digest all the nutrient goodies in my food. That big social difference is going to be a challenge. Raw veg also requires different enzymes and bacteria than cooked, so my guts and microbiome will need a little time to adjust to this new eating pattern.
I’ll leave you with this amazing recipe I enjoyed last night.
Eating Vegan with Crohn's Disease 