Where to Begin?
The allopathic (medical GI doctors) approach was to give me 7-8 different, overlapping lists of foods allowed/banned/suggested. This was a mind numbing approach to creating a diet which would work for me.
For several months my attempts to find something that worked just didn’t work! What to do? No real guidance except take medicine to mask the conditions and maybe heal, no guarantees.
Turning to prayer and my bride for guidance, I sought out a homeopathic doctor who was recommended to me by my pastor. I met with him and we talked about healing the gut to allow it to resist the inflammation naturally, but I would need time – lots of time – time the allopathic doctor thought was just a waste.
An Idea Emerges.
Finally an approach gradually took shape based on readings, research and discussions with my healing doctors. The plan was to eliminate any food that contributes to inflammation as I rebuilt the gut where my IBD/UC is located. Once rebuilt, I could avoid such foods in the future.
This was coupled with medication that would reduce the inflammation which was already present while giving the gut a chance to repair itself using homeopathic/natural healing supplements to reinvigorate my adrenal glands and rebuild the good bacteria colonies in the gut as well as the lining of the gut. I also needed to re-energize various receptors in the gut that were ‘sleeping on the job,’ for which I employed CBD oil. All of this carefully configured by Dr. Epitropoulos and tweaked using his unique testing equipment.
OK, Now I’m ready for Mayo, the Clinic, that is!
By January I had changed GI doctors to the Mayo Clinic where they also suggested the FODMAP and Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) to help me find a working diet. At first, until August 2018, I thought the SCD was only for children, but how wrong I was.
I started with the FODMAP, but after 8 months it became obvious this was not the plan for me.
The remainder of this discussion is obsolete, but I leave it here so the reader may see where I started. IBD readers should jump to the SCD page to see what worked for me.
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I choose the Low FODMAP foods approach as a starting point (later changed to the SCD).
“Research in this area is in its infancy. While a low FODMAP diet may improve functional symptoms in patients with quiescent IBD, these benefits must be balanced with the potential risks and patients should seek the advice of a dietitian to navigate the research and find a diet suitable for their particular situation.” A low FODMAP diet in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)
For a quick reference, check out the Monash University Low FODMAP Diet App. It provides the FODMAP content of hundreds of foods, including certified low FODMAP products such as bread, crackers, snacks, and condiments. This Monash University Low FODMAP Diet App is an indispensable tool for building my IBD Diet.
Here’s my approach, I would add a Low FODMAP food and wait 24-48 hours to see what happened at the “end.” If all was well, another food made the acceptable list.
From this I began to build LowFODMAP🍏🍏🍏🍏 recipes and meals that worked for me. I’ve continued to build recipes and meals and decided to share these as I developed them in hopes that others can use what I’m learning and doing.