Diet and Health FAQ

Tagged As: Diet For Colitis

Question:
I'd like to know whether or not a diet for colitis exists and what this diet allows to eat.

Answer:
Actually there are three diets that address this, all very similar. One book has been out of print for two decades and another is currently available only in German. That leaves this choice: Elaine Gottschall has written a book entitled Breaking the Vicious Cycle, Intestinal Health through Diet. She says it is a diet for Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, diverticulitis, celiac disease, cystic fibrosis, and chronic diarrhea. It is published by the Kirkton Press in Kirkton, Ontario, Canada, 1994, ISBN 0-9692768-1-8 Basically, you only eat monosaccharides which means simple sugars, so that everything is digested with no leftovers, like fiber. These leftovers are believed to feed to bacterium and flora in your intestines which then can get out of control (the bad ones) and make further digestion even harder. Their overabundance causes them to produce extra mucus which covers up the microvilli which break down complex sugars. So more is undigested, they eat more; they grow more, a vicious cycle. My GI said he thinks the theory has some validity, but no controlled studies have been done, so no proof, and not everyone who you would think would benefit does. Hence, the experimental side of it. What you can eat: Fruit and vegetables, cooked only at first until you can tolerate more; Nuts when you can tolerate them; Some beans (lentils and white navy) when you can tolerate them; Meat; Milk products without lactose, like hard aged cheeses (cheddar, colby, Swiss); homemade yogurt (real easy and good!), a few others; Honey. No-Nos: Refined sugars; Wheat and other flours -- NONE at all; Most beans; Potatoes; Lactose milk products; Chocolate (of course).