I'd be interested if you could post about your diet regime.
I had my colon removed and J Pouch surgery, currently struggling lately with recurrent pouchitis. What I eat definitely has an effect on my pouchitis and output.
It may be quite different as I have (at least so far) avoided surgery.
I was very much like you though, food dramatically affected my symptoms, and the advise from the NHS (pasta, potato etc) actually made me worse. My diet has always been pretty clean, so it wasn't as if I suddenly just started eating healthy.
I'll happily post as much as you want, just so you know I'm not saying it'll work, or that it won't make you worse.
I started very simple and light, because anything with skins, seeds, fibre etc was horrific, as were most vegetables.
So the firstly the miserable bit, things I have completely banned :
- caffeine
- dairy
- alcohol
- processed foods of any sort
- refined sugar
- additives like acidity regulators, preservatives, emulsifiers and sweeteners
- processed meat unless it's organic and from a particular body part (i.e. Organic steak mince)
I eat good quality fish almost every day: salmon, trout, Seabass, mackerel, tuna steak, preferably organic or from a fish monger.
I consume some dairy alternatives and have slowly introduced grass fed organic butter, but I don't have much. I use Plenish Almond or Mylk as a milk alternative. Both are delicious and organic.
The general rules :
- Consume good quality Organic Live Bio yoghurt daily. I think Yeo Valley is excellent. Greek is no good as it needs to have the whey.
- good quality fish for most dinners.
- select spices known for positive impact on health. I.e. Turmeric
- consume tolerated fruit daily. Blueberries and Pineapple are particularly important.
- consume tomatoes daily, in large amounts, preferably cooked with olive oil
One thing to consider in particular are foods belonging to the nightshade family. Some think these are excellent, others really struggle. I now eat a lot of tomato, aubergine, onion etc and I've found it helps a lot, I introduced onions particularly slowly.
My advice is to introduce each meal individually and with care, monitor ingredients which don't work. I started with overnight oats, which at first I heated after soaking to make them easier to tolerate. I started adding things to this on a weekly basis as long as I tolerated it: organic honey, chia seeds, organic cacao powder, organic Chlorella, milled flaxseeds etc
I eat some bread, but I choose either organic or ones that don't include fortified flower. I don't choose any with seeds as I can't guarantee I'll chew them properly. I use Waitrose Pugliese or Cranks Organic.
I am cooking a meal for everyone on Sunday and it's completely 'anti-inflammatory' for me. I'm doing garlic mushrooms in a cream sauce on the pugliese bread toasted, it's actually cooked shiitake mushrooms with organic yoghurt as the base, with some organic mustard, organic lime juiced, and organic pink peppercorn with organic minced garlic. Then I'm oven baking organic salmon with minced garlic, thyme, organic honey, organic soy sauce and some baked organic carrots. We're having a fresh mixed salad with that and tomatoes cooked in balsamic vinegar and olive oil.
It sound fancy but it's super quick to knock up big meals like this which are delicious and filling. I make a tomatoe base for about 6 meals and freeze it for later, then I can just add some fish, chicken or turkey and I've got something delicious I can have with say, wraps or wild rice.
It's worth bearing in mind that diet only took me some of the way, supplements, for me at least, seemed to take me to where I am.
I don't profess to be a guru, I just know what's worked for me. I started by searching for anti inflammatory foods and started building recipes based on what worked for me.
If you want to more just ask, sorry for the long post.
) as it were, you're just flushing that information away.
