Diet Tips to Relieve IBD’s – Part One

If you are suffering from an inflammatory bowel disease, your symptoms will depend largely on what you put into your stomach. Making healthy choices can help manage the dis-ease while still making sure you get the nutrients you need.

It can be challenging to both your mind and body to change eating habits suddenly, so don’t try to do them all at once. Allow your body to adjust slowly and for lifestyle changes to become habit.

To start with, here are some general dietary guidelines:

• Drink 8 - 10 glasses of water daily.
• Supplement your diet with fish oil and flax seed oil, prebiotics such as psyllium and probiotics (live culture).
• Limit caffeine, alcohol and sorbitol (a type of sweetener).
• Limit gas-producing foods such as cabbage-family vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and brussels sprouts), dried peas and lentils, onions and chives, peppers and carbonated drinks.
• Avoid dairy, especially if you are lactose intolerant. You may want to use lactase enzymes and lactase pretreated foods.
• Reduce fat intake, especially if part of the intestines has been surgically removed.
• Especially during a flare-up, try small frequent meals high in protein with lean meats, fish and eggs.

Next time we’ll start looking at the different diets that are useful during flare-ups, and others that are better when the IBD is under control.