About My Food Choices (Why I Love My Diet)

My diet is not a diet – it is a pattern of eating.

Variety is the spice of life
Variety is the spice of life

My diet consists of whole foods as often as possible. That said, there is NOTHING that you could feed me that would cause a flare of Crohn’s disease. I can eat the spiciest, greasiest, lactose-filled, and gluten-filled food you can imagine, and it will not cause me to start having Crohn’s disease symptoms…

…I can do so because of the decades I spent building a healthy ecosystem in my gut.

My gut is able to handle anything I give it whenever social circumstances call for eating foods I would not ordinarily eat, or whenever I just decide to eat for awhile like others in my social circle… think birthday parties and holidays.

 

isolated-set-vegetables-basket-mediumI LOVE my ‘diet!’

 

I eat all raw and cooked vegetables, raw fruits, meats, legumes, nuts, and dairy products. Almost every day I eat a bowl of All-Bran Bran Buds (1/2 cup) with Trader Joe Bran Flakes (1/2 cup) and milk (either almond milk or organic whole milk).

 

I never worry whether there will be foods I can eat without running to the bathroom…

food-salad-healthy-vegetables
My diet is limitless in variety
Dinner is often a meat and a non-starchy vegetable
Dinners often consist of a meat and a non-starchy vegetable

 

Hmmm… foods I avoid in my diet whenever possible:

  • refined grains (in recent years I also avoid whole grains to cut down on carbs)
  • concentrated sugar
  • trans fats

Early in my Crohn’s walk, in the 1970s, I had to completely avoid refined grains and sugar to overcome deadly Crohn’s flares. After awhile, I would slip back into old habits, and then I would get back into the same trouble as before. Now, decades later, I have the luxury of being more relaxed about occasional binges of refined flour and sugary foods, and still I maintain consistent exemplary gut health.

Trigger identification

My diet is simple to follow
My diet is simple for me to follow

I enjoy total freedom from fear of triggering a flare. This freedom I enjoy is not the usual experience for people with IBD who use diet to control symptoms. Most people who use diet therapies focus their attention on finding out what foods seem to trigger flares, and then they avoid those foods. The list of trigger foods grows over time, which can lead to malnutrition, as more and more foods are identified as potential triggers. I am thankful not to have to worry about trigger foods.