Discussion Board

My dad has had crohns disease for about 25 years and I recently saw a testimonial of a star mcdougaller who cured her crohns disease with the McDougall diet.

So I've been persuading my dad to eat like the 10 day program.... However the problems I encounter is that if he eats anything with too much fibre (IE whole grains instead of refined grains) or too many vegetables, he runs to the bathroom a lot and feels bad. It seems that the foods he can or can't eat (through trial and error personal experience) are seemingly random, but largely based on fibre being "bad".

All the foods he says are "bad" for him:

• anything whole grain... brown rice, brown pasta is a disaster
• beans
• apples
• citrus fruits
• artichokes are terrible apparently although he loves them
• mushrooms
• eggplant
• brocoli
• raw tomatoes
• spicy foods
• fizzy drinks including even sparkling water
• cream
• milk
• ice cream

the only foods which are "OK" are:

• white pasta
• white bread
• cooked tomatoes / sauce on the previous two
• bananas
• cooked spinach
• pizza
• fish
• meat - ham, chicken, beef etc but salami is bad
• mozzarella
• yoghurt

Can anyone make heads of tails of this and help us out in succeeding on the mcdougall plan? I've already gotten him to give up animal products apart from cheese. But I can't see how giving up cheese will make whole grains suddenly tolerable etc......

Hope someone can help!

Thanks!

Rano, are you following the McDougall eating plan? Has he decided to follow it? If he has, he will not be eating animal products.

See

http://www.drmcdougall.com/free.html

http://www.drmcdougall.com/med_colitis2.html

If he will commit to the McDougall guidance, experiment and be patient, I think he will be pleased with the results.

Please keep us posted!

Thanks but you seem to have not read my post. Although I follow the Mcdougall diet myself, my dad cannot due to his inability to eat many vegetables or whole grains, so it's just been a case of cutting out animal foods, but unable to add more plant foods to an already restricted diet

Rano, I would like to ask a few questions and make a few suggestions. Keep in mind that few of us here are medically trained. We are laymen who in some cases have experience with similar problems and were able to solve the problems with diet changes.

I had colitis, which has symptoms similar to Crohn's Disease, according to what I have told by one CD sufferer. Here is my story: http://www.drmcdougall.com/stars/burgess_laughlin.html

See the second link under my signature for a link to my weblog describing all the details anyone could want.

First, could you provide more information?
- How old is your father?
- What is his body mass index?
- Does he smoke?
- How much alcohol does he drink?
- Does he drink coffee or tea?
- How much time passes between eating a bad food and a run to the bathroom?
- What form of test of each food did he use? (If he is eating a whole dinner, how does he know which food triggered the run to the restroom x hours later?)
- Do "good" foods happen to be foods he loves and "bad" foods happen to be foods he doesn't like to eat anyway?
- Is your father eager to get rid of his Crohn's disease and is he desperate to try anything -- with full consistency and commitment -- to get rid of it? Is he willing to give up his favorite foods and drinks in order to achieve health?

You can try what I did also if he is willing. Simply find the foods that work for him and are also inline with the McDougal plan and eat only these foods, with no exceptions. Anything that isn't on plan or anything that causes discomfort in any way, do not attempt to eat or include them. Eat only those vegetables that work for him, avoid the grains if they cause discomfort, etc. It sounds simple, but unfortunately easy to complicate it.

Get yourself the digestive tune up book. He may need to give up wheat. The cheese has gotta go 100% if he will ever see results. All dairy in fact. That's probably more important than the meats, although since the meat is gone don't bring it back

And healing crohns is a process. He may feel bad for a bit. He is not gonna switch diets and magically overnight be cured.

Good luck.

What about potatoes or sweet potatoes. I don't think you mentioned them on either list? Potatoes, sweet potatoes and yams have a lot of nutrition.

rano you may want to email Dr. McDougall with the specifics on your father and ask for his advice, he's very nice about responding quickly.

I had similar problems with eating like your dad, and the good doctor told me to eat on plan what I could tolerate and in time my body would adjust to the high fiber. I began the MWL plan in January and can now eat things like tomatoes, cabbage, broccoli, and for years I could not eat these foods at all.

I stick to whole foods like potatoes, sweet potatoes, steamed vegetables, a little fruit, and limit legumes to 1 cup per day if I eat them at all. This is the best I've felt in years, but it took some time to work.

good idea to contact Dr. McDougall and until you do, check out Sondra Berk's Star McDougaller video here:

http://www.drmcdougall.com/star.html

She has put Chrohn's Disease in her past and speaks of troubles she had and how wonderful and full her life is now. I bet your Dad will be inspired to try this after hearing her. there may be others too - but really Sondra says it all!

Best wishes - Michelle

I agree with a lot of the suggestions already given, but thought maybe he could tolerate white rice until he's more accostomed to the higher fiber vegan food. Also, I've read that until there is some improvement, the vegs are best tolerated if lightly steamed (that is, avoid raw at the beginning.) Dr. McD recommends something similar in his elimination diet. Also, your father may benefit from probiotics.

But potatoes, white rice, sweet potato, all are pretty low fiber, and adding some steamed vegs should be more tolerable too.

Wishing you both the best,
Maer

As others have mentioned... difficult to assess without more information...

Speaking for myself... I had problems similar to colitis/IBS... probably stemming from a specific medication taken 20 years previously (an N.P. Dx oneself is much like an attorney who represents themselves). The first few days of following this WOE my condition probably worsened to a slight degree. Since then it has been fantastic and all Sx have been ameliorated... nice not having to plan my day around where the nearest restroom is...

As others have suggested and not knowing more... I'd suggest to your dad to eat what he can tolerate on the plan and not worry about a large variety at the moment... Keep it simple... just what he can eat that is vegan sans added oils and fats and see how it goes.

Best of luck. FWIW... Even if he feels the need to eat off plan on occasion... anything he does to the positive is much better than how he was eating before. It doesn't have to be an all or nothing thing...

rano - like some of the others have stated, he may need to just stick to the McDougall friendly foods on the good list until things heal up and then he will probably be able to tolerate other foods as well. I think it is a matter of time and implementation.

I'd say even though he can tolerate meats he should get off them because they are no friend to a healthy colon!

As others have mentioned, it may be that your fathers system is really messed up and it's going to be a long road back to health. Many of the very healthy things for digestive health will be troublesome on this road. The key is to introduce some of these things back into his diet in small, manageable quantities and let his system adjust to them over time. It would be very troublesome to dump large quantities of fiber and what we used to call "roughage" into a system that has been damaged through abuse. But the key is to remove the garbage like dairy and heavy use of refined products while S_L_O_W_L_Y introducing the healthy stuff. Reliance on the unhealthy items, just because they produce no immediate symptoms, is slowly making things worse.
I too highly recommend Dr. McDougalls Digestive Tune Up book as an excellent place to begin.
f1jim

Wow thanks for all the replies im gonna read him all this later today....

I'll get back after talking with him....

Thanks!