I'm thinking of the dance routine in "Little Miss Sunshine" - ha!

I completely agree with you anxietymc and I think it is a joke that doctors don't know more about diet and IBD. I was told by doctors for years to 'just eat healthy.' So, there I was eating wholegrain, lots of salads, lots of fruit and it was causing me so much pain. A typical breakfast for me for example was a healthy cereal with milk and an apple. Killer!! Wouldn't eat that if someone paid me now. Now, I avoid all 'healthy' grains like brown rice, pasta, bread, avoid most dairy (except buffallo mozzarella and hard goats cheese) and eat mostly well cooked veg and always peel fruit. A healthy diet for someone with IBD is completely different to a healthy diet for someone without. That should be common sense, most people don't have ulcers in their colons.... Look up the difference between soluble and insoluble fiber, it helped me understand a lot more. Doctors do not know everything, there is a lot to still learn about IBD, doctors will tell you that themselves. Be your own judge. If you know fatty poor foods make you feel bad but get tempted, find some 'treats' that make you feel good. I make myself a hot (white) bagel with either mozzarella and pesto. Naughty but has so much kinder effects on my tummy! Everyone will be different though so find out what your 'healthy' treat is! Good luck :)

A bad diet can cause irritations like the spice curry, soda sugars, heavy salts, raw veggies, milk products. I do not believe it is the cause of major flairs just like stress is not a cause. It can make a flair worse but it is not the cause.

If you're not in remission, you may not be able to eat a lot of grains, but I have UC and my diet is a "normal healthy" diet and it doesn' t trigger my UC. Some foods may aggravate your gut but most people eat a normal diet with UC. I think some food issues are really about food sensitivities and intolerances unrelated the actual disease itself.

I think everyone is different to be honest. The people close to me in my life (sister, uncle and friend) who also have UC have to be very careful of what they eat, we have all found that diet impacts a great deal on our symptoms. I could eat anything I wanted till the age of 21 when my symtpoms started. I realise food is not the cause of my UC but it has such a large impact on it I still think it is a shame more is not known on the issue. I went to 5 different doctors before one of them gave me a great booklet on diet and UC, the most useful piece of information I have ever received! Everyone with UC has a different experience, I'm just sharing mine.

My sister & I both have Crohns - hers was horrible when it was discovered... She was pregnant her belly filling in but she was losing weight and weak, fever, abscess, fissures it was bad... They ran tests immediately after the baby was delivered and discovered CD. Several surgeries and resections later her colon was removed. My sister is a sweetheart and chatterbox - unless she is half dead (which she was for a while) she eats anything without rhyme or reason (like a squirrel constantly nibbles and munches) She never kept a food diary and was never able to tell if food was an issue... I on the other hand thought I was only dealing with severe lactose issues - I watched what I ate - My CD/UC has stayed mild but there was a time it was quite bad... I believe watching my diet has been key. Dairy is in many things so be careful if dairy causes you grief... xo!

After a day of bad eating, I always feel the need to do a day of cleansing where I mainly eat clear soup, white bread, white rice, white pasta, and bananas. My doctor never really mentioned the importance of food, but I think it because gastros are just close minded and only think of drugs for treatment!

Doctors have very little training in nutrition science, unless they are nutritionists, of course.

I'm sooo very new here, & because of having additional health problem's, diseases that also effect digestion, stomach ulcer's divicolitis ect..& food allergies, My self I have to watch what I eat anyhow, I grew up,eating bad, bad thing's, cannibal sandwiche's ( which is raw ground chuck pattie's UNCOOKED w/ viniger between 2 slices of bread. Pickled Pig's feet est. All food's pickled, also of eggs everyday, but then crossed with lot's of lean deer meat, trout, & garden vegtibles...What I'm trying to say is, When. All my bowel problem's started, & I tried to eat healthy & this was after a continued fat laden diet, lot's of salt fast food, junk, ect... I tried eating all lean meat's lot's of whole grain's veggie's no junk..made my bowels worse, cause My body was used to all the junk..so it can work both way's..I was told when starting a healthy complete new set of rule's for special diet, start intergrating slowly, r shock the system. Which really can wreck havok. I've down the following alot. My life, as I am sure many have, but what I have done KS, when I am dx'd a disease or new disorder..or new medication(..we all fall nto this at one point btw) whatever new symptom arrives or a new trust, we tend to blame t on the disorder, the med's..when sometime's thkng's just happen cause we have bodies that are all imperfect, k. Ne way or another!!!! This is hard ESP; for people who have enjoyed healthy bodies for a long stretch then boom, there s something happening, then a name to put to it, treatment options provided..& there off... when yo are sick all it life, with so many well versed different problem's..every lil thing set's a fear. You, that would be me as of late. My suggestion to the orig. Poster, is go with ur gut feeling, if something makes u feel sick, avoid it, I used to lve by the Mott, heck with it, I know I shouldn't eat his, but M so tired of not having any pleasure, I'll lay he price, well after paying he price so man time's this thick headed woman, is sick of being sicker than I already am...I'm don't with the nsanity, the on mistake m glad I made EP was eat in those cherry's & hen swallowing a cherry pit, which wow 2 days later & I am alive, if i hadn't gotten fresked out & scared, I might never have found this awesome support group, that looking around, read in other post...I should have been here since it excited...lol wow I have so much more to learn!! Ty everyone, & I sure hoe you feel better..ohh & I know exactly wat u mean bout the salt..crazy eh???? Mellie

The sunshine act is a federal law signed into law by Obama.

The name is meant to "shine" and light into what the pharmaceutical industry does. Most of the doctors are pissed that the public thnks that a tray of subway sandwiches and a pen are going to influence them to treat their patients any other way than the best.

What is great is that reps have samples and coupons- and due to fines are trained to be patient focused.

Yes back in the day there was a lot of wining and dining- like the 1990's, but pharma companies haven't been able to even give a physican a pen in the last decade.

here i go again, another rant.

I think the docs treat IBD with meds instead of diet because meds have predictable results, are easy to manage and far fewer variables for patients to deal with. take this pill once a day and get better or if not, try this other pill. rather than, try this food, try avoiding that food, avoid gluten, avoid lactose, eat more bland food etc. very hard for a doc to manage.

i can see the problem for a doc trying to recommend a diet, just by reading this thread. one person says they had to avoid fiber, another says to avoid curry. I have never had problems with either. I suffer more when i forget to take probiotics than when i eat fried food, and pork seems to be more of a problem for me than gluten or lactose. such a varied range of responses to such a variety of foods available to us. I also really think docs assume we are smart enough to know better than to eat stuff that makes us feel crappy. we should be accountable for our own health to the extent that we apply common sense when it comes to diet, and not blame the doc for not mentioning that salad or whole grain might make us feel worse. In the age of Google, we can certainly do our own research about diet and not be spoonfed a ton of instructions by doctors who are there to do things for us we are unable to do for ourselves, like prescribe meds, run tests and provide a diagnosis.
the role of nutritional councelling is not one for a MD, it is one for a dietition or nutritionist.

ultimately, the responsibility for managing the disease is the patients. the doc is only there for a half hour a month or whatever and can't address everything. we hold the power to figure things out and respond accordingly.

sorry for the rant. i'm crabby today.

Eat what you can tolerate, and don't eat what you can't. You don't need a doctor to tell you that. It's your body so if there's an issue with a food that YOU eat then don't eat it. And if you want to explore specific diets, then do it. Your doc is just saying it may or may not make a difference. I don't know why this gets people so riled up. I have a very open GI who is open to some diets but he's not a moron. He knows what works.

Doctors refer to medication because it works. UC is not like Celiac Disease, where the medical community KNOWS that removing glutten from your diet is the treatment.

Terrifico, I put the "C" in Crabby!

I don't understand either why this always seems to spur such a lively debate. Why can't medicine and diet both play a role? I think in order to truly understand the connection we have to understand what inflammatory diseases are and what auto immune diseases are and then differentiate between reaching remission and being in a flare vs treating symptoms and what triggers our symptoms to get better or worse.

i don't think there is a diet. i think different things bother different people . there is no definite list of foods to avoid for a variety of people. each person is different. there is just a general area that fits most people like milk but not everybody

Ashley, for me, this topic gets me upset, because i have all sorts of "helpful" friends and family who think they are giving me some brilliant advice when they tell me i would feel better if i just ate more ___ or less of ____ or whatever. I know they are trying to help, but they are clueless about the real issue.

I think frustration with trying to solve the puzzle of what helps/worsens symptoms is why we get into these debates.