Ulcerative Colitis and Diet

Filed in archive Digestive Health on March 20, 2007

I've been battling an ongoing flare up of ulcerative colitis for months. It comes. It goes. Lately there's been more coming than going. I saw my specialist last week and she put me back on prednisone. I'm keeping my fingers crossed because the next step would be surgery and I'd like to avoid that if at all possible.

All this has led me to wonder if ulcerative colitis might be caused by the diet. One doctor I asked said no. Another thought there might be a connection. I know that I can't eat corn or popcorn without a flare-up. The Fooda That Are Healthy blog has several suggestions for easing the misery of colitis, including reducing body fat to reducing stress. They also say this about diet:

Eliminate foods you might be allergic to. Many people don't know that they have food allergies, so start by cutting the most common high-allergy foods out of your diet, and then slowly re-introduce them into your diet one at a time to find out if any of them are causing reactions. The most common food allergies are to the following foods: dairy products; nuts; soybeans; and wheat.

I've also heard that anything with seeds, like raspberries or strawberries, may prove to be an irritant. Try cutting out one food at a time to see if it helps. It may be a long and tedious fight, but worth it if it works.