> A friend of my sisters has a little girl that was diagnosed with crohns.
> For you on the list with this, what foods do you avoid to maximize your
> health?  What foods do you find especially helpful?
>
> Paula H.
>
>
Hi Paula.

I varies a bit from person to person, but most of us cannot handle
starches of any kind.  The microvilli on the surface of our guts that
produce enzymes for the digestion of di- and polysaccharides have been
damaged in one or more locations.  Thus these complex sugars are left
intact as they make their way into the lower digestive tract, where
certain bacteria and yeasts that are normal inhabitants in smaller
numbers proliferate when fed this kind of diet.  (See www.scd.org)

High fiber and raw veggies seem to bother a lot of us due either to
strictures (narrowing in the small intestine, where partial or full
blockages can send someone to the emergency room real fast), or simply
further irritating the the inflamed segments of  the intestine.

My personal villians are of course the ones I love best:  carrots (the
sugars more so than the fiber), parsnips, beets, raw fruit of any kind,
esp. apples.  Very, very small amounts of some things can be tolerated
sometimes.  Grains have been completely and permanently off my list
several years now.

I'd recommend "Breaking the Viscious Cycle" by Elaine Gottschall for
clear and simple explanations on carbohydrate digestion in "normal"
people and those of us with IBD, and also for a basic diet, but I
caution that they allow fermented dairy and honey which many folks still
can't handle.  (That's why a lot of us are paleo instead.)

My best wishes for the little girl.  I hope her parents are tough enough
to change their WOE.  It's been a miracle for so many with this problem.

Lois