Book Explores Diet and Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Michael Medwar
When I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, almost thirty years ago, patients were instructed to follow a low-roughage diet. This basically meant that almost any fruit or vegetable you could think of—and a few other items you wouldn’t expect, like ketchup—should be avoided. More recently, knowledge about diet and its effect on the health of inflammatory bowel disease patients has expanded far beyond the relatively simple doctor’s orders of the past.
To help give IBD sufferers direction in this philosophy, registered dietitian Tracie Dalessandro has penned What to Eat with IBD: A Comprehensive Nutrition and Recipe Guide for Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis. Tracie was diagnosed with ulcerative proctitis at nineteen; this progressed to ulcerative colitis and then to Crohn’s by the time Tracie was thirty-one. Tracie’s book is split into two parts. The first part looks at nutrition, food choices and healing, and the second contains more than fifty nutritional IBD-friendly recipes.
The Book
Tracie does a good job breaking down nutrition and the diseases into practical terms. She says having IBD (inflammatory bowel disease) is like having an open wound in your intestine and asks you to think about what makes sense to rub on these wounds. Choosing foods that soothe or heal the bowel, not irritate it, are the way to go.
She points out that the healthiest foods are not always suitable for IBD patients. Whole grain wheat bread may be great for the rest of the population, but for IBD (and irritable bowel syndrome, she adds) she doesn’t recommend it. Tracie explains that whole wheat bread contains insoluble fiber, which draws water into the GI tract, as opposed to soluble fiber (oats for example), which is beneficial because it absorbs water.
Tracie talks about choosing peeled fruits and well-cooked vegetables that won’t cause pain and also add a high nutrition element. Cooked apples, bananas, cantaloupe, watermelon, butternut squash, carrots, and very-soft broccoli are among the items on her list of foods that heal.
But a good diet doesn’t stop there. Tracie talks about all the major vitamins and minerals and other necessary supplements, the importance of each and the best sources to get them. She also explains why you should avoid high-fat meals that can be malabsorped and the importance ofhigh-quality proteins, food safety, and planning your meals.
I haven’t tried any of the recipes yet, but they look tasty and easy to prepare. The recipes cover snacks, to entrees to desserts.
Another Chapter?
The only topic in this book that Tracie could have focused on just a bit more is fluids. She does say that when diarrhea is present, at least ten glasses of fluid should be consumed per day. She says water is best, but when a person has severe electrolyte losses, “sports drinks diluted with water are acceptable.” This could have been explained further, because, as I’ve heard at many Oley conferences, for people with short bowel, drinking water is counterproductive and rehydration fluids should be sipped throughout the day.
But overall, Tracie has written an informative, interesting book with useful recipes. It does a service to IBD sufferers and further reminds us how important diet and nutrition are in living with these diseases.