Can someone provide diet advice for my Crohn's condition?

Suggest you see a nutritionalist - they are usually in the large public hospitals, and you should be able to get a referral from your Gastroenterologist or GP. I have a similar problem after many surgeries and after seeing a nutritionalist I was put on panceatic enzymes which has helped but I also stay away from fatty foods.

Have tried the solution suggested with a little success, however my biggest problem seems to be that I having difficulty in absorbing the so called fat free products.Perhaps I am expecting too much having  lost so much bowel, could my age factor be abig disadvantage? 

The other suggestions would be talk with your Gastroenterologist about it and maybe try physallum husks - a soluble fibre available in the health food section of supermarkets. It might help absorb more and slow things down a bit so you absorb more nutrients. I find it just firms up things for me and doesn't send me to the loo more like normal fibre - I put it on porridge or on my cereal.

The other alternative is Ensure from Chemist if you want to gain a bit of weight.

You are never expecting too much with regard to our disease and I hope to get to 78 and want to remain healthy. I still have a few years to catch up but had CD for over 30 years.

Thanks for new suggestions ,having tried the Ensure path with no luck .
Will look put for Physallem husks and mention it to my  Doctor.I appreciate your interest
and suggestions as it is easy to fall into a routine and belief that there is no solution.

Over the years I have found if something doesn't work I just look for something else - and the internet has been a great help in finding other things to try.

I would strongly recommend you seek the advice of an Accredited Practising Dietitian (APD). There should be an APD at the hospital where you had your operation from that you may be able to contact. If not, you can find and APD by logging onto the Dietitian Association of Australia's website (www.daa.asn.au) and click on the “find an Accredited Practising Dietitian” tab in the top right of the screen.

I would suggest avoiding using the internet as a source of information as it can be very unreliable. Speaking to your gastroenterologist or APD is a much better option as they are the “experts” in their fields.

Thank you for your post regarding weight loss and Crohns disease.
Inflammatory bowel disease affects people in different ways and therefore treatment needs to be individualised. Knowledge of any bowel resection or stage of disease ( remission or acute phase) medication being used are important to know, to be able to give the correct medical and nutritional advice.
There are many good reasons why the psyllium husk and Ensure may not work for you and that is why providing nutritional information in this forum in some situations is not going to be that helpful unless more information is known.
I agree that support within the community is not always accessible depending on location, state and territory and varying community allied and specialist health support available.
You need to be in contact with your GP who should be able to direct you to the appropriate healthcare professionals close to where you live. Alternatively you have indicated that your last operation has left you in this state. I would work with your GP and get in touch with the hospital and ring the dietitian where you had this operation ( who knows about your medical information) and let them know things are not working well for you . They should be able to help you by directing you to help closer to where you live,recommend appropriate supplements for your situation and how to get these funded.

As a nutritionist I could suggest some dietary alternatives that have been proven to assist with reducing and preventing Crohn's flare ups.  Whist fibre is always an ongoing issue, especially with severe and/or chronic flare ups there is little disgussion on the impact of meat.

This small but very postiive study showed a semi vegetarian diet maintained remission in 92% of patients compared to the control group who had a relapse rate of 63% after two years. (1)

You can read the diet used in the link below to see if that helps you.

Turmeric has been shown to effectively and safely treat IBD / UC & CD (2)

2 Kiwifruit per day (3)

Avoid Titanium Dioxide (whitening nanoparticles found in hard chewing gum coating) (4)


Good luck, hopefully some of these suggestions can help.


(1)http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2877178/pdf/WJG-16-2484.pdf
(2)  http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2012/fo/c2fo30097d#!divAbstract
(3) Hammerle CW, Surawicz CM. Updates on treatment of irritable bowel syndrome. World J Gastroenterol. 2008 May 7; 14(17):2639-49.
(4)http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10648120