Last month I decided to go on a 3 week ‘elemental diet’ between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
An elemental diet is a liquid diet which doesn’t need digesting because it’s broken down into amino acids, simple sugars (it contains a little oil also). For reasons that aren’t entirely understood a few weeks of an elemental diet often helps reduce Crohn’s symptoms (although the symptoms may return afterwards). I’d been interested in trying this type of diet since soon after my diagnosis but didn’t know where/how to get elemental diet formula.
Then I learned that the website I found this fall Listen To Your Gut sells elemental diet shakes powder (Absorb Plus) and these shakes have been formulated by Jini Patel Thompson, the website’s author, to be as healthy and decent tasting as possible. I bought her book The IBD Remission Diet with details about the diet, which suggests making clear homemade broths to drink between shakes so you have something savory to drink as well. That sounded like a great idea which would make the diet more doable.
I made some broths and bought the shakes. I decided to do 3 weeks of the diet (plus phase in and phase out) starting the day after Thanksgiving so I could eat real food at Thanksgiving and Christmas. I thought I should get my Crohn’s doctor’s approval and she said it was ok as long as a dietician looked over the diet first and I had weekly blood tests. Her group’s dietician Sue was very helpful, telling me I needed a bit of extra salt as well as the shakes, which is not hard since I put it in the broths.
I’m continuing to take my supplements and probiotics along with the shakes and broth (and a little clear apple juice. Sue had said I should mix the shakes with olive oil or canola oil. The book recommends Udo’s Oil and I tried that for a few days but it seems to irritate my system so I’ve been using olive oil since then. Strictly speaking my diet is ‘semi-elemental’ since not all the protein in it is broken down into amino acids (it’s mostly whey isolate); that’s fine since studies have indicated semi-elemental liquid diets are also helpful for Crohn’s.
I was very nervous the first couple of days about whether I could handle being around the real food my family was eating. By the third day I was pleased to realize I could be around the sight and smell of their food and handle it ok. So I’ve been able to shop and cook for them without eating what they’re eating. I can’t say I never wish I was eating what they’re eating but much of the time I’m managing not to think that way. Being able to drink savory broths makes all the difference.
When I first made some of the broths they weren’t as clear as I had hoped even though I strained them through multiple layers of cheesecloth. Then I found out on the internet if you boil broth with a mixture of crushed egg whites and crushed egg shell that makes it clear (after straining the egg whites out). I tried it and it worked awesomely well with my chicken and turkey broths.
Being on a liquid diet I miss that ‘satisfied/full’ feeling you get after eating solid food but on the whole I’m not hungry as long as I’m able to space the shakes out fairly evenly. Which is possible except if I have to be out when it’s time to have one. I do feel more tired than usual in between shakes, probably because they don’t keep my blood sugar up for long.
The diet certainly isn’t making me worse and it might be helping. It will be easier to tell when I go back to ‘real food’. I am going to phase back into a restricted diet again since I think that was helpful for the three months before this. Most of the studies on elemental diets did not have the participants taking supplements and probiotics as well, nor did they have the participants being careful what they ate afterwards. I’m hoping these things will help me do better than people whose symptoms quickly returned after the elemental diet.
Other updates on what I’ve been trying lately to help with Crohn’s:
After five weeks of acupuncture I canceled the last appointment, realizing I wasn’t looking forward to it. Basically I was fed up with the needles. Various people said to me that it didn’t hurt, but I felt many of the needles going in and the ones in my ears particularly. Also I felt a bit sore afterwards for the rest of the day and had bruises for at least a week afterwards in some needle locations.
I decided to try massage therapy instead and I like that much better. Stress is known to be a contributing factor in Crohn’s so anything relaxing is helpful!
I was pleased to be able to stop taking Protonix some weeks ago, which I was taking as needed for mild ongoing nausea. I tried stopping it in the summer but felt nauseous after a few days so I went back on it. This time it went ok and now I feel less nauseous than when I was taking it, which is wonderful. (I’m still taking my main Crohn’s meds, Humira and methotrexate, as the same level I’ve been taking them for the last several months).
My Crohn’s pain level in general has continued to decrease this fall. It will be hard to tell how the elemental (semi-elemental) diet is affecting my other symptoms until I’m back on solid food.
My weekly blood tests have been fine during the elemental (semi-elemental) diet and it’s going ok but I’m glad I’m up to day 17 already. I will be very happy when I can start eating other food again! I hope I have the patience to phase in other foods slowly. Cooked carrots will never have seemed so exciting!
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