Hi, I read the posts, and I was very sad to see the one Ms. Cordelia wrote. I don't know why the vegan diet isn't working, but I really was hoping it would work for everyone.
I was diagnosed in 2003. First I had indeterminate colitis, then I had biopsies that indicated crohns. Then a few years later I had more biopsies and still some ulcers in my ileum area.
I quit drinking and smoking several years ago, and last year I became vegan (actually, no meat, dairy, eggs, but I eat fish). I got my first colonoscopy and upper endoscopy in 6 years last week, and I had no signs of disease anywhere. I didn't have any scarring either. Everything just looked good. I am still waiting for the biopsy results to come back, but I am thinking I may have beat this thing.
I agree that if you cannot eat certain vegetables because they aggravate the crohns or risk causing an obstruction, then start with the low fiber vegetables and work your way up. Ideally, at some point you want to get to where you are eating many fibrous foods, foods with different textures, hard things, raw things, etc., because that is what is supposed to be best for health in general: to have a mix but also have some of the tougher stuff.
When I lived in Japan, the doctor there gave me a list of vegetables to eat because they were easier to digest. They included:
Cabbage, Broccoli, Carrots, Rice, Rice pudding, lettuce, onions, and some other ones, I forget. Oh, fruits were that apples were good, bananas, and a lot of others I cant remember. What I do remember about the fruits and vegetables to avoid was that he said to avoid corn and mushrooms because they were the worst. Also said stay away from nuts.
Anyway, to get back to health and eventually possibly completely recover from this thing, I think a lifestyle overhaul is in order. No fast food, alcohol, dairy, cigarettes (the worst), no processed foods, and then you need to get exercise. However, its something to do one day at a time. It took me years to do all of the above, but I just found my way to this point over time.
Once you have Crohns, it may be correct that you can never get rid of it. But I really think you can make your health optimal by pretty much staying away from any of the things that American corporations get rich off addicting you to. Other countries that do not have these diseases don't have a lot of the nasty things that we have here as a result of our industrial, processed way of eating and doing everything. The more natural, the better. Oh, and just be careful of some of the medicines that they want to prescribe to you. For example, I am a little freaked out by pills that may make symptoms a little better but then cause leukemia (6MP) or infusions of organisms. But if your symptoms are that bad, and if these medicines do help, then by all means use them. But use common sense.
I have hope Ms. Cordelia (and anyone else for whom lifestyle change has not stopped terrible flares, etc), that with time it really will get much better. That doesnt make it any easier today, but just hang on because things do get better. Thats been my experience, and the experience of a lot of other people that have become vegan, etc.
