semi-low carb and diverticulosis; not a good match?
 

as usual haven't logged in for awhile. i have been doing ok on my semi lowcarb plan, losing steadily but very slowly. i try to keep it under 72 carbs. my problem is re-occuring diverticulitis. my last bout was pretty bad and when i told my doctor i was doing lowcarb, but not extreme lowcarb, she wanted me off this and just a plain high fiber diet with beans and lentils instead of meat products....so, does anyone else have experience with this problem and if so, what have you done about it?

Hi Dottie, a fellow diverticulitis sufferer here.

Firstly, have you been able to pin down any triggers for your diverticulitis attacks? The reason I ask is that, once I eliminated nuts and seeds (:rolleyes: ) from my diet, it has only ever been high fibre vegetables that have produced an attack. And now, my diverticuli are so sensitive (I am having surgery fairly soon - ick!) that I can eat very few vegies without penalty. So going on a really high fibre diet would have me immediately in hospital on IV antibiotics and a morphine drip.

If I were you, I would just carry on as you are (assuming you are able to keep your attacks at bay), and just not tell your doctor what you are eating. Just tell her you are eating lots of healthy food, which you are. ;) However, my advice (if you want it) would be to lower your fibre intake, not raise it. But that's completely up to you. I can only tell you how it has affected me, and wish you very good luck. :)

thx for your answer rosebud...i had already cut out nuts, seeds, corn, and even the fruits like berries because of the tiny seeds..but now i am so confused...i feel for you. so far i get alot of fiber and, unless i am having a real attack, fiber is supposed to be my best friend! like you say, all i can do is see what triggers my problems. i may add a few beans and lentils and cut abit of meat. i know, a few more carbs but maybe the extra fiber will subtract some carbs. good luck to you, i hope you dont need surgery.

oh yes, i forgot to ask...actually how do you carry on with even semi-lowcarb? what are you eating each day? interested to know that..and yhx again.

I don't eat semi low carb - I eat very low carb. I'm sorry if I was suggesting otherwise. Nor am I meaning to suggest you need to eat very low carb, just that it's the only way that has worked for me. :)

I know all the pundits and doctors say to eat high fibre, but there is really no evidence out there - and believe me I have searched! - to say that high fibre actually helps. It's just a part of that whole main stream stuff, along with the low fat dogma, that doctors put so much faith in. When my former doctor retired and I switched to my current one, he assumed I was eating lots of fibre, and was surprised when I told him that that was exactly what triggered the attacks. So he kind of said, "Ah, well, just keep eating what keeps you healthy then." He doesn't really approve of low carb either, but he does approve of the 30 kilograms I have lost, and the fact I no longer need blood pressure tablets. ;)

What do I eat? Yesterday I had:
Two hardboiled eggs chopped with butter on one slice white toast (which I eat once in a blue moon. We only had bread in the house because it was DH's birthday this week and I promised him bread and butter custard. His favourite - I can't stand the stuff.)
Lunch: Asian style mince/ground beef soup with mushrooms
Dinner: simple chicken curry from curry paste (strained to get any "bits" out) and made on cream. No vegies.
That's a fairly standard day for me. Except the bread I guess.

I was reading about this. According to the Mayo Clinic website here, a liquid diet followed by low-fiber diet is used to give the gut a "chance to rest." WebMD said the same thing, adding that eventually the diet reverts to "normal" - including fiber. It seems to me (I'm not a doctor or anything close to it) but it seems to me that if a low fiber diet helps recover from an attack, it should help prevent it.

Also check this website here. I don't know if it's biased. Here's a quote from this website:



Here's another website with relevant information.

You might also check out Dr. Eades' blog about eating fiber. Eades' blog.

[wow! gypsybyrd, thx for the info...read the whole thing and it blows my mind! i had already begun to suspect a few of these things because whenever i eat lentils, beans, albran, i feel pain in my bowels..which goes away if i quit eating it...so now i am really mistrusting doc's advice; don't know if thats a good thing or bad thing...i am going to stay on a low residue plan though, get some good probiotics going and see how it goes. probably stick to eggs, fish and cooked vegies for awhile. again, thx and i will check in later.

Be sure to get plenty of fat as well - it keeps things moving without the harsh effects of fiber.

Agree with plenty of fat, and if you need even more help in that area, magnesium does wonders. ;)

geez, i have so many questions...do you mean magnesium in pill form? and what kind of fat? butter, cream,???? and do you guys with diver problems think it would help if every week a person did a one day fast with nothing but water and broths? just wondering...also thinking of making my own yougurt from store bought greek yogurt and whole milk..but have heard yogurts not great for diver either..guess i should follow doctors orders but it doesnt seem to be working.

I would DEFINITELY ignore that doctor's orders.

Magnesium - yes, I mean pill form.

And any kind of fat will help, although butter and cream are great.

I don't particularly believe fasts are of any great help, although I do tend to stick to broth and water the first day of an actual diverticulitis attack. But resting the gut never hurts either. Wishy washy answer. :D Sorry...

Yoghurt, hmm. Several years ago I followed The Specific Carbohydrate Diet, which is very similar to the Paleo Diet. It is by no means a bad diet, but I was interested because it mentions diverticulitis, but in fact it really is only of help to inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn's and ulcerative colitis. Anyway, I mention this because they insist you make your own yoghurt (their way) and eat it every day. I wound up gaining weight like crazy since they said it was fine to add honey, and even though I knew honey was high in carbs and therefore stupid, I am a carb addict and therefore came up with all sorts of excuses! And besides, the yoghurt did nothing whatever to help my tummy. Which is my longwinded point. I have made it several times since (and eaten it without the honey!) and it has never done anything to help the tum. But we are all different, so you could maybe give it a try if you wish.

I hope my bla blas are of a little help to you matey. Do feel free to keep asking questions. :)

Roz

I too get regular bouts of diverticulitis and generally when I can't stand it any longer and have some nuts. (I am my own worst enemy.) I too avoid the berries with seeds, beans and lentils that cause gas, raw onions, sweet peppers (the ingredients for a Greek Salad), and other high fiber vegetables.

A day of shakes -- protein powder, water (or Almond milk for the flavor) and cream for the fat -- once a month sounds like a good idea. Not a complete rest for the bowel but a partial rest. (I am not sure I could make it through one day on water or broth alone.)

I have friends who can't understand why I don't eat nuts because of diverticular disease. "Can't you chew them fine enough?" That strawberry seeds are even smaller and I can't grind them up even finer just goes over their heads.

One of the long term effects turns out to be bruising. Your arms become covered with bruises then they start on your legs. They just appear with no apparent cause. My wardrobe is now dominated by long sleeved blouses.

I look forward to hearing about other tips.

This thread now has me totally confused. I was never diagnosed with diverticulitis but for a while I had bouts of loose bowels and sometimes actual diarrhea. In 2011 I started to get some pain and ended up in the ER needing emergency surgery due to diverticulitis that perforated. I had a colostomy bag for 6 months. The doctor had removed the part of my bowel that had the diverticulitis but told me I could get it again. I have been fine until lately. I love cooked vegetables and eat a lot of them, feeling that I'm getting "good fiber." I was not much of a salad eater, but since I started eating them regularly recently I am getting the loose bowels again. I don't know if it's the lettuce or the dressing causing it. I don't want to have to give up my cooked vegetables, but maybe I should cut back a bit. I don't ever want to go though that surgery again, and it quitting/cutting way back on vegetables is going to do the trick then that's what I'll do. I have bookmarked the links that have been posted on this thread and intend to go back and read them thoroughly.

For most of us, diverticulitis results from having something get stuck in a diverticula and won't budge causing inflammation and the outright infection. Finding out what 'gets stuck' is often a personal journey but is often associated with nuts and seeds.

The recommendation of a high fiber diet is based upon the assumption that the longer stool remains in the bowel the more likely it is that something will get 'stuck.' (A logical assumption.) So, to prevent this, a high fiber diet is recommended because the higher the fiber content in the diet the faster the stool will travel through the bowel.

For people like me who have diverticula throughout my entire bowel, the entire bowel would have to be surgically removed.

A high fiber diet causes me gas and pain. So the idea of a liquid diet to 'rest' the bowel sounds reasonable. At the moment I have had diarrhea for the past 6 months which, according to my doctor, is not unusual for late stage diverticular disease. Is he right? I don't know. I also have bruising for no apparent reason which he also attributes to diverticular disease. But these bruises are red, not purple.

I guess we each need to find our own answers in the face of conflicting medical advice.

I was told that stress causes a lot of this but it might also be getting older, who knows.
Maybe it's the last 30 years of pushing cattle feed in the form of high fiber health bars and being encouraged to consume huge amounts of fiber for good health that has done this to us.
I remember weight watchers having us eat more fiber than I ever could, back in the day.
Honestly, if you think about it, our digestive system is not like a cow's. They regurgitate their food several times and re-chew it before it goes down for good. If you have ever seen a cow's poop, it is pure liquid and not whole.
That's why humans have been milling and grinding these seeds for who knows how long and along came the low fat, high fiber mentality that made us think that we need to eat like a cow/horse to be healthy.
I had one bout of this a couple of years ago that kept me sick for several months. Horrible pain and most doctors told me that I was too young to have this..so that wasn't what I had.

Until I found an older Internist and he pushed really hard on the area with both of his hands together and although it hurt very bad at the time, I began to recover after that for the first time in months. Something must have been lodged in that place where the intestines make that last 90degree turn. He had a chart up on the wall and showed me where it was.
I eat a lot of fresh veggies now and always well cooked.

Back years ago I used to hear many older people including my mother, talk about staying away from nuts and I always thought it was because of their teeth but now I think it was this condition that made them stay off of nuts/seeds. She would also say that anything raw was very hard to digest....