did your family try to push diets on you?

Ever since I've mentioned surgery more seriously as an option for UC, especially with this recent episode in the hospital (still here) my parents and older brother have been trying to get me to look into all these anti inflammatory diets. They are sending me websites to books from people that claimed to have cured UC (not the same as the SCD) as well as youtubed of this one guy that just juices and is in remission as a result.

I can't help but feel guilty that it pisses me off and I brush it off. I feel like the extreme changes in dietary restriction with juicing and SCD just doesn't seem like a quality of life. Plus I know it doesn't work for everyone. I know they mean well and are trying to do anything they can to have me forget about surgery, it's just frustrating. I'm about to send them an email showing positive experiences of j pouchers.

When I was a kid, my mom had panic attacks that turned out to be related to a heart condition. She ended up getting surgery to cure it and has been fine since. But in a way it reminds me of the fact that at the time my family told her she needed.to calm down and not stress out.

Yes. Even to this day both of my parents make assumptions about my diet -- either pushing foods on me that they think are "healthy" that would be very bad (e.g. high fiber, veggies with skins and seeds, etc) or passive aggressively warning me off of foods that are good for me (e.g. starches, meat, etc). My parents both have upper GI issues (not like us, but enough to cause discomfort) so their ideas of "problem foods" are completely different. They don't understand that spicy food causes me NO problem whatsoever... in fact with my ostomy it doesn't even burn on the way out, so in that sense I tolerate spicy food better than most healthy people.

Anyway... I think this is one of those things that you have to learn to let roll off your back. If my dad smirks at my meal I ignore it. If he offers me something I can't have I say "No thanks." Honestly my relationship with my parents has grown stronger in a lot of ways since I got sick but in others it's been probably the last step of "disillusionment" as I've grown from a child to an adult to know that they don't understand and in some ways don't respect what I've gone through. I've given up on explaining to my dad that I didn't get UC because of my diet. It hurts me that he still even subconsciously believes that I might have "done this to myself," but I try to focus on all of the other good parts of our relationship.

I might have gotten far afield and vented a bit too much but I guess the takeaway is... yeah, this happens to everyone, and it sucks. Sorry.

I don't remember family every trying to get me to try diets. I refused to do any of those crazy diets, I felt tiesto, doing all that and giving up all those foods was a big quality of life thing. How was giving up every food I could still eat that I liked a good thing? Even if it had helped the UC I would have just been sad because I missed out all the foods I liked.
I don't think that unless someone is willing to go all the way in with those things that they will help anyway, and they still might not then. If food can't bring on a flare, which is on the UC board all the time, then how can food keep away a flare?

My family never suggested a diet. They also didn't realize UC could be so serious until I landed in the hospital! I did try Paleo and started the SCD cleanse. The cleanse made me sick. Paleo did nothing.

Juicing has dangers. So much sugar could pull other water from your body and lead to more diarrhea. It's all back to that "everyone is different" thing.

I eat like I used to with TWO exceptions. I stay away from broccoli (I think it contributed to a partial blockage) but I don't like it anyway. The other problem is staying hydrated. I'm still getting the hand of it.

You will be limited with your food choices immediately after surgery. Basically it's all white carbs, non stringy meat (think chicken as opposed to steak), soups, popsicles, nut butters, and cheese. After six weeks you can start introducing the no no foods like fruits and vegetables. You might have trouble with certain things but your diet post surgery would definitely NOT be as limited as a UC prevention diet.

Tiesto-you will definetly be able to have a normal diet after surgery! Be sure your brother sees you eating a nice big steak and a hot fudge sundae :) like has been said before, your diet is only limited at first. Most of us have one or two problem foods, but as a general rule it's anything in moderation.
When I went for my consult I asked my surgeon and he said "if you sit down and eat a whole head of raw cabbage, you might have problems. But if you don't have enough sense to not eat a whole head of cabbage, will then that's your own fault".

The reason people love diet so much as a treatment is becuase they think it's no-risk. People fear the outcome of surgery, they don't fear the outcome of going gluten free -- particularly because they can go back to eating gluten whenever they darn well please.

I'm glad that diet helps some people manage symptoms and I believe it does, but I have nothing but disrespect for people who push diets and claim to be "cured." It's irresponsible to dangle false hope in front of sick people, especially when that false hope makes them delay or refuse more legitimate treatments. It's not IBD, but as an example, I used to have a very new-age-y co-worker who said that before accepting chemo/radiation/surgery for a cancer diagnosis, she would explore all of the alternative therapies and diets first. She refused to listen to everyone, doctors included, who told her if the alternative therapies failed she would DIE waiting to try proven therapies. IBD isn't as deadly but it's known that mild inflammation is far easier to reverse than severe and extensive disease, which is what you run the risk of developing if you refuse treatment in favor of eating bowls of raw kale and quinoa like a certain Crohn's patient with a TED talk espouses. I'm getting angry. Anyway.

Lol, go for it, for your blockage "research"

NCOT, I agree with you. I've spend a lot of time on alternative/diet boards and I do believe that a good amount of the "healthy" followers of some of these diets (raw vegan, paleo) have orthorexia or some other eating/psychological disorder as I think it's abnormal to be so fixated on one's own heath and diet.

But, since I'm the parent of a child with IBD my perspective is totally different. I've tried a lot of alternatives with her and with some success (not sustained unfortunately). That's because I'm in favour of the most benign treatments for my child obviously. Having said that, when she was on paleo this winter, she told me that she would rather have surgery than eat that way (we were all on the diet and the food was great but it had a huge impact on her socially). Now, she doesn't know the risks of surgery nor that it might be crohns etc just that surgery will help her feel better. That weight is mine and it puts me, as usual, in the crappy position of trying to weigh her serious health issue, side effects of meds/radical surgery and her psychological well being/wishes. I know it's not your situation but it's most likely that if you're family is suggesting dietary intervention to you it's because they're worried about the drugs/surgery. If they're blaming you for your UC implicitly, however (I can see that happening, I even blame myself for my daughter's disease even though she eat home made organic veggie food from the beginning I can always find a reason to blame myself - I gave her whole wheat! I gave her dairy! etc) then that's another story..