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Sunflower Seeds and Spinach!

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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 3/14/2009 8:03 AM (GMT -5)
thanks, kiss520!  thanks so much for all your support here.  and congrats to you too!!!  :)  i just hope everyone who reads the spin/sun threads actually decide to give this a try...especially after reading all the posts from those of us who have had success.  it's definitely life-changing!!  smilewinkgrin    (thanks to cfromutah too, of course...for deciding to share your success story!!  :)  you should think about writing a book or something...i'd buy it!)
Posted 3/15/2009 6:36 PM (GMT -5)
You are so welcome!  I, too, wish that more people would give this diet a chance.  I come on the forum to see what's going on and to see how people are doing, and I get really depressed when I hear that many of the same people are stuck in same awful flare.  I know the diet may not work for everyone, but it's SO worth taking the chance.  This stupid disease took my life away last year and actually put my husband and me in debt from all the prescriptions, hospital stays, doctor visits, etc.  I feel so blessed every single day that I happened to find this forum and happened to hear about Cfromutah's diet. 

Posted 3/15/2009 7:40 PM (GMT -5)
where did the rest of this thread go?
Posted 3/15/2009 7:41 PM (GMT -5)
Where is the rest of this thread?
Posted 3/16/2009 6:04 AM (GMT -5)

Kiss520 said...
You are so welcome!  I, too, wish that more people would give this diet a chance.  I come on the forum to see what's going on and to see how people are doing, and I get really depressed when I hear that many of the same people are stuck in same awful flare.  I know the diet may not work for everyone, but it's SO worth taking the chance.  This stupid disease took my life away last year and actually put my husband and me in debt from all the prescriptions, hospital stays, doctor visits, etc.  I feel so blessed every single day that I happened to find this forum and happened to hear about Cfromutah's diet. 


I'd like to give it a go, but need a brief advice. The thread(s) is so long that it is hard to find the specific dietary advices in between all the postings. Guess that just an electronic side effect of a very positive diet smilewinkgrin

Anyway: I do eat sunflower seeds - a handful most evenings. Actually I roast a handful of sunflower seeds together with half a handful of pumpkin seeds and eat it as snack. Don't eat spinacher regularly yet.

What is the recommendation in brief?:

- How much spinach, when it is not canned, but either fresh or frozen?

- How many sunflower seeds?

- How many times a day in the beginning and later? (I am not in a flare right now, just wanna prevent)

- Other dietary recommendations?

Posted 3/16/2009 7:09 AM (GMT -5)

CfromUtah posted this on the previous page slacker :)

"3/4 - 1 1/2  cups of cooked or canned spinach a day.
1/4- 1 cup of sunflower seeds a day, the more the better.
or if your using sunflower seed butter rather than the seeds then 2- 6 tablespoons a day, again the more the better.
Just eat the foods that you normally eat while doing the diet except don't overdo high calcium foods, milk, cheese etc. The magnesium in the spinach and seeds seems to be a big contributor to making the diet work and if you consume excess calcium it will cancel out the good effects of the magnesium. High calcium foods are ok but just don't over do them like eat excess amounts of cheese everyday or drink a half gallon of milk every day. One or occasionally two glasses of milk a day and a little cheese here and there is fine."

Posted 3/16/2009 7:25 AM (GMT -5)

1) Is "Cup" = the American measure? So 1 cup = 24 cl (centiliters?) ............ se table below.

2) Also I seem to remember you don't have to eat it every day right?

3) Should I stop taking my morning Magnesium tablet?

Metric Kitchen Converters and Substitutions
American standard cup     Metric equivalent-approx.
 
1 tsp. = 1/6 fl oz = 0.5 cl = 5 ml
1 Tbsp = 1/2 fl oz = 1.5 cl = 15 ml
1 cup = 8 fl oz = 2.4 dl = 24 cl = 240 ml
1 pint = 16 fl oz = 4.7 dl = 470 ml
1 qt. = 32 fl oz = 9.5 dl = 950 ml
 
British standard cup
 
1 tsp = 1/5 fl oz = 0.6 dl = 6 ml
1 Tbsp = 0.55 fl oz = 1.7 dl = 17 ml
1 cup = 10 fl oz = 2.8 dl = 280 ml
1 pint = 20 fl oz = 5.7 dl = 570 ml
1 quart = 40 fl oz = 1.1 l =1100 ml
 
1 liter = 1.06 U.S. quarts
1 U.S. quart = 0.95 l
 
1 l = 10 dl = 100 cl = 1000 ml
1 dl = 10 cl = 100 ml


Posted 3/16/2009 1:45 PM (GMT 0)
You should eat it every day in the beginning (until you get better). After that you can definitely eat less. In fact, I don't really eat spinach any more for my beta carotene. I eat carrots instead, because I also have IBS and spinach is a bit fibrous for me. The nutritional elements in spinach got me out of a terrible flare, but I would still have occasional diarrhea because it's too rough for me. I wouldn't recommend going straight to the carrots, though. There is definitely something very beneficial about the spinach (it has both beta carotene AND magensium).

If you have IBS or a sensitive stomach, prepare the frozen chopped spinach and eat it with white pasta. Then get your sunflower seeds in the form of sunflower butter. Much easier on your tummy.
Posted 3/16/2009 8:51 AM (GMT -5)
Thanks. Fortunately I don't have a sensitive stomach, "just" occasional flare in the rectum. Already eat lots of carrots and other veggies.
Will start to eat spinach regularly.
Question: Should I stop with Magnesium tablets then?
Question: I definitely think my flares are stress related more than diet specific (as I for long periods eat everything without problems). Would this diet help prevent flare under stress (/stressful periods) ??
Posted 3/16/2009 8:53 AM (GMT -5)
Qvist, The cups that I mentioned are in American measurements. Its good to eat spinach and sunflower seeds nearly every day for a few months for someone who is flaring and trying to get out of a flare but for somebody who is not flaring and trying maintain not flaring as yourself I would eat 3/4 cup of cooked spinach once every 3 to 5 days and a few handfuls of sunflower seeds every day. The measurements of spinach that I mentioned are after it has been cooked but you will have to experiment and see how much fresh or frozen spinach it takes to make 3/4 cup of cooked spinach. I would eat cooked spinach and not fresh uncooked spinach because uncooked spinach is higher in oxalic acid.
Since your not flaring now what your doing seems to be working so I don't see a need to quit taking your daily magnesium tablet.

about the diet preventing flares while under stress I would say yes because it has prevented me from flaring under times of high stress. 

Post Edited (Cfromutah) : 3/16/2009 8:09:30 AM (GMT-6)

Posted 3/16/2009 9:09 AM (GMT -5)
Thanks Cfromutah for a very specific easy to implement description! Sounds easy to do.
I don't know if what I am doing now is working. I am not med-free. I do 2x3 Asacol and just stopped my daily (evening) 1 Mesasal Supportie.
Posted 3/16/2009 9:15 AM (GMT -5)
Your welcome. Personally I would rather get my magnesium from foods such as spinach, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, beans, almonds, peanut butter, walnuts etc. than to get it from supplement form.
Posted 3/16/2009 9:18 AM (GMT -5)
I had Spinach 2 days ago, I can't digest it at all it comes out whole but it definitely helps!
Posted 3/16/2009 9:28 AM (GMT -5)
Your welcome Luli! I'm glad its helping you!
Posted 3/16/2009 9:35 AM (GMT -5)
Will it still work even if it doesn't digest very well?
Posted 3/16/2009 11:22 AM (GMT -5)
Even if all of it does not digest well, there should be some benefit; but I also make a conscious effort to chew each portion slowly and as well as I can so that it hopefully gets digested easily. Also, I have been using canned spinach and not fresh spinach.
Posted 3/16/2009 12:08 PM (GMT -5)
Question for those of you who aren't digesting it well - are you eating fresh spinach? If so, switch to frozen or canned. Fresh spinach is murder on your tummy, especially if you're flaring. It is very fibrous. Do what I suggested earlier and use the frozen kind, but eat it with white bread or white pasta. They act like a buffer so the spinach isn't so hard on your tummy.
Posted 3/18/2009 7:40 PM (GMT -5)
I know that taking magnesium orally is hard because too much of it will have a laxative effect. Has anyone tried injections or rubbing it on the skin for absorption?

I started the diet on March 1st and since then have noticed gradual improvements. It seems I am going to the bathroom the same amount of times, but they seem to be better. Yesterday was the first time in awhile I can remember going to the bathroom just to pee. I was doing some reading on magnesium and it says that once you are deficient its really hard to get it back into your system. I have been following the receipe someone post on here with added it together with flour, eggs, and oil. thanks !
Posted 3/20/2009 10:47 AM (GMT -5)
down to 1 bm a day first thing in morning last 3 days still urgency though, but that will prob be last thing to go. Woo hooo!
Posted 3/20/2009 12:12 PM (GMT -5)
Ok, I have not read all 69 posts, but I just happened to see this thread for the first time and I have a question.... I thought if you have colitis, you are not supposed to eat anything with nuts or seads? How can you eat sunflower seeds then?

And secondly, the sunflower butter - how do you eat this? Do you cook with it, put it on something, or just eat it straight up?

This is really intriguing me - I think I'll bbe doing some reading/research this weekend! Especially since I have only had maybe a week or two of remission back in October, and have otherwise been flared up since June of last year.
Posted 3/20/2009 1:40 PM (GMT -5)
Yes don't eat fresh spinach off the hop. Boil a brick of frozen or try canned. Sunflower butter on white toast is not too abrasive. Try that to start. I guess you can try eating seeds at night do roasted no salt and chew chew chew. This stuff works..,
Posted 3/20/2009 4:57 PM (GMT -5)
I just started eating this stuff as well. It's cheap and easy compared to the other UC cures out there. I just put heated canned spinach on top of cooked white rice and pour apple cider vinegar on it. I just pretend I am Japanese when I eat it :P If nothing else spinach and sunflower seeds are a very good source of vitamins and minerals.
Posted 3/21/2009 8:59 AM (GMT -5)
Hi all,

I have been reading about this diet and am willing to give it a try. Just one question. Where do you buy sunflower butter. I live in Plano Texas but I have never seen it at Sprouts or Whole Foods. I have heard so many times not to eat anything with seeds - no strawberries, kiwi or anything. I still don't understand why you can eat sunflower seeds (which I loved as a kid) with an inflammed intestine. Aren't the seeds supposed to get caught in all the inflammed folds?

Is your recommendation just roasted seeds without salt? Or roasted and salted, or just plain?

Thanks for the info
Posted 3/21/2009 9:20 AM (GMT -5)
they sell sunbutter at whole foods here in nj.  probably trader joe's too.  do they have that in texas?  if you can't find it, i would ask a store manager about it...maybe if enough people ask they will start stocking it. 

i used to eat nuts all the time (i love almonds!)...but then i realized it was making my flares worse, so i stopped eating nuts, seeds, etc.  when i started the diet, i didn't eat sunflower seeds or any nuts.  only sunbutter.  now that i'm in remission, i do eat some nuts occasionally, but still no seeds.  i don't think it's worth the risk.  plus, i love sunbutter!  you can eat it on toast (or any way you would eat peanut butter)...but, actually, i prefer it plain - by the spoonful! :)

good luck everyone!!

Posted 3/21/2009 9:24 AM (GMT -5)
Definitely start with sunflower butter. I've found it in the healthy aisles of my regular grocery store as well as Trader Joe's.

If you have IBS in addition to UC, you should definitely avoid the seeds. The nutrients help the UC, but the rough texture aggravates IBS. At least that was the case for me.
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