Hi ! 

Every month we explore the who, what, where, when and why of an important topic so by the end of the month, you’ll have more information and confidence to make meaningful changes to eat and live better with IBD.

Much of our newsletter content in 2021 will focus on getting back to the basics.  

This month’s theme: Ultra-Processed Foods & IBD

Quick recap: In weeks 1 and 2, we introduced ultra-processed foods, provided a rationale for why everyone should limit or avoid them, gave you a list of ingredients to help you identify ultra-processed foods in your kitchen, told you more about the connection between ultra-processed foods and IBD, and offered some healthier swaps for favorite food products.

This week Scott will share his rules for keeping ultra-processed foods out of his usual diet.

By the way, we’re not the only ones with the highly processed foods on our mind. Last week the New York Times published an article titled “How the Right Foods May Lead to a Healthier Gut, and Better Health”. 

Key takeaways: 1) People who eat whole and minimally processed foods like vegetables, nuts, eggs and seafood are more likely to harbor beneficial gut bacteria, and 2) What we eat has a more powerful impact on the makeup of our microbiomes than our genes. WHOA!

Scott’s rules for highly processed foods

I remember how confused I felt studying food labels. There were so many ingredients, some I didn’t even recognize! How could I possibly know and remember what was safe and what I should avoid? 

Turns out stressing about all the ingredients wasn’t necessary. Instead, I have three blanket rules when reading labels:

1. If there are more than a handful of ingredients, I don’t eat it.
2. If there is an ingredient I don’t recognize, I don’t eat it.
3. If there are ingredients not from actual food, I don’t eat it. 

These rules help me avoid highly processed foods most of the time. Probably because I find it easier to have nothing, than a little of something.

This is a big deal because for much of my life, I ate ridiculous amounts of highly processed foods (alongside healthier fare): snacks and chips, fast food and pizza. I loved Chex Mix, Gardettos, Newman O’s and Thin Mints. Usually I didn’t have more than a few cookies, but I could finish an entire bag of snack mix in a single sitting. Whoa boy.  Also, I ate ridiculous quantities of food, sometimes picking up items from multiple fast food spots when the mood struck or ordering multiple entrees at a restaurant. Burger or Ribs? I got them both!  

The thought of changing this approach and my relationship with food was not something I wanted to entertain at my Crohn’s diagnosis, but I’m extremely glad I did. Now I have self control to stick to any diet and can power through cravings without caving. Although, not a day goes by where I don’t imagine riding off into the sunset with a pepperoni and garlic pizza!

Getting to this point where I can say “no” to a tempting food wasn’t easy, but I’m so glad I made it. 

However, sometimes I don’t or can’t avoid some highly processed favorites. But I can control how much I eat and how I feel afterwards. 

Mastering My Self Control 

So how did I foster this self control? I set rules for myself, and breaking the rules is simply not an option. 

My rules and best best practices for eating treat foods:

• I plan in advance so I have something to look forward to. This has the added benefit of helping me hold off cravings because I know a treat is coming.
• I aim for earlier in the day for the splurge. I prefer to cheat over a lunch vs dinner as I tend to react better and feel better the following day
• Strict quantity control. Your mileage may vary, but I can’t really think of a time when a bite or two caused me a problem. If I’m splurging with a meal, I make sure to not be overly hungry and look for a small portion whenever possible. If I’m going for a snack or dessert, I’m repeatedly surprised by how satisfying a bite or two can be. (It's hard to overstate how big of a 180 this position is for me - I remember not being satisfied by anything less than what I would call a HUGE portion today).
• Whenever I eat anything that might be more processed than I’m used to, I take it with with digestive enzymes (I have no idea if these help but what the heck)
• Similar to quantity control, but when possible, I portion out, either by buying, or measuring out myself. So for example, I would prefer individually wrapped servings so I don’t have the easy option of just continuing to eat out of a bag or box.

Some Processed Foods I Occasionally Eat

Plantain Chips

• These were my go-to snack for years. I weighed out portions to keep from eating too many.

Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips

• I’ve had a soft spot for dark chocolate for years, but with my Crohn’s diagnosis, I cut back on sugar to the point that I avoided the chocolate I usually bought.  With Enjoy Life Chocolate chips, I found a dairy free, additive free and low sugar chocolate option perfect for having small amounts. One 20oz bottle of coke has more sugar than in an entire bag of these.

Pizza

• I’ve said more times than I can count, I love pizza. And I didn’t have it for close to 6 years. But recently, I began to experiment with pizza on special occasions. Here is what I did: I had a craving for pizza and we had a reason to celebrate. A week out, I decided I was ready to have pizza (extra benefit: my special occasion meal is pizza, a lot cheaper than a steak!). I made sure to eat really well the whole week to increase the odds that I felt great on Saturday (Pizza day!). On Saturday, we went for a walk to pick it up from one of our favorite spots and while I wanted 23 slices, I got just two, eating half of each. I took extra enzymes (again, not sure if they help). 
• In case you were wondering, it was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G and I can’t stop talking about it weeks later.  

Ice Cream

• Bertina and Kyla love them some ice cream, and I’m constantly surprised by how much we have in the house. I’m lucky I don’t love it quite as much as they do, but I do enjoy it. When they have some, I wait until they are just about done, and I have a couple of bites along with a digestive enzyme (at least it will help with the lactose).
• A quart of ice cream lasts weeks in our house. Bertina prefers good ole fashioned dairy ice cream, but the dairy alternatives have gotten so much better! There are a few good ones out there, but we’ve become big fans of Oatly’s ice cream (you can definitely tell its oat based, but we don’t mind and love the texture).
• Bertina has her own rules to hack herself from eating too much ice cream - she only buys it when it's on sale. It's not her fault it's on sale a lot 😜

Having said all of that, an umbrella rule that I’d put around all of this is that you absolutely can change your relationship with food. If some or all of this doesn’t seem realistic to you, I know how you feel. It didn’t feel realistic to me either - one of my first thoughts after being diagnosed was that I would never go a month without eating pizza 🤷‍♂️. But I did and so can you.

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Did you know that smoothies are one of the simplest and tastiest ways for people with inflammatory bowel disease to consume wholesome foods, including fruits, vegetables and other high-fiber foods, like nuts and seeds EVEN while following a “low-fiber” diet.

Learn everything you ever wanted to know in our book Smoothies to the Rescue!  

Check it out

Do you have a question about these topics, or something else? Just reply with your question to this email and it may appear in an upcoming newsletter.

In good health,

Colleen, Bertina & Scott

This newsletter is for informational purposes only and is in no way intended as medical counseling or medical advice. Results may vary