[00:00:00] Welcome back to another episode of What to the Poop and welcome to season two. Now you might be confused because you might be thinking, I didn't even know that season one was ending. And that is because I never recorded the final episode of season one. I have no good reason other than life happened.
if you will recall in the last episode, I was really tired all the time and, I just never got there, but here we are. Let's start with season two and today we're going to talk about all things food. So let's go.
Welcome to what the poop the podcast where we flush out the realities of living with ulcerative colitis. I'm your host, Teri Holland. And after more than three decades of navigating the ups and downs of ulcerative colitis, I'm here to share my experiences, insights, and a little bit of humor to help you through your journey.
In this podcast, we are dishing the scoop on what it really means to live with ulcerative colitis. We'll [00:01:00] share stories, tips, and the latest info to help you navigate your journey. Whether you're newly diagnosed or you've been battling UC for years, this is your space to find community, laugh at the absurdities and learn from others who get it.
No topic is off limits and no question is too awkward. So if you're ready to break the silence and take control over your ulcerative colitis, join me on what the poop because living with UC doesn't have to be a solo journey. Subscribe now, wherever you get your podcasts and let's face us together.
I think this is one of my favorite things to talk about when it comes to Ulcerative Colitis and Inflammatory Bowel Disease because the tendency is to think, well, it must be caused by food. If you're having digestive issues, it must be the food. And I have gone down this wormhole so many times and it never leads me to a good place.
I have had this disease for 30 plus [00:02:00] years. I've had this for a while, and I have tried all the food things. So, I want to share with you what I have tried and found. And, please note, this does not replace the advice of your doctor or a registered dietitian.
I'm just telling you what has worked for me and what I have discovered. Ulcerative colitis is not caused by food. You can't create this disease by the foods you're eating. But there are some foods that you might find are more triggering or more irritating or just make life extra yucky.
It's really important to listen to your body and the cues your body gives you. If you find that your UC is more irritated after eating dairy, or maybe you find that raw vegetables are just not your friend, listen to those cues. See where you can get your nutrients in other ways.
Now when I was diagnosed, back in the 90s, [00:03:00] the theories at the time indicated that meat was the culprit, or that meat was no good for Ulcerative Colitis. So I went full force into vegetarianism. I was in high school at the time, so I came home one day and told my mom, I'm sick of this disease, I'm not eating meat.
It didn't go over very well. She was concerned that I wouldn't get my nutrition. But I was determined that meat was the problem, so I went full force vegetarian. I cut out everything. dairy. All animal protein related foods. Although occasionally I had eggs.
But that was it. So, I consider myself that I was vegetarian, not vegan, for the fact that I ate eggs once in a while. And guess what happened? My [00:04:00] ulcerative colitis did not go away. In fact, it got worse. I got sicker during the five years that I was vegetarian and it didn't make any sense to me because I thought I'm not eating meat.
I'm eating vegetables and grains and fibrous things I don't understand why I'm still sick all the time. I wasn't just sick with UC all the time. I became very anemic. My B12 levels were very low. I was B12 deficient. I was iron deficient. My hair was falling out. I gained a lot of weight during that time.
And some of that I take responsibility for. I was eating a lot of simple starches and simple carbohydrates because my ulcerative colitis was constantly in a state of flare up, and I was eating things easy for my body to digest, that meant long periods of time where I wasn't eating fibrous grains or whole grains, I was eating white rice, [00:05:00] white bread, and simple foods, but I wasn't getting my protein.
after about five years, my doctor said Terry, this doesn't work for you. This isn't working. Your iron is too low. I wasn't responding well to any iron therapies. My B12 was too low.
And she said that it was time for me to start eating meat again. No complaints from me on that. I missed meat. And maybe if I'd been listening to my body, my body was telling me that it needed these nutrients from meat. Now, if any of you out there listening are vegan or vegetarian, and you want to come at me for this, believe me, if I could give up meat, and be totally healthy and have that be okay for my body, I would do it.
Ethically, I would do that in a heartbeat. But what I've come to realize, and this was not [00:06:00] the only time I tried a vegetarian diet, but I've come to realize that does not work for my body. I have tried. I'm not going to suffer and ruin my own health by not eating meat. That's not an option for me. my body needs animal proteins. That's what I do really well on. So when she told me that, and I remember that day so clearly because my sister had taken me to the appointment and when I got in the car I said, well, I have to start eating meat.
She said, great. What do you want to eat? And I said, a Big Mac. That's all I wanted was McDonald's. Big Mac.
I mean, in retrospect, was that the best thing? Probably not. But it was so good. It was delicious. no shame on the [00:07:00] McDonald's. once I started eating meat again, I started to feel a lot better. the meat didn't take the ulcerative colitis away, but it did help me. it gave me something else I could eat.
Even in my worst flare ups, I've always been able to eat meat. It's very easy for my body to digest and break down.
That was one thing that I tried. But over the years, I have tried many things. I tried going vegan again on several occasions, more because of the ethical, considerations around eating meat. And it never works for me. It never goes well.
So I have tried it. It doesn't work for my body. I have gone long periods of time of eating lots of salads and lots of raw vegetables and that is not a good plan for my body either. I have cut out dairy many times. Doesn't [00:08:00] make a difference for me. Well, Okay. I'm gonna be honest here.
It does make a difference, but not a big enough difference for me to cut it out entirely. I would say that dairy and I, we are not best friends. We're not even friends, but we are acquaintances. I can tolerate some dairy in my life and I choose to not give it up because it makes life more enjoyable. when I'm in a flare up, I will eat very differently.
we also need to take into consideration, your diet may be very different when you are actively in a flare up versus in remission. In remission, I can tolerate dairy, I can handle it. Not tons of it. If I eat tons of it, I'm not going to feel great. I don't know who does, to be honest. when I'm in a flare up, I don't do dairy.
Because It's not a good idea to add that in when I'm having a flare up, but other people might find that works for them. I also find that I can eat Greek yogurt, even in a flare up, and [00:09:00] will often eat Greek yogurt during a flare up to make sure I'm getting Good protein throughout the day, because a lot of other foods I will cut out in a flare up.
But all of this really comes back to, you need to learn what works for you and listen to your body. And that's what every doctor has always told me. Listen to your body. If something bothers you, don't eat it. If something feels more irritating or difficult for you to digest, don't do it. Things that feel good and easy to digest, eat more of that.
So when I'm in a flare up, my diet looks more like lots of animal proteins, Greek yogurt the last flare up I was in, I could do hummus, which was very easy for me to digest. I can do white rice in a flare up, easily.
Rice cakes are a good go to for me, bananas, applesauce. Sometimes, in a more mild flare up, I will do [00:10:00] very cooked vegetables, but as things progress, I cut out all the vegetables and all the fiber entirely. I have done vegetarian, sometimes more vegan. I have done low fiber, high fiber. I have done paleo.
I did paleo for a while. That actually worked pretty well for me. I was eating more protein, more animal foods, and cutting out processed foods and refined grains and starches. it worked pretty well, but it was hard to stick to The one that made the biggest difference for me recently was I went carnivore for a stretch of time.
Like full hundred percent. All meat, all day, meat, butter, salt. That was it. And oh my god, you guys, I felt incredible on that [00:11:00] diet. the question I always get is, well, why aren't you still on it? I go through phases of it now. I would say I'm carnivish. Like, not carnivore, but carnivish. I know when I'm eating lots of animal proteins, I feel better.
My iron, for the first time in forever, started to come up naturally, without any supplements, without going for infusions, my energy was great. My joints felt amazing. And I think that was the thing that really pushed the tipping point over into remission for me, which, by the way, I am in remission now.
And I think the medication was working, but just needed a little extra push, and I think going carnivore gave it that extra push. Again, not a doctor, not a dietitian, but what I do know from researching and reading about carnivore is that it really helps to lower the toxic load in the body. plants have naturally [00:12:00] occurring chemicals and toxins that most people are fine with eating and your body just gets rid of it and it's fine.
But some people, and from what I was reading, people who have autoimmune disorders like ulcerative colitis or Crohn's tend to not do well with those chemicals. they build up in our bodies and they get into our soft connective tissue and creates pain and inflammation. So I think that by going strictly carnivore for several months helped to lower that toxic load, helped my body to finally flush it through, get rid of it and break it down.
the smart thing, I think, would be for me to just stick to that all the time, but I found it was really
hard, not hard from the perspective that I was having cravings. Because honestly, once I was on it for a few days, I had no cravings at all for anything, [00:13:00] but hard more when I'm socializing. And I love to be social. I love to eat in restaurants, not because of the food in the restaurants, but I love the atmosphere and the experience of a restaurant.
So , even though I could order a steak in pretty much any restaurant we would go to, I knew I could just make a steak at home and my husband makes a really good steak. So I would, and we buy really good grass fed steaks. So if I would order a steak in a restaurant, I'd be disappointed in it unless it was a really good restaurant.
I would feel like this isn't what I eat at home and at home it tastes much better. If I'm not eating any of the sides or anything else, I started to question, well, what's the point? Why even bother eating out? And so for a while I wasn't, but then I missed the social aspect of being in the environment of a restaurant.
I love the noise of [00:14:00] restaurants. I love going out with my friends. I love treating my friends to lunch or going for dinner or. Networking events where there's food and socializing and it just started to become too difficult. So now I say we're carnivish. And I say we because my husband has been wonderful in supporting me on this and does it with me.
When I'm, when I'm on it, he's, he sticks to it at least when he's with me. So that would be the one thing that I would say that's where I really noticed a huge difference in how I was feeling was going carnivore. There's a really great podcast if you want to learn more about carnivore. She can explain it far better than I do.
It's The Road to Carnivore. I'll link it in the show notes and you can check that out. She also backs everything with a ton of science and research and she links all the medical journals, all of the research papers, everything that she talks about. So [00:15:00] she's your go to expert for that. I'm just saying that it helped me out a lot and that keeping a high protein diet works amazing for me.
With that, I've also come to realize that sugar is not my friend. That anything that's high in sugar tends to be very irritating. Now, in remission, I could have a sweet like here or there, a little bit of chocolate or a dessert once in a while as a treat, but it never feels, I don't feel great after. I feel okay after.
But I do notice a difference in my body. I really don't feel that good. So I've cut out a lot of the sweets and the sugars for that reason. I've also found alcohol is definitely not a friend, not even an acquaintance. Alcohol is out for me because alcohol is incredibly irritating and I started to develop an allergy to alcohol.
So it's just Out of my [00:16:00] life and a lot of people if you visit any of the ulcerative colitis forums a lot of people will say that They cannot handle alcohol. They can't tolerate it. It causes a lot of pain and discomfort so they stay away from it I was reading in one of the forums that I'm on for Ulcerative Colitis, just the other day, someone was saying that if they have four drinks in a short period of time, like over a couple days, they will start to flare up.
So that is a good indicator right there that maybe alcohol isn't great for us.
But still, it comes back to, you need to figure out what works for you. And I can't stress enough that food does not cause Ulcerative Colitis. And you can drive yourself crazy trying different diets and trying to eliminate things that are irritating or don't work for you. And for me, that started to make me really hyper focused on food, to the point of [00:17:00] having an unhealthy relationship to food.
And that was all the way back to when I was in junior high. I remember I got called into the, the guidance counsellor's office one day because she was concerned that I had developed an eating disorder because I had lost a lot of weight very quickly, ulcerative colitis. And, um, Teachers were noticing I wasn't eating at lunch and stuff, and that, that was more, well, it was partly because I was afraid that if I ate my lunch, I would feel sick after, and that would mess up my afternoon.
Or I'd have to run to the bathroom a million times during the afternoon, and I would get noticed. People would notice I was going to the bathroom constantly. Being a young teenage girl, that was embarrassing. I didn't want to draw more attention to the fact that I was sick. It was bad enough that I missed a lot of school.
So, I think I was on the road. I don't know if I would say I [00:18:00] had an eating disorder at that point, but I was on the road to it because my relationship to food was not healthy. And I have had that reoccur many times throughout my life. Where my relationship to food became really, really bad. So I'm not saying any of this for you to be afraid of eating or to think you have to go to extremes.
If you want to try something like carnivore and see if that helps you, then by all means. Just do some reading on it, listen to the podcast that I'll link, and decide if it's right for you. Or maybe it's right for you to do it for a few weeks and just to give your body a break. Or maybe for you, you find that you just incorporate more protein into your diet, more animal based proteins.
Maybe for you, you find that dairy is not your friend and not even an acquaintance for you and just can't be in your life. You need to find [00:19:00] what works for you and experiment. But please don't become afraid of food. We still need to eat and we need nutrients. That's, that's kind of a, a given, right? We, we just need it.
So don't become obsessed with this. Your food is not causing your ulcerative colitis, but certain foods might make it feel worse or might be more difficult. Not all the time, but sometimes they might be more difficult. So I hope this was helpful today. If it was, send me a message, drop me a comment, or leave that five star review because that'll help more people find the show who I think can benefit.
Thank you so much for listening to me. I will leave back now with more regular episodes as we dive into season two. And also, if you have any topics that you want me to talk about or questions, please reach out to me. The [00:20:00] best place to reach me is on Instagram at TheTeriHolland. That's my main account. I do have a WhatThePoop account just for this show, but honestly, I forget to post in there.
There's not much happening there, but you can always reach me there, too. So feel free to reach out if you have questions or if you have topics that you want me to talk about. I would certainly love to hear from you. Thanks again, my friends. Have a great day. Bye for now.
