Trigger Foods

Ok a slight rant today…

Can we all just agree to move away from the idea of “trigger foods”. It thoroughly confuses people who don’t have IBD, and some who do. I’m just so sick of when people hear about Crohn’s or I get into a discussion about Crohn’s that the first thing out of the other person’s mouth (though very well-intentioned) is ah I hear diet is SUPER important, or insert your other food related comment here.

Yeah… diet is important for us but NOT because what we eat makes any sort of difference in how our disease presents itself – diet is important because we can become malnourished very easily. Eating well all the time (which I’m totally terrible at) is a way to get as much nutrients into our bodies as naturally as we can with what’s left in that tunnel of digestion love. Some Crohnie’s have some foods that hurt them more but this varies widely between one Crohnie to the next.

Society has a bad bid judgy little attitude when it comes to food, weight and sickness.  When I talk about my Crohn’s I don’t want to have to justify what I eat to everyone under the sun – it’s none of their business yet somehow they think it is?!?!

I feel that when talking about IBD we need to steer the conversation away from food – it’s not that helpful for educating people on the grand scheme – it just gives them ammo to judge our every little choice. We know our disease and bodies better than anyone else out there. We know  what foods will hurt and if we make the choice to eat them we know what the choice means and we accept those consequences. Instead of talking about food which is one very small part of our disease, educating the public on what’s happening, how we fell, and the struggles we go through is much more helpful and much larger part of the disease to educate people.

When it comes to food we are all so different that food will not solve our disease – it can lessen the pain and symptoms, but the fact is our immune system is attacking our guts – our guts – it’s not attacking the food in our guts!

I’m not sure why my innocent chat this morning bothered me so much – my acquaintance was actually really nice and wasn’t even being judgmental – but it bothered me that the first thing she brought up was diet… I steered the conversation into more education about what I was going through and my suspicions and that food right now largely didn’t matter what I was eating everything under the sun hurts that I’m eating mainly broth or soup. The good days I’ll try some solids, but after an hour, the next day solids hurts and by solids I mean plain white rice and chicken. I was having some good days this weekend and after three days of rice and chicken the pain started to increase in severity – so back onto liquids for me…

Normally I can eat pretty much anything I want aside from diary so it bugs me when people start judging those choices – damn it. I have had so much stripped away from this disease that if I want a cheese burger in my non-flaring moments than damn well I’m going to have a cheeseburger. There are few choices for me that haven’t been affected in some way by Crohn’s that food is largely the only thing i can control. So until you walk a mile in my shoes – don’t talk to me about what I should and shouldn’t eat, or some miracle diet you heard about. I know my body better than you ever will – because I’ve done the time in the fetal position with pain and nausea to know my limits.