The recent thread regarding the association between carbohydrates/sugars and pouchitis has really gotten me thinking, so I thought I would do a bit more digging to see where it was all coming from. I wonder if the root of it is from a few studies a few years back that indicated that there seemed to be an increased risk of a diagnosis of Crohn's or UC if the diet was high in sweets and processed starches. These studies were in 1997, 2000, and 2005. However, cause and effect could never really be established (plus they were retrospective studies, asking people to recall past diets). A high fat diet was also associated with UC. With the results they really could not say whether the diet caused the IBD or if people building up to IBD just craved that sort of diet because something was missing?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?CMD=search&DB=pubmed
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?itool=abs...us&list_uids=9245929
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?itool=abs...s&list_uids=10878655

The best overall information I have seen for those with IBD is contained at the CCFA website and they have a page devoted to diet and nutrition: http://www.ccfa.org/info/diet?LMI=2.5

This following link is from the CCFA website and discusses the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) that gets a fair amount of attention. It is very comprehensive and discusses all aspects of the diet. It does not say one way or the other if it is effective, but gives some excellent information. http://www.ccfa.org/about/news/scd

Jan

Hi Jan

I was on a gluten and total carb free diet for weeks and still developed pouchitis.

However it kept the little bit of psoriasis I get at bay...

Great articles, Jan. That was very educational; thanks!

Tam, just goes to show you that sometimes it does not matter what you do or don't do, you will get clobbered by something. Plus, something that worked today may not work next week...

Jan

I am one of the IBDers who certainly benefited and still benefit from low-carbing- even though it has never given me a controlled cure that it has some. I was very active in some SCD-related forums and got to know individuals there very well, some of whom did indeed get more or less continuous remission by staying on either the official or a lower carb version of the SCD.

For my case personally I am more inclined to credit non-processed low-carb approaches than the specific carb diet per so, though I began lowering my carb intake while being "fanatically adherant" to the SCD. Nowadays low carbing is not yet digging me out of my flare, and I cannot of course speak for whether it is of great use for pouchitis.

However, the SCD allows lots of nytflour/nutbutter, honey and fruit, and all of these are fairly high in carbs, so while its a MUCH lower carb diet than the Standard Amercian Diet, it is still high carb compared to most so-called low-carb diets.

Seeing as this thread is specifically on this whole topic, I thought I'd post some other links here to the SC diet as well as some other low carb approaches that have been applied to intestinal and/or auto-immune ailments:

The SC diet:
http://breakingtheviciouscycle.info/ (start here for the official view)
http://www.scdiet.org (the older site)
http://www.scdiet.com (info. on the 'BTVC' book)
http://www.healingcrow.com/ (a branch-off site)
http://www.pecanbread.com/ (SCD for autistic kids)

Wolfgang Lutz diet: (chapter on intestinal problems, full book available as "Life without bread.")
http://www.scdiet.org/7archives/lutz/lutz7.html
Lutz diet is somewhat lower in carbs and doesn't officially require "fanatical adherance."

The Ebringer/London AS low-starch diet:
http://www.kickas.org (see the 'diet center' articles)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retri...835506&dopt=Abstract

The paleolithic or 'caveman' diet:
http://www.panix.com/~paleodiet/
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health/story.jsp?story=468583

Low carb diets in general:
http://www.lowcarb.ca (a great bunch of forums)
http://www.lowcarbresearch.org/lcr/results.asp

Christopher UC

Oops, a couple of the links I posted (the independent news and low carb research ones) are outdated and don't load, but the rest are still good.