I'm just curious, had you tried the diet before surgery? If you did, did you notice any effect the first time?

I tried it to help my UC (for a month) and ended up getting worse. I was very disappointed as some people have such remarkable results!

No, I didn't try Paleo before my surgery, as I hadn't heard of it at that point. I did try SCD but didn't notice any benefit from it.

Yes, it does appear that some people do very well on Paleo. Some see a benefit sooner than others. I'm planning to do this for at least a year to give my body time.

Help me to figure out what to eat without getting a blockage.
I have been trying to do the paleo diet to loose weight (lost 5 lbs in a week) but all of the fruits and veggies have been tearing up my jpouch and Wednesday i got a bowel obstruction from eating an apple.
It is very hard to eat ehalthy with a jpouch
Its frustrating

SCD is pretty similar to Paleo though. I am on PAleo now. I was prior since I Crossfit and that is like the food gospel with that crew.

I cook things differently to follow it, some veggies I can't digest.

for dinner I had paleo chili with avocado cream. Lunch I ate boiled shrimp with broccoli florets. Pumpkin is usually a good staple to have as well if you can eat it.

I do not eat fruit but I have small bowel bacteria overgrowth and any sugar will bother me. I also dehydrate a lot of things and make veggie chips that way. I can eat the heck out of kale chips. If you can't eat regular fruit, dehydrators are a great option.

Another option is cook with coconut milk and fruits like mango and chicken in a crockpot, it will turn the fruit into mush and easy to eat.

One month won't show a result and it can take a full year for your body to really work with the diet. To the OP. Is it gas that causes the cramping? It might be something you are eating like a veggie. Carrots for me due me in even though they are not paleo, I ate them when I Tried the SCD and the sugar they produce caused me severe cramping. Almonds seem to really do the same thing but I can eat pistachios. Trial and error I guess.

Thanks for your input, Vanessa. From a logical standpoint, SCD didn't make as much sense to me as Paleo does. For instance, I found it difficult to understand why certain foods are allowed on SCD and others are not. One type of artichoke is; another is not. I was also perplexed by the inclusion of yogurt, as I can see how consuming milk meant for the young of another species may not be treated well by our immune systems. But I digress.

I appreciate your encouragement in noting that Paleo takes time. Perhaps it takes a while for our bodies to stop initiating immune reactions and for the antibody levels to fall. I don't feel like it's gas that causes the cramping, although I'm not exactly sure. It feels more like internal irritation. I've been eating a lot of cooked spinach.

I wonder if I'm like you in the sense that I can't tolerate sugar. How do you get your glucose? Vegetables? Or does your body just run on ketosis? I feel like I have to eat at least SOME fruit everyday; otherwise, I feel very lightheaded and my blood pressure falls sharply. I agree that fructose is bad so I try to stick to lower fructose fruits such as berries.

There are a lot of good videos on YouTube done by Dr. Robert Lustig, a pediatric endocrinologist at UCSF. He's gone so far as to say that fructose is a toxin. A particularly good lecture he gives is entitled, "Sugar: The Bitter Truth." He was also on 60 Minutes in April with Sanjay Gupta of CNN. You should check it all out if you haven't already.

Jennie,

Sorry to hear about your struggles. Are you eating enough meat and fish? I've found that they are much easier to digest than vegetables and fruit. Make sure your vegetables are cooked. Have you tried squash? As for fruit, maybe stick to bananas for now. I've always found apples very difficult to digest.

Hi Jon, I am going to try and stick to the cooked veggies and fruits for now. I gave myself a break and have been eating lots of comfort foods to soothe my GI tract...time to get back in the saddle again though. Squash is a great idea and I love it.
Thanks for the advice, and I am also from Boston

I have a hand held blender that I plunge into pots and bowls of fruits and veggies...most things get puréed and I am less likely to get blockages that way. I peel my grapes (although I do better spitting out pineapple and grapefruit after chewing) and all other fruits. The hand blender 'ties up the strings' of long fiber around the blades and I just pull them off that way. I even throw my herbs and stuff into the pot and blend it all together. So much quicker too.
I just baked a baby pumpkin (about 1.5lbs) and then threw it, peel and all into a deep tupperware with a clove of garlic, cilantro, cumin and salt...blended 2minutes and was done...just add cream, water, soya milk, almond milk or whatever liquid you like and it is done. More liquid makes a soup, less makes a purée. Yummy
Sharon

Thanks for the tip on the pumpkin recipe, Sharon! I may try that tonight using my regular blender.

OMG to die for pumpkin paleo recipes

http://paleomg.com/pumpkin/

And my favorite the pumpkin flan.

http://cavewomancafe.wordpress...primal-pumpkin-flan/

I also have a blog if anyone needs food ideas.

For kale as you can see I puree to give it a better form to eat.

http://syrupandsalt.com

Thanks for all those resources, Vanessa!

I wanted to share something with everyone. My doctor wants me to adopt a regular diet for a few days so that I can have food allergy testing done. I've been on Paleo for nearly a month now, so I'm reluctant to do this, as I have been feeling better. The first foods I had this morning to break Paleo were a piece of pumpkin pie with Cool Whip and a piece of coconut cream pie. An hour later, I had sharp pain in my lower back. When I went to turn on the faucet, I had sharp pain in my shoulder too. I used to have chronic joint pain before going on Paleo, yet in the last month of the diet, my joint pains disappeared. Now, one hour into eating "regular" food, they've returned with a vengeance.

I am not making this up!!

Sugar is evil stuff. I would maybe cut back on the pie when breaking paleo. Try to do health grains and breads perhaps. Less sugar in bread than cake, etc. Cheese too.

Haha you are absolutely right about sugar. I just had to take advantage and try the two pies I made for a party last weekend. I made the pumpkin pie from a real pumpkin, which tastes way better than pumpkin pie from canned pumpkin.

Healthy grains? Isn't that an oxymoron? I know what you're saying though. I will force myself to eat some. They don't even appeal to me anymore.

Pumpkin pie and coconut pie with cool whip for breakfast?????
I would be in pain too...shhhhhsh...that was just looking for trouble!
(I do hope that you enjoyed it before it made you suffer!)
Sharon

Have to eat poorly to provoke an immune reaction for the blood test! Anything to rationalize it haha