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Last Updated on July 12, 2022 by Steven Root

In this post we’ll talk about 2 of the dietary approaches I’ve used to heal naturally from Ulcerative Colitis, and that I’ve also used with many clients.

First if you’ve been diagnosed with ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease or you know someone that has, you can consider subscribing to my YouTube channel to stay up to date with my free content or contacting me for coaching.

Also, please share this post on your social media or with those that need it and let’s help as many people as we can.

Tiny bit of background-

I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis back in 2006 and have spent about 13 of those 16 years on zero medication.

I’ve been symptom free for many years now with normal calprotectin scores, CRP scores, and normal colonoscopy results.

And I know that if I continue to stick my principles that I can keep my symptoms away for good.

My goal is to help you to do the same.

Do I still ‘have’ ulcerative colitis at this point? Hmmmm.

Now that being said – let’s jump right in.

Over the years I have used several dietary and lifestyle principles and strategies for myself and in client programs, and we’ll be discussing 2 of those dietary strategies in this post.

The first strategy that we’ll discuss is the elemental diet.

(Although I usually start people on a whole foods based approach which we’ll discuss later in this post).

An elemental diet is commonly in shake form and meets all of your nutritional needs.

The goal being that you consume ONLY the elemental diet formula for your duration on the elemental diet.

That means no snacks, treats, no burger king, no Macdonalds and basically just no fun.

No secrets, the elemental diet that I used was Absorb Plus.

For my full post on Absorb Plus, see here.

My favorite flavor was Simply Chocolate and unsweetened Vanilla but you’ll see that in the post above.

Technically it’s a semi elemental diet because the carbs and protein are not in their simplest form.

The carbs are maltodextrin and the protein is whey protein isolate versus dextrose and amino acids respectively.

The reason that the carbs are NOT in their simplest form is that dextrose would cause some pretty nasty blood sugar spikes and amino acids taste like dirt..

The whole premise behind an elemental diet and a semi elemental diet is bowel rest and resetting your gut bacteria.

The elemental diet is also devoid of potential allergens like gluten, casein, etc.

So even though the protein in Absorb Plus comes from dairy, the casein protein has been removed.

Important side note – many people think they’re lactose intolerant because they experience digestive discomfort when drinking milk however it’s often the casein that’s the problem.

Absorb Plus has little to no fat so the recommendation is to add cold pressed flax oil or UDOS oil to each shake.

Most people stay on the elemental diet for anywhere from 2-8 weeks until their symptoms have completely gone away.

Yes, that’s a long time.

Yes, it’s hard work.

Yes, you often don’t chew anything for the entire time you’re on the diet (unless you count jello which some people will make for themselves).

It’s very hard to stick to but can be very effective.

Note that I say can be very effective, because everyone is different.

I’ve had clients that are met with tremendous success on the elemental diet and I’ve had clients who have done better on a whole foods diet.

After completion of the elemental diet, you’ll want to re introduce whole foods.

Go very slowly and be sure to do some rigorous tolerance testing along the way.

I would actually argue that this is the hardest part – building a diet that keeps your symptoms away..

Feel free to contact me here for an individualized plan.

The second strategy I’ve used is a whole foods based diet.

As stated earlier, this is usually where I start.

The elemental diet I generally reserve for people who don’t respond well to a whole foods based approach, likely because they need the additional bowel rest that the elemental diet provides.

This diet usually, though not always (as many of my vegan and largely plant based clients will know), comprises animal foods such as poultry, beef, fish and eggs, and a small selection of plant foods such as carrots, zucchini, and perhaps one or two others.

These vegetables provide a different texture and flavor profile to the large amount of animal foods, as well as providing some fiber to help with stool binding.

Cooking oils will typically include extra virgin olive oil, extra virgin coconut oil, and beef tallow.

This start point is *usually* something like this.

Importantly, note that everyone is different and based on symptoms, dietary preferences, previous experience with certain foods, known and suspected intolerances etc, my recommendations will change client to client.

So know that his is not dietary or medical advice, I’m sharing this for informational purposes only, and you should always consult with a licensed medical professional before implementing anything new like this into your life.

This diet is usually higher in fat than most people are used to and therefore it may be advisable to start with lower fat cuts of meat, or even supplement with a bile acid supplement or lipase enzyme in the beginning if you get diarrhea that lasts longer than 2 weeks.

Much like the elemental diet you can expect to be eating a very limited whole foods diet for several weeks until symptoms have vastly improved.

I’ve had many clients who respond very well and will start introducing more foods in as little as a week or two, however there are also clients who take longer to respond, or we’ll need to make changes to help move them forward.

To be overly simplistic about this, once your symptoms have completely gone away, you can start re-introducing more whole foods.

This bit of the diet is obviously very individual too, based on several of the factors I mentioned earlier.

Sometimes during both of these diets I will add an anti-pathogen regiment including things like oregano oil, allicin and berberine.

However this is often not necessary and I believe that anti-pathogen regimens are often over prescribed.

Dietary changes are usually enough.

There are also probably 3 or 4 other diets that I frequently use with clients ranging from a high fiber vegan diet through to modified versions of the specific carbohydrate and autoimmune paleo diets, though this is client dependent.

In closing, but just as important..

One of the most common problems I see in people who are not met with success is that they do not stick to either of the diets for long enough.

People tend to chop and change way too quickly.

This doesn’t give your system time to adapt and symptoms very rarely go away overnight.

This is often where having someone to work with – like me 😉 – can really help.

Knowing when to make changes, when to stick with it, and what to try next are obviously crucial pieces of the puzzle.

Anyway, hope that helps, as I said earlier please share this post on your social media or with people that need it and let’s help as many people as we can.