What to Eat with IBD: A Comprehensive Nutrition and Recipe Guide for Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis

This book is key in helping me to heal. My GI tract is gradually improving with fewer flares and I am now eating nutritionally sound food for good overall health. Before I found this book, the trial and error with foods chosen on my own was discouraging.The book,What to Eat with IBD is very understandable and the suggestions are excellent. "Foods that heal and foods that hurt" is right on as far as I am concerned. There is a great review of the vitamins and minerals that are lost in colitis and the safe supplements, including brand names, to replace them. The 50+ varied recipes are also great. I was surprised that I could enjoy pumpkin muffins or soothing vegetable dishes. This book is invaluable for me to heal the GI tract and reclaim good health. T. D. is a registered dietician and has personal experience with colitis. I have read this book multiple times and I believe that it is a great resource. I am grateful for this work by Tracie Dalessandro.

I can’t say enough about this book.Tracie Dalessandro is a dietitian with Crohn’s disease, so she knows what it’s like to fear food. She begins the book by describing her experience with Crohn’s disease and how it encouraged her to become a registered dietitian. Tracie explains the power of using diet in conjunction with traditional medicine to control your illness instead of allowing it to control you.Tracie has completely changed the way I think about food. She makes an important distinction between foods that heal and foods that hurt. She describes an IBD as an open wound – red, swollen, and exposed – and encourages readers to think about the types of foods they wouldn’t want to rub against it; these are the foods to avoid. She provides helpful lists of breads, fruits, and vegetables that promote healing, as well as those that don’t. Tracie also includes a sample shopping list, menu ideas, and 50+ “gut-friendly” recipes.Finally, Tracie discusses the importance of supplementing our eating with critical vitamins and minerals to combat malabsorption. She explains which vitamins are most important, depending on where your inflammation exists (the small or large intestine), and she describes the body benefits and best sources for each vitamin.I strongly recommend this book to anyone who fears food and feels as if you can’t eat anything with an IBD. I used to feel that way before I read Tracie’s book, and I’m thankful that I no longer have to live that way.

My daughter has ulcerative colitis. This book is chocked full of wonderful healthy whole foods as do's in her diet. I have IBS, so have read other books such as Elaine Gottshall's "Breaking the Vicious Cycle". What I liked most about Tracie M. Dalessandro's book was the mapping out of individual disease, which you will know from your colonoscopy where in the alimentary canal it is, and thus she tells you what nutrition specific to you you are lacking and how to get it since your body cannot absorb it due to disease. For instance, my daughter doesn't stop bleeding as quickly as she used to in other areas of her body, though it is not serious. We discovered potassium was not being absorbed due to the area of her illness as shown by this book. Ms. Dalessandro commented potassium builds blood and helps with clotting factor, which makes sense with what we are seeing. (This does not replace responsible allopathic doctor care, which she also admonishes, but she doesn't take away hope or make one feel doomed to a life of pills and extreme care. I love this since I am a firm believer in alternative ways to healing, alongside allopaths, as I used these routes to reverse and heal my own disease, especially diet without being extreme.) I also appreciated the vignette on her personal experience with food safety where no one else got sick, but she ended up in the hospital with food poisoning due to her illness making her extra susceptible. A lot more to consider with IBD than IBS. Overall, I love the classifications of foods, what they do, and when it's safe to eat them, or if it is safe ever to eat them. The recipes are MUCH more interesting than some. It does not tell you the ins and outs of the diseases, which it doesn't claim to do. There are other books for that.

This book should be REQUIRED reading for ALL Ulcerative Colitis/Crohn's Disease patients -- whether or not you are curious as to what is safe to eat, or whether or not your disease is under control. I've had IBD since 1998 and just discovered this book recently. It's truly life-changing.This book is written for the average patient:-It's fairly short-It's not overly scientific/technical while still getting at the science behind digestion in IBD patients (In other words, it's targeted at you and not your doctor)-It contains shopping lists and breaks down each food group into "Foods that Heal" and "Foods that Hurt"-The last half of the book contains recipesMost importantly, the author has IBD so she knows what it is like to be in our shoes.Let's face it, people, if you have IBD, you're spending lots of time and money at the doctor's office, the drugstore and too much time in the bathroom or sapped out of your energy. Spend the $15 on this book and the long afternoon it will take you to read it, and I guarantee that you will learn something. If you put what you learn into practice, it will mean fewer flares and more fun. This book isn't going to cure you, but it's going to make you feel better.

I purchased this for me, a parent to a recently diagnosed child with Crohns. my advice is to talk with your doctor! There are so many opinions to what someone can and cannot eat. My child's doctor negates half of what this book says, and my daughter is doing just fine... I wish I would have waited and saved the money. The delivery was quick and efficient!