Cereals

I live on cereals! I eat them in the morning and sometimes throughout the day. I usually have a bowl before I go to bed. I can't explain it, but it feels good on my stomach. I usually eat Rice Crispies with banans on it. There isn't much nutrients in RC, so I try to make up for it in the bananas :) I'm also getting vitamin D from the milk...which most of us lack. Here's a list of cereals and their "do's" and "don'ts".

Cooked Cereals
I don't do many, but I've read that OATMEAL is very theraputic for your stomach. (I've never been a big fan, but could eat it if I had to.) Again, make sure it's very mushy.

CREAM OF WHEAT is another good one.

MALT-O-MEAL -- is one of my worst memories/experiences. I ate it to get my iron levels up right before my surgery for strictures. It put me in the hospital. My stomach could not break it down, it felt like cement in my stomach. I don't know if it would be any different now, since I don't have the strictures...I'm still too nervous to try it. I haven't seen anything written on it either.

Cold Cereals

"Do's"
RICE CRISPIES/RICE CEREALS
FLAX CEREALS
SHREDDED WHEAT -- I do this sparingly...too much fiber for me

"Don'ts or Caution"
Anything with corn-- Corn Flakes, Kix, etc...
Anything with lots of bran
Cheerieos is a "don't" for me, it might work for you
Sugar cereals -- I try to keep my sugar intake as low as possible


Again, trial and error...see what feels best. As I began to educate myself on my diet, I began to see that the things recommended to me actually worked. I read the book "Eating Right for a Bad Gut" (nice title), and it had so much helpful information on diet. I get a lot of my info from that book and other sources.

It's a process, you won't figure it out over night.

Vegtable "Do's" and "Don'ts"

From my experience and reading, I have found that boiling vegtables way past crisp, all the way to soft, is best. This does take some nutrients out, but we want to digest without irritation. Here is a list of vegtables that I have found to agree and others that I need to use caution or avoid all together.

"Do's"
AVACADO -- I do A LOT of this! I have a hard time putting on weight and this is one food that helps me with that. I mix a little salsa in with it and put it on quesadillas, white flour chips or on white bread (sounds odd, but I love it). At times, I will mix a little flax meal into it.
BEANS (I cook baked beans down quite a bit. Same with green beans...they are very soft.)
BROCCOLI -- I do this very seldom
CARROTS -- cooked way down; lately I have been able to do them raw w/ peanut or almond butter
EGG PLANT
KIDNEY BEANS
GARBANZO BEANS
LETTUCE -- I go light on this
MUSHROOMS
PARSLEY
PEAS
POTATOES -- I do a lot of these...baked and mashed; NOT FRIED
SPINACH
SWEET POTATOES -- I found sweet potatos sticks in the organic sections at Target...okay, but very bland

"Caution"
ARTICHOKES
BRUSSEL SPROUTS
CABBAGE
CELERY -- I tolerate this
CHIVES
CUCUMBER -- I tolerate this peeled
GARLIC -- I try to stay away from large amounts of this
KALE
OKRA
ONIONS -- I tolerate this
BELL PEPPERS -- I tolerate this peeled
PUMPKIN -- I tolerate this
SNOW PEAS -- I tolerate this
SCALLIONS
SQUASH
TOMATOES

"Don'ts"
CORN -- this does not digest well AT ALL. This includes popcorn, too. Eat it sparingly, if at all.
Really depressing around corn-on-the-cob season.
BEETS

Again, this is a trial and error process. If you're not sure, take small amounts and see what your stomach does with it. Sometimes it's just not worth it. For me, kernel corn--I avoid it all together. My stomach does not know what to do with it and it sits in my stomach for a LONG time. Popcorn I eat sparingly...it's hard not to have some at the theater!

Fruit "Do's" and "Don'ts"

Fruit has a fiber matrix. You want the matrix to be broken down as much as possible. A banana is a good example...over-ripened is better. The yellow to green bananas are very hard for our stomachs to digest. The same is true for vegtables...over boil green beans, carrots, etc... to make them very soft and easy to digest.

Here is a list of fruits that work for me and agree with facts I've come across over time.

Do's:
Apples (peel it)
applesauce
bananas (over-ripened)
oranges (I drink the juice, I avoid eating much (if any) of it because there is so much nondigestable fiber)
peaches and pears (canned or fresh...no skins. I buy the canned fruit in "lite syrup")
apricots
cantaloupes
cranberries (jellied)
honeydew melons
mangoes
nectarines
papayas
plums

"Caution" Category:
blueberries
grapefruit (I have this seldomly)
kiwi
strawberries
currants
lemons (peel it)
pineapple (I would put this in the "don't" category for me)
tangerines
watermelon (I would put this in the "don't" category for me)


Don'ts:
blackberries (I tolerate this)
boysenberries
cherries (I tolerate this)
dried fruits
grapes (peel it)
raspberries (I tolerate this)

It's going to be a process of figuring out which ones you will tolerate. This is a good baseline to go by.