diverticulitis and low carb diet - Detroit Mayor Kilpatrick?

[Monika4]

Detroit Mayor Kilpatrick was hospitalized with diverticulitis few days ago. In an NBC interview, the reporter asked whether his recent low carb dieting could have something to do with it. The MD interviewed said that after diverticulitis, patients are usually counseled to eat high fiber, and most low carb diets are low fiber. Has anyone heard about that or suffered diverticulitis after starting low carb dieting? Any comments?

[ceberezin]

The doctor at least did not respond to the ignorant question by alleging a connection between low carb eating and diverticulitis. But he did demonstrate his ignorance about low carb diets by saying they were low in fiber. The green leafy vegetables and low sugar fruits like berries that us low carbers eat are higher in fiber than the whole grains the lipid hypothesis advocates tell us are essential. Add to that the fact that cereal fibers contain phytates which bond with essential minerals, causing them to pass through your system unabsorbed.

[TBoneMitch]

Read 'Life Without Bread' by Dr Wolfgang Lutz, he has a section in the digestive problems concerned with diverticulitis.

He reports that many of his patients were cured of it by low carbing.

[mike_d]

Yeah I had it too, got it after 40 years of a diet high in refined carbs and low in fat. After surgery Dr's told me to use Metamucel, I still add fiber even now on my LC diet with plenty of veggies and flax meal. Only a colonoscopy or barium enema can show if you have it already (I recommend the former). Most Americans over 40 do have diverticulosis to some degree. My advice is make sure you never develop cronic diverticulosis-- I almost died from an infection, diverticulitis and thought it was the flu.

[Frogbreath]

Isn't it strange how things turn 180 degrees with time? When my late MIL was diagnosed, she was given a low fiber diet to follow.

[SunnyCarol]

I just had my sigmoid colon removed for chronic diverticulitis after a month in the hospital on IV antibiotics. While in the hospital, I was on a low fiber, low residue, bland diet, when allowed food by mouth. All they wanted me to eat was potatoes without the skin and white bread, pudding and Jell-O! I declined and was only allowed green beans and yellow squash as veggies. They got even by pumping me full of dextrose! My diverticulitis got much worse last fall when I started Atkins and started eating lots of raw veggies and salads and using ground flax. It seems that after your diverticulitis is chronic, the fiber and raw foods 'scratch' the intestinal lining keeping it inflamed and open to infection. The time for high fiber is earlier in life when constipation causes the pouches called diverticulosis. Actually, they don't know what causes the disorder. I have always ate high fiber and lots of veggies and have never been constipated more than maybe once or twice a year. I've always drank a bunch of water.

I am 19 days post surgery and just now able to eat salad greens and hard to digest foods. They never tasted so good! I'm so glad to be back on my Atkins healthy way of eating.

Sunny!
296/193/150

[Angeline]

Carol, have you ever seen this book ? http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0969276818/sr=8-1/qid=1152575284/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-6775271-9945655?ie=UTF8

if not, you owe it to yourself to take a look. Read the reviews, they are interesting as well.

[SunnyCarol]

Angeline--I have not read that book, but I frequent the website of the author. http://www.scdiet.org/1about/default.html Specific Carbohydrate Diet. I have learned a lot from her. My problem was that my diverticulitis was too far gone and I couldn't ever get rid of the infection. Now that I have had the surgery, I will be eating low carb for the rest of my life.

[mike_d]

All they wanted me to eat was potatoes without the skin and white bread, pudding and Jell-O! I declined and was only allowed green beans and yellow squash as veggies. They got even by pumping me full of dextrose! Yeah, a "bland diet" isn't that odd-- I told them I just wanted IV electrolytes without the sugar since I was overweight and they refused. They gave the standard argument "you need at least 100g of carbohydrate a day or you will go into ketosis." Wow imagine that.

I don't think constipation is the problem they told me it was lack of fiber and bulk in the stool. I used to live mostly on sandwiches, French bread, begals and pasta.