Tag Archives: vancouver dietitian

Inflammatory Bowel Disease and What are the Symptoms

Inflammatory Bowel Disease

What is Inflammatory Bowel Disease and What are the Symptoms?

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a group of conditions that cause inflammation and chronic inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract. This can lead to a variety of symptoms affecting the digestive system and other organs.

Inflammatory bowel diseases are a group of conditions that cause inflammation and chronic inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract. This can lead to a variety of symptoms affecting the digestive system and other organs.

In IBD, the immune system attacks the digestive tract, either by damaging the mucosal barrier or by causing chronic inflammation. As a result, there are many symptoms that may occur as a result of IBD. However, the exact cause of IBD is not fully understood.

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Spring into Fall!

Ashley Charlebois - DietitianThe summer months are sadly coming to an end! Soon, the leaves will start changing and fall will be here. The beginning of a new season is often a great time to make a healthy change. Vacations, dinner parties, socializing on a patio or at a barbeque, and drinks in the sun often make up a large part of our summers. Fall is a good opportunity to get back to our healthier ways.

People often think dieting or doing a cleanse are the best ways to kick some unhealthy habits and turn over a new leaf. However, if you take a closer look – is the diet or cleanse you’re interested in something that you think you will be able to sustain for the long term? Often, fad diets and cleanses offer a quick fix instead of a sustainable lifestyle change. Yes, you may be able to shed a few pounds but is it fat that you’re losing or muscle mass? Losing weight too quickly is often times both fat AND muscle mass that you’re losing, in addition to a ton of body water. Not to mention the lack of nutrients in most fad diets and cleanses which would leave you feeling tired, fatigued, and at risk for nutrient deficiencies leading to health problems in the future.

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More on Digestive Health Issues…

On the subject of digestive health, most of my previous blog posts have focused on Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and InflammatoryAshley Charlebois - Dietitian Bowel Diseases (IBD). However, there’s a multitude of other digestive health issues that do exist that I just haven’t gotten around to mentioning quite yet. One, in particular, is ulcer disease. Ulcer disease is a condition where open sores develop in the lining of the gastrointestinal tract. They can occur in the small intestine (duodenal ulcer), stomach (gastric ulcer), and esophagus (esophageal ulcer). The most common symptom of ulcers is epigastric pain (pain that is localized in the upper abdomen just below the sternum). However, there are other symptoms as well.

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Living Wheat-Free

Although I have an earlier post talking about how whole grains, particularly wheat, is not necessarily evil – I have recently discovered myself to be sensitive to wheat. I still stand by that blog post, but do encourage you to eliminate wheat only if you Ashley Charlebois - Dietitianexperience symptoms after eating some. I also recently wrote about how I started low FODMAP diet. After weeks of staying off foods that are high in short chain carbohydrates, I begun the reintroduction phase. There are 5 subgoups of FODMAPS: fructans, galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS), lactose, fructose, and polyols. After weeks of being symptom-free on the low FODMAP diet, I immediately noticed symptoms upon my reintroduction to fructans. And the biggest culprit – wheat. One slice of bread and I was okay. Another slice or dish containing wheat the same day or next day, and I instantly experienced stomach cramps and bloating. I couldn’t believe it. So I even re-challenged myself another two times! I definitely have a sensitivity to wheat.

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Lactose-free, wheat-free, onion-free, garlic-free… but WHY??

Ashley Charlebois - DietitianSound difficult? It can be! I am currently my own client for a low FODMAP diet. This diet was created by Dr. Sue Sheppard (also an RD with celiac disease) and Dr. Peter Gibson, who developed and implemented the first scientific research studies on eating low FODMAP foods and their effects on gastrointestinal health.

You’re probably wondering what this weird word “FODMAP” means. First, it’s an acronym. It stands for Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides and Polyols. Now you’re probably wondering what all these strange, long, hard-to-pronounce words mean. Simply put, they are all short chain carbohydrates or sugars (what the term ‘saccharide’ means). Why a low FODMAP diet? Because people who suffer from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and even some with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) can hugely benefit.

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