IC Disease

If you read my post yesterday that listed the foods that should be avoided if you have IC Disease, you are probably thinking “Wow - what’s left?”.  I know that was my first thought.  I imagined that I would never enjoy eating again.  But fortunately that hasn’t been the case.  In my own personal IC experience with food (note I bolded that this was my own experience - may not be typical for others), I found that once I eliminated aggravating foods for a while, I was able to slowly reintroduce foods I really like and can now eat those.  I had to let my bladder heal first, however. 

As I had mentioned before, I couldn’t even drink water without having severe pain and terrible burning.  Once my IC was under control, the symptoms had eased up, and the Elmiron had helped to rebuild my bladder lining, I was able to even drink soda again.   I’m sure my urologist would not be happy to hear the soda drinking part but as long as I don’t overdo the soda I’m usually okay.

Even though the list I posted yesterday may seem long, there are still lots of foods that an IC patient can eat while they are going through their elimination diet.  Some of these foods that IC patients have reported having less trouble with include:

• Chicken
• Potatoes
• Pasta
• Lightly seasoned rice
• Vegetables (those not on the list from previous post)
• Fresh meats

You will have to become a little creative in order to make meals for yourself that you enjoy but it can and is done every day.  Here are some other suggestions to help you through your elimination diet (thanks to IC Help):

Learn how to read labels.  The fewer the ingredients the healthier and safer the item probably is.

Add salt to carbonated drinks.  If you can’t do without your soda or other carbonated beverage, you can add salt to make it flat.

Boil.  Boil down sauces containing alcohol.

Reduced-acid orange juice.   If you can’t do without your daily glass of OJ, you can purchase reduced-acid orange juice.  I personally cannot drink orange juice at all - any kind of orange juice.

Take Prelief.  Prelief is a dietary supplement that can be taken to help reduce bladder pain and urinary urgency when used with acidic foods and beverages. 

Tomorrow I will cover vitamins and supplements that should be avoided with IC. 

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