Eating Burgers and having Ulcerative Colitis…?
Do you love eating hamburgers? Do you think Fat Burger and their skinny fries with egg and cheese on the burger is the best thing in the world? Are you looking for the Burger King sign when you are driving down the highway, hoping its coming soon because you need to take a pee and want to get another Whopper? I answer yes to all of the above. Just one problem, I don’t eat hamburgers anymore because of colitis.
Everyone has their favorite burger place, well maybe not everyone, but you know what I mean. For us fat Americans, burgers are part of the program. Whether its at a summer BBQ, quick bite to eat at night during the week when you are too tired to cook, hitting up McDonald’s during lunchtime, etc… I am sure before being diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, I was eating 100 burgers/year or something like that. Not anymore.
Why did I stop eating Burger?
The buns of the burgers are all filled with grains and other stuff that my colitis diet just can’t tolerate. That’s the reason. Not because they have too much fat, or anything else like that. I could care less how much fat they have in them. The bread part is what killed me. Also, the ketchup is usually filled with sugars that don’t work for the diet either. The cheese, well, that too was not too good for my colitis diet.
Is it hard to stop eating burgers with colitis?
Well, yes and no. I don’t think of the Burger King signs as lights from heaven anymore. But, its hard to be in the local burger joint and having to order a chicken ceasar salad instead of the usual burger I ordered for the past 29 years of my life…. But a small price to pay, when the flipside is to be taking poops now without any bloody stuff mixed in, and only taking one or two per day instead of 4 or 5 times that many or 10 times that many actually.
The Bunless Burger Option for Colitis People
There is still an option for everyone. Getting a burger Atkins diet style, or without the bun. Just using a ton of lettuce to wrap the burger and other stuff in. Well, go right ahead if this works for you. For me, I just stay away completely from hamburgers now.
French Fries
Some people say don’t eat these, others say give them a try. For me, I try them quite often. But with a major change from prior to being diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. Now, when I eat French Fries, I make sure to never, NEVER, ever put on any of the red devil sauce called Ketchup. That stuff is filled with sugars(corn syrup etc… and super processed food.) So, french fries work for me, and I am damn happy about that, since they are so tasty.
I started site  shortly after being diagnosed in October of 2008 with severe pancolitis (when my whole colon was inflamed).
For me, it was a very rough start with severe symptoms. Getting bounced from medication to medication was not easy or too helpful. But, I did meet another UC’er, changes several parts of my diet, and of course the rest is history.
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I only eat burgers at home now on a gluten free bun, no cheese, often topped with lettuce, tomato and a little bit of mayo. I do eat french fries out, but not that often. I never was a fan of ketchup with my fries so that’s good! I do eat ketchup but it’s organic, agave sweetened and I don’t eat a lot of it.
Foreman grill! I make burgers on my foreman grill slice up and throw on some cheddar cheese(allowable according to the book),havent tried the ketchup recipe yet but salsa tastes pretty good on them. Also I have some SCD mustard.
Yo Brad, could you make one up for me too, and throw on a fried egg “Fatburger Style”? What you are talking about is getting me hungry again and its ten pm now
What kind of salsa?
French Fries were partly what was worsening my condition, although I didn’t know it. Your looking at some one who did a deep amount of research & conveniently ignored the effect that potatoes have on the gut. I have all but completely scaled everything waaay back, so it wasn’t as if it was something else. Potatoes are bad; not directly bad, but they’ll make it that much more difficult for you to get better:
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/553039_13
OR
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1925010/
In essence, it causes your gut insides to lose cohesion (gut-permeability), more bad bacteria to build up where it shouldn’t be & thus more symptoms to occur. Sorry, but it’s the truth.
-Best of luck to you
I have found this to be SO true, with potatoes and tomatoes. I went on eating them, telling myself they didn’t make me immediately sick, so they were okay. But I’m discovering, as you say, they are not directly bad, but don’t help me, at al. It’s sad, because I LOVE potatoes, especially french fries. *sighs*
Hey there,
You have some seriously interesting points about potatoes. Maybe so far the potatoes have not been effecting me as much as with others, or maybe my sense of feeling good has been changed over the years. Either way, I’m going to for sure give a read to the links you provided. Do you also have UC? and how are you feeling currently? And what what are you doing for treatment?
thanks for your insight and input. really helpful!
Hi I am not too sure it is necessarily the potatoes that are the direct problem, it may be that fat and grease on the fries that are hard on the gut no? Potatoes as with everything in moderation … As for burgers… I was told it may the beef itself as beef is very hard to digest, not all due to the ketchup and the bun? I have been told that white breads are fine and easier to digest … Urggh the more i read the more confusing this all gets ! I thought that foods that hard to digest made the inflammation worse. I thought it was the inflamation that we need to reduce to help with digestion.?? all tooo confusing i hate UC !
@Lori
You should read Breaking the Vicious Cycle and follow the SCD (specific carbohydrate diet) for at least a month and you’ll soon learn that is pretty much the only resource you need for UC. Just tough to follow the diet some times…
So, are a lot of you guys able to tolerate salads and whatnot? I have been avoiding any sort of leafy vegetables, well actually vegetables in general, since my diagnosis. Granted pretty much anytime I tried to eat them I had serious pain issues following shortly after. I’m discovering everyone is different, for instance dairy products do not bother me in the least, in fact they are the only thing I can consistently eat during a flair.
I’m hoping to get some help here I have microscopic colitis
I have been diagnosed with UC my doctor says since I’m not lactose intolerant I should try a burger and fries but I’m scared to death it will cause a flare up. Need some advice