Constipation... that's why I hardly ever ate fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds... for years, never apples... I also hated the skin. However...
Removing the wheat products, most industrial vegetable oils (in industrial I mean industrially fabricated, such as Mazola, Canola... non-virgin olive oils... and the such. Udo Erasmus explains extremely clearly the issue in his book "Fats that Heal; Fats that kill"), and most other refined carbs along with potatoes and most corn products I removed the inflamation that causes the blockage.
When you remove the skin of an apple, you remove most of the nutrients. So, if you don't want to eat the apple straight, blending it makes a lot of sense... if you don't have problems with those textures...
We are "special" people with extremely unique experiences, and the J-Pouch specialists and the Colitis, IBS, Crohns and FAP/Gardners "experts" don't live with these experiences, and being hard working human beings pressed for time, they don't have the time, energy or money for truly understanding what happens with the patient who had their colon and rectum removed etc. It is up to each of us to try and think "out of the box" or backwards and forwards, turning what we were told to believe or what we were told is normal or healthy on its head and start looking at things from a different perspective. Sometimes easy responses or easy fixes (represented greatly by the Pharmaceutical Industry and Modern Occidental Medicine) create much less recovery or much slower understanding of the situation.
If most of the problem with modern 20th/21st century chronic illness is related to inflamation, then maybe we should consider best what causes inflamation and what the inflamation causes.
"Itis". Do you know what that signifies? Inflamation. Pouchitis, Colitis, Duodenitis, Gastritis, Esophagitis... The inflamation of the brain is... Meningitis; "an acute inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, known collectively as the meninges."
So, imagine the J-Pouch or the Small Intestine inflamed and then imagine ruffage or large inflexible particles, such as nuts or seeds or broccoli etc passing through narrowed inflamed passageways, especially if those passageways have billions of folds or tentacles (cilia) that jut out towards the center of the passageway (if you don't suffer from Celiac Disease)... Now, imagine those passageways uninflamed...
Think about it. Why would we have problems with blockage when healthy people with colons and rectums don't? Where is the blockage occurring? In the J-Pouch? or in the Small Intestine? They have Small Intestines too... And, the J-Pouch is an increased reservoir replacing the rectum... our colectomies removed transit time and distance or space for creating risks for blockage or constipation... We don't have that reservoir (colon) for slowing things down and removing excess water. We shouldn't be the constipated ones...
or maybe we should turn the issue on its head and ask what it is about our illnesses/syndromes that causes the blockage in the first place... It isn't the natural and healthy produce we place in our mouths... Absolutely illogical. Although I imagine most of us have spent years blaming suffering on Lettuce, Spinach, Cabbage, Mushrooms, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Carrots, Beets, Kale, Swiss Chard, sweet potatoes, potatoes, winter squash, nopales (cactus paddles; which is ironic, since they are the #1 vegetable in the world for decreasing inflamation), Nuts, Seeds, Pineapple, Bananas, Papaya, non-squeezed oranges/Grapefruits, guavas, (I just named most of what caused me horrible bathroom problems for the past 11 years... which includes horribly embarassing night-time "incontinence"; when you actually manage to enter REM sleep after spending how much time in the bathroom straining, wishing you could pull out with a hook what is there telling you you must run to the bathroom every 5-10 minutes and then seemingly laughing in your face..., and either the liquid passing around the blockage and staining the sheets and irritating your skin... or maybe something "relaxed" and you awaken "in the process..." your "significant other" sleeping unperturbed alongside your "mess", your momentary sleep destroyed at 4am...)
This is NOT a joke. I'm NOT an outsider preaching to you.
No one truly shares their horrible experience with others (in order for others to know that they are not the only ones living these VERY PERSONAL difficulties. Afterall that is what these groups are for; support, increased understanding...), not even on the J-Pouch communities... (only surgeries and setbacks; it's difficult to mention constipation--we hear the snickering towards the back of the 4th grade classroom if you know what I mean)...
We've lived our lives as outsiders with our experiences... although it is not our fault, we suffer horrible taboos... What men talk about J-Pouch-caused sexual dysfunctions? Incontinence? What is worse to share with the ONLY PEOPLE IN THE WORLD WHO COULD POSSIBLY UNDERSTAND US and what we are experiencing...? But we don't go there. We can talk to doctors about this. Women don't remove their blouses and brazieres in public. But, if the person who will do the mamograph suddenly appears to be a "strange" man, they can become topless... I run shirtless in the city park (for Vitamin D) and people look at me strange. The children yell to their parents, "LOOK there's a man running naked in the park!" although I'm running with shorts... And I feel bad. And I feel bad when those shorts slip down a little bit and show a bit of my hip or upper buttocks... But, in the radiology room I quickly learn to not worry about the fact that the hospital gown is slightly open in back showing off almost everything, especially since they made me lay down on my stomach... We can tell these things to the doctors, since we believe they understand and because we believe they've heard and seen it all. But they are humans who have NOT experienced what we experience. And, until one truly experiences what we experience profoundly and possibly on a constant basis and truly what worries and irritates us, "they don't know NOTHIN'"...
But, I have stumbled across something... And I am sleeping through the night NO MATTER WHAT TIME I ATE (and I eat a lot and I often eat an hour or maximally 2 hours before I go to sleep)... And, I've stopped defocating in the bed... And I can eat almost all fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, cooked or raw etc without suffering as I had... And I don't take anti-inflamatories or metamucil or milk of magnesia or or or...
Ross