Customer Reviews

Eating Right For a Bad Gut: compl Nutritional GT Ileitis Colitis Crohn's Disease & Inflammatory Bowel Diseas (Plume Books)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is commonly recommended by the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation, but I didn't think it was very good. The observations were haphazard, and some sounded like the author was making them up as he went along. He has a kind of puppy-ish enthusiasm, but he goes off half-cocked a lot. It's also full of repetition. There are much better books out there, both on nutrition and on these illnesses.

In this book, Dr. Scala, a leading nutiritionist, provides diet and nutrition information so that people with IBD can help themselves find relief and achieve better health. The author has designed a drug free food and lifestyle program which includes: developing a personal testing program to identify foods that aggravate, cause or relieve flare-ups; "safe foods" and tips on reading labels; total fitness and stress reduction techniques; food allergies (including lactose, alcohol, and sugar intolerance); IBD and children; and recommended vitamin supplements. Recommended for folks who need clear instructions to develop their own dietary program. A useful book!

For sufferers of Crohn's Disease, Ileitis, Ulcerative Colitis, and other Inflammatory Bowel Diseases. Dr. Scala, has designed a drug-free food and lifestyle program that offers relief from the pain and embarrassment of these intestinal diseases. It includes: developing a personal testing program to identify foods that aggravate, cause, or relieve flare-ups; "safe foods" and tips on reading labels; total fitness and stress reduction techniques; food sensitivities, alergies, lactose, alcohol, and sugar intolerance; Inflammatory Bowel Disease and children; and, dietary and vitamin supplements and their recommended dosages. This book is as much a reference tool as a guide.

The modest amount of solid, useful information contained in this book can be gleaned almost entirely from the well written reviews on this site. The actual book itself is full of fluff--mostly about such poorly defined concepts as "stress" and "supernutrition" and "excercise, the best medicine." I disliked the poor organization, the repetition, the overall childishness of the writing (it reminded me of a Richard Simmons infomercial). The author did interview (by mail) people with IBD, but the sampling was small and the conclusions he draws from these comments are dubious (I've never had problems with chocolate, and I've never had a flare-up set off by stress either. Sometimes flare-ups have their own mysterious logic) . The book, published almost 10 years ago, is also badly out of date as to medication (it doesn't even mention mesalamine, now the front-line treatment for these diseases).

This book was very helpful in helping me deal with the diet necessary for Ulcerative Colitis. I found it to be very informative and was glad that it had an aspect that dealt with supplements of vitamins and minerals -ie. how much, how we should obtain them in the best possible way, and why we need more when taking certain prescriptions, something that is not usually mentioned by the MD. His recommendations and calculation of food amts (grams and calories) was also very helpful in learning exactly how much we should be taking in with this disease process. His practical and lighthearted way of verbalizing the diet dilema continued to push me to read more. I found his pattern of writing easy to follow with the exception that he continued to say-"I'll talk about that later in the book." I also found it very interesting when he talked about the link between Ulcerative Colitis and other inflammatory disease processes (ie asthma, arthritis, etc). I highly recommend this book for both IBD suffers and gastroenterologists. All of his suggestions are very helpful, and they give new hope that there are more choices of foods out there for IBD suffers.

Although this book does not focus on Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) exclusively, this is an excellent book for IBS sufferers to start with when trying to ease their symptoms through dietary restrictions. Not only does "Eating Right" give a fairly thorough list of possible "trigger" foods, but it also includes an important chapter on how to supplement a restricted diet with vitamins. Whenever I have a question on what I should or possibly should not eat, I take a look at "Eating Right" to create a baseline. It's a book that can be used over and over again as a reference. It's definitely worth it.

After nine months of G.I. distress this book has helped me understand my "inner workings" and why things happen that aren't suppose to happen! A simple visit to the doctor isn't going to answer all the questions you didn't know you had until you read this book.

I have ordered this book 3 times - for myself, for my MIL, and for a friend. We all agree it's easy to read; has good, practical information; offers flexibility to try some food you love in small amounts or rarely instead of a rigid NEVER again! We find this book easy to use for quick reference, too. The information in the book has made all of our lives better as we've taken many of the suggestions to modify our diets or the way we cook some foods.

If you have Crohn's, IBS, or other bothersome gut problems, I think this is the most useful book to have on your bookshelf. This is the book I return to repeatedly.

Dr. Scala is well known as an arthritis expert and in my opinion, he should have stayed in that arena. I have never read a book referring to Inflammatory Bowel Disease in its title that said less about the disease! This is basically a nutrition book, which is fine, but why market it as something specific about colitis and Crohn's? This seems purposely misleading to me and the blasé attitude toward sufferers of these diseases does not induce a close read of the material. Not necessary to purchase.

The material is presented in a way that lets the reader feel like the gut problem can be managed. The author does not say "this or that" is the only way, but presents the case for a holistice approach. I use the book as a refrence tool for my sely and other newl diognosed IBD people.