Grapes Good or Bad??

[shelbyriva]

Hi everyone,
I just had my 2nd Cysto/Hydro (thank you Trisham and HGC for the well wishes). Everything went well but my surgeon said he now understands why I have been in so much pain, apparently my bladder was VERY inflamed.
My Question is: How do people react to eating Grapes with IC. Any kind of grapes, green, red, black? I eat a lot of grapes as a snacking food and wondering if that is causing my bladder to be so inflamed? I have read that grapes are not very acidic so I am guessing they are okay. I did stop eating grapes for a month and I didn't get any better, but this disease is so tricky sometimes that I don't know where to turn at times Thanking everyone in advance for advice on Grapes. Shelby

[Sunnydawn]

Hi,
I've heard that grapes are very bad and can cause flares. Fruits that I stick to are honeydew, gala apples, pears, blueberries, and sometimes bananas.
I am doing very well after taking a suppliment regime ( pain went from being intolerable at a level of 7-9 to now being able to feel normal once again ).
my supliment regimine:

*4 fish oil capsules in the morning
*1000-1500 mg of MSM and Glucosmine
*Aloe vera capsules or juice
*Quercitin
*UTI clear by native remidies for treating bladder symtoms and prevention of UTI
*detoxifier by Daily Detox ( to remove hormonal waste products) One researcher of IC stated that taking expensive supliments while being toxic is like putting good gas in a broken car, so a detoxifier may really help!!
*tums before any ify foods and to take w/ water for flares

These are all I take + I follow the IC diet( more loosely now that I am feeling much much better). Praise God

all the best and God Bless
Dawn

p.s. if you are missing chocolate, Wendys chocolate frostys are great to give a try

[kadi]

If your bladder is very inflamed, giving up one inflammatory food while continuing to eat others probably won't make much difference. But, if you go on a more calming diet overall, you could see improvement over the course of several weeks.

When I decided to try the diet, I printed out the diet available in the Patient Handbook & ate only out of the left hand column ("usually ok" foods) for about 3 weeks. That definitely reduced my symptoms enough for medications to help. Diet alone does not manage my IC, but it brings it down to a level where with medication I feel good most days. Do remember to read food labels. A food listed as "safe" may not be if it includes inflammatory preservatives. (Example: cream cheese is listed as "usually ok". Cream cheese in the block form is usually ok, but cream cheese in the tub usually contains citric or sorbic acid as a preservative. OUCH!!! & 3 day flare for me).

Here is the link for the diet. http://www.ic-network.com/handbook/diet.html

Good luck & hope you are feeling better soon!

[kadi]

Note: Aloe vera juice or capsules can be very irritating to an IC bladder. If you want to try this, you might want to get Desert Harvest Aloe Vera, which has been tested on IC patients. It's available in the ICN store.

If you are having a lot of pain, you might want to not try anything chocolate for a while, it tends to be irritating... Once you get your pain managed & figure out your dietary triggers, then maybe test it out, okay?

For now, be very gentle to your poor angry bladder....

[Roxie2007]

HI! Sorry to hear you are flaring. I eat grapes all the time with no problem.....any color.
I also use Freeze dried Aloe Vera and buy it from Desert Harvest. I've used Aloe Vera for over 2 yrs now and it's great stuff. I take 1 pill 3 times a day.
I hope you stop flaring soon.....it really sucks! Roxie

[shelbyriva]

It's very hard to get a handle on this disease isn't it. I just read over the food lists and most things I eat come from the "good" column, but I'm only human so I guess, they say Peanuts are no good, but how about peanut butter? I don't eat chocolates, sweets, coffee, alcohol but do have the odd Diet Rootbeer I have to admit. For the most part I have eaten the IC diet all my life without knowing it but have eaten some fruits in the no column. Glad Watermelon is good because I live on watermelon!! I would love to try the Freeze Dried Aloe Vera from Roxie, Kadi and Sunnydawns posts, that sounds intreging!! Thanks to everyone for your support and helpfulness, it is greatly appreciated. I am going to considering everyone's posts and get to work!!! HA!HA!HA! Shelbs

[Roxie2007]

Hi!
I can eat peanut butter, and peanuts....I don't have problems eating any nuts.
I 'used' to love diet rootbeer too......but it has carbonation and that kills my bladder!
I can eat watermelon a cpl times a week.....more than that bothers my bladder.
The IC diet is so different for everyone....you just have to use trial and error! Good luck to you! Roxie

[kadi]

Maybe substitute one of the caffeine free regular (nondiet) rootbeers?

IC sometimes takes a while to get managed, but it does happen! All the time!
I was very sick 3 years ago & today my days are mostly pretty good.

Hang in there-

[shelbyriva]

Thanks Kadi and Roxie...you give me hope. I drink Diet Rootbeer that has no caffeine either which is good but I may only have one a week or none in a week so that is why this IC thing is really bugging me.......I think what ever triggers me is something that is not "generally" a trigger for people, because it's getting hard to pin point. I stopped eating Yogart, grapes, citrus anything, vinegars, I don't eat chocolate (weird eh)...most other things I don't generally eat anyways. Maybe I should starve for a couple weeks and see what happens then!! HA!HA!HA! (Just kidding everyone). Back to the drawing board as they say Shel.

[kadi]

Some patients try an elimination diet of just plain chicken, rice, & vegetables for a few days, then add in other foods 1 at a time to see if they set off symptoms.

Be very sure you read labels of foods. Even basic grocery store bread can cause problems due to vinegar or preservatives in the bread.

You might also keep a diary of food, exercise, menstrual cycle, symptoms to see if something is setting you off.

I also went through allergy testing & found that I am borderline (barely) allergic to some foods (fish, shellfish, treenuts, peanuts). By eliminating those foods, I had some slight improvement.

It may be that dietary modification is not enough to control your IC. That's the case for me. Following the diet makes it possible for the medicine to work, but initially I was in so much pain & before I found the right meds. it seemed that nothing helped. Eventually I realized the diet was helping some, when I tried a 1/2 cup of weak decaf tea & an hour later my already miserable level of symptoms spiked into just plain awful. That's when I realized it was helping.

I hung in there with it while trying different meds. As the meds worked & I got better, I re-tried a variety of foods & discovered I still needed the diet (RATS!), but I have been able to eat a few things again that I couldn't earlier in the IC.

Hang in there, it does get better.

[shelbyriva]

Thanks Kadi...you give me hope!! It is nice to talk via this site as no one else I know understands any of this, not even my husband. It may be that I need some medication, since being so newly diagnosed and now having two hydros within a few months of each other my uro might put me on medication this time which might be what I need. I am a pretty bland eater already, never eat bread, tomato based anything, hardly eat pasta (maybe 4 times a year), I do ironically eat a lot of brown rice, chicken and tonz of vegetables. I eat very healthy......although maybe not according to my IC.....but according to doctors and health wise I eat 'very healthy'. I don't eat anything deep fried, don't eat potato chips or any of that kind of snack food...can't remember the last time I ate a french fry or a hamburger...........I think this is why it is so upsetting........I think I was healthier 5 years ago when I ate all the hamburgers, fries and potato chips I ever wanted!! HA!HA!HA! Isn't life strange. I see my uro for my post op visit the 2nd week in May so maybe he will give me some answers regarding whatever his findings were at the cysto/hydro. Thanks Kadi........I will be an avid label reader from now on!!!

[kari1980]

HI,
I can't seem to eat grapes anymore, and even the watermelon is bothering me now. So I only stick with pears and blueberries, that's it for me. I miss my fruit, I love fruit! I've also read here that the Quercitin someone mentioned is not good for us either, may cause flares, so start off slowly with everything. Good luck, I know it's so frustrating figuring it all out. I actually think I'm also starting to flare now from sesame seeds and cashews, which I think should have been ok but are bothering me. I too can not tolerate peanut butter. I seem to be so diet sensitive though. Good luck,
Kari

[pingpong]

For some reason, I can't eat anything with poppy seeds (bagels, etc) - I haven't heard anyone else mention them, so I'm guessing it's just one of those individual differences among us!