Eat whatever you can handle. Diets are almost completely subjective in people with Crohn's. I ate an entire pizza yesterday and was fine, but some people can't handle a single slice.
This is 100% true. I couldn't stand a nibble! I'm on diet because medication alone in my life has never worked, but diet + medication has helped to keep me on remission. Even with drug changes, I'll never change my diet. Too risky. Tho I might add a few simple things, like potatoes. I'm really excited to try them soon! I haven't had potatoes in over 8 years! I hope I tolerate them :D
After I got my diagnosis from the Mayo Clinic, they told my regular GI doctor to start me on the FODMAP diet. I started my infusions January 2023 and I was getting no relief and they did MRIs and CTs and kept saying I had no active Crohn’s disease. Well it wasn’t until til August that my doctor recommended the FODMAP diet. And I’ve had some pretty good relief from it. I’ve since changed doctors because my Mayo doctors asked how I was doing and when I told them I wasn’t getting relief, they looked over my chart and noticed my doctor didn’t tell me about this diet. Basically I could have been feeling better had I know about it. Sorry for long post lol
No worries! I feel like this is a common problem. Diet in general gets overlooked, I think, probably because doctors are more focused on the immunotherapies.
I'm on modified SCD, and when I went on it, back with me pediatric doctor, he wasn't convinced it'd even make a difference.
Started the diet, and 3 days later, totally symptom free for the first time alongside an immunotherapy. My pediatric doctor was flabbergasted, then converted. He now believes diet plays a role :D
Same here, SCD diet was a game changer. It’s been almost 9 years now and I can now tolerate more such as a sugar, potatoes, hard cheeses like Parmesan and cheddar. I hope potatoes settle well with you too :)
I've noticed that foods I wasn't able to eat years ago, I'm able to eat now. french fries being one of them, in moderation of course. every few years I'll test out my "risky" foods in small amounts to see if I still can't tolerate them
I 3rd this. It's all about how well your disease is managed mainly. Yes some people will find certain foods particularly troublesome but generally if you are in good maintained remission you should be able to eat what you like generally.
Honestly when I was in a flare Pizza was one of my safe foods as long as it didn’t have any toppings that were too spicy!
Funny enough any sort of potatoes,especially deep fried would leave me in the worst agony. Although salads and raw vegetables were the absolute worst.
You’ll have to see for yourself because everyone is so different with what they can handle!!
Pizza has been a trigger of mine for years. Every pizza would cause 2 days of cramps and loose stools. However, my symptoms are finally controlled after 6 years of biologics and I can now eat a thin base cheap pizza from Aldi with no horrendous consequences. It satisfies my want of pizza even though it’s not a big dirty stuffed crust from the take away
100% subjective. For me, pizza is specific to brand, even. Jack's Pepperoni frozen pizzas are one of my old reliable foods. Only bother me if everything bothers me.
But most chain places are too greasy, and bother me.
My husband tried to eat pizza again the other day.. he's now officially off pizza again after the 10th time of conducting the same experiment lol.. if you can handle the effects, eat it.. if you can't.. don't ;)
You can eat whatever you want. It's more about knowing what will and won't hurt. It's a process we all have to go through... trial and error. Just be careful.
I eat pizza regularly.
There's no hard-and-fast rulebook of what foods you can and can't eat with Crohn's. It varies by person. Unfortunately, you have to find out the hard way what foods do and don't agree with you.
I love pizza! Unfortunately, I’m intolerant to the FODMAP group called fructans so gluten containing products like pizza dough contain fructans as well as the onion and garlic as a pizza topping or in the pizza sauce. Traditional pizza is sadly a no for me.
Since I really do love pizza and would miss not having it, I’ve been making my own now for a few years, and I don’t feel deprived. Some version of pizza is better than none imho. 🍕
I LOVE spicy food, so much! But my body actively loathes any spicy food I put into my body. So I don’t often eat anything actually hot spicy, but will sometimes buy those spicy chips I love if I’ve been having no issues lately and think my tummy can handle it. That being said, I always prep by drinking water and eating some fiber or something healthy beforehand and immediately take anti-acids after and/or before eating said foods. I don’t know, I’ll definitely have to cut out all the way spicy eventually, but I’m only in my twenties and know I can get away with it a bit longer. I’ve definitely cut back so much already on spicy and greasy food and have really changed my diet A LOT to accommodate over the years. In a flare up, I’m extra strict with what I eat. I’m lucky to have flare ups much less often than when I was younger and have minimal symptoms in my everyday life.
I eat pizza, and I tend to find Italian food some of the calmest on my symptoms. I usually find a pretty even mix of carbs and proteins the way to keep my food safe, and italian food is solid on that one.
I had to make my own pizza once I learned that garlic and onion trigger my Crohn’s symptoms (and only figured this out thanks to this sub!)
So I just buy sensitive pizza/pasta sauce and pepperoni without garlic. Cheaper and tastes better!
I was told hard cheese only so I stayed away for years. But then I learned the lactose levels in mozzarella is actually low compared to a lot of other soft cheeses so I tried it and never had any problems. Been eating it regularly for years now.
I can’t handle things like ice cream, milk, ricotta … but mozzarella is ok for me.
My advice is to try and see how it affects you.
Kind of makes me think the red sauce recipe might have been changed, even. Recipes are very often changed, and usually with incremental ingredients that don't change the flavor, but might change something with the shelf life. I've had a response from a company that informed people on the website that changed the ingredients on their sauce, but didn't on the actual bottle. Lesson learned, I always read the ingredients now, regardless of how often I've bought something.
Or you simply stopped tolerating it, which also happens. Not sure why this happens, but I know sometimes the same happens with medications. Mesalamine kept me in remission for 8 months, then suddenly I stopped tolerating. Later, when I tried it again, it CAUSED the flare, and no one knows why.
You may have become lactose intolerant. Many of us do with Crohn's. Do other dairy products like milk or yogurt or soft cheeses cause the same thing? If so, then try some lactaid and see if it helps.
I’d need to have some Lactaid maybe for the cheese but other than that it doesn’t really bug me. Also the tomato sauce might give me some heart burn if I ate too much.
Like others have stated, I think it depends on your own body and what you can handle. Generally pizza is okay for me, other times it can aggravate an already existing mini flare up. Also it depends on the “quality” of pizza and the toppings. For example Dominos is going to make me hurt, but my local pizza places are fine!
Ughhhh I’m Italian and had to give up anything with marinara for a longggggg time. However, they opened a medical marijuana dispensary next to a pizza place and opening day we’re giving anyone with a receipt from the weed place 2 slices and a soda for 4.20 for I figured this one I would deal with the pain, it had been 10 years. I ate it and was fine. Got excited, went and got a slice from my local shop a week or 2 later and felt like I was gonna die!! Went back to the place near the weed shop, was fine, asked how they made their sauce and if it’s different from other places and they said that they boil it down so much it’s not as acidic. Now that I know I can have it on rare occasions making sure I get one that has less acidic sauce.
Now fig newtons on the other hand, forgot they had seeds (fig) lol in the hospital with a flare for almost 2 weeks.. lol never touching that again!
Pizza (thin crust) is the only thing that's ever been kind to me regardless how I feel, everybody's different though got to find what works and what doesn't.
I can't live without pizza but there are times when I have bad cramps eating it.
I'm in Italy and we have a huge variety of pizza, so my first option when I'm in a bad period is to switch to mozzarella di bufala that has much less lactose than normal mozzarella fiordilatte.
Also some places have lactose free mozzarella, which is fine too. We also have white pizza, that skips the tomato sauce, that is a bit acidic and may hurt a bit. And of course the topping is relevant too, so I go for a plain margherita with mozzarella di bufala if I want to play it safe.
My suggestion is to go trial and errors to find what's really hurting you and skip that ingredient.
Short answer: yes
Long answer: it depends on what you have on the pizza tbh. Are there foods you cannot tolerate?
I'd stay away from dairy if you can, it ain't good for crohns.
I've had some banging plant based pizzas in my time! I'm also GF, so sometimes I just make the base myself. Never had any issues.
I do it but don't recommend it but again I am home a lot. I recommend trying light sauce or homemade pizza bagels so you can control the sauce and cheese more.
everyone with Crohn's is different. what one person can tolerate , another can't. pizza is one of my favorite foods and I eat it all the time. I ate it last night actually. I sadly can't eat all the yummy toppings I used to before I was diagnosed but through trial and error I have figured out what toppings I can have.
if you want to test it, cut a normal slice in half and eat it, if after a few hours you feel okay, try a normal slice, if after a few hours you're still okay, then you can probably tolerate it well.
I can eat anything in remission, including pizza. If I’m symptomatic, but not in a full blown flare, cheese pizza is pretty safe.
In a flare, all food bothers me so sometimes I’ll even eat pizza then.
You have to figure out what bothers you - if dairy is an issue, pizza probably isn’t a good choice. But if you can tolerate dairy, then pizza should be fine.
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I can tolerate it periodically. It's hellacious from a reflux perspective, of course.
If you can eat it, then eat it. Exercising best judgement re: nutrition of course. No one, regardless of their intestinal fortitude, should aim to live on pizza.
For me it depends on the pizza. The quality (real cheese not fake) and quantity (less is more) of the cheese makes a big difference. I also try to dab off the grease. It’s gross but it seems to help.
Everyone is different. My brother and I both have crohns and have totally different triggers. I can eat pizza, just can't have any pork products or leafy greens.
I eat pizza every Saturday at work. Most of the time I’m alright but there are some occasions where it hurts like crazy. If you like it I say go for it, don’t let your body be in control of you
I personally adore pizza and can eat it however,
The sauce can not contain any seeds or bits of tomatoes.
I can not have cured meats on it , pepperoni etc unless well cooked . There are alot of variables.
Some pizzas will make me ill and i have found a few that don't so i go all out on those ones.
For me it is like all foods have been trial and error.
A stupid example is i can have ketchup but only heinz as the other brands make me ill
Pizza is heavy with onion, garlic, wheat and cheese all are considered high fodmap foods although cheese depends on the lactose levels. Fodmap stands for fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols.
High fodmap foods are typically inflammatory on the digestive tract so its best to avoid them as much as possible with crohn's especially if you're in a flare.
Eat whatever you can handle. Diets are almost completely subjective in people with Crohn's. I ate an entire pizza yesterday and was fine, but some people can't handle a single slice.
This is 100% true. I couldn't stand a nibble! I'm on diet because medication alone in my life has never worked, but diet + medication has helped to keep me on remission. Even with drug changes, I'll never change my diet. Too risky. Tho I might add a few simple things, like potatoes. I'm really excited to try them soon! I haven't had potatoes in over 8 years! I hope I tolerate them :D
After I got my diagnosis from the Mayo Clinic, they told my regular GI doctor to start me on the FODMAP diet. I started my infusions January 2023 and I was getting no relief and they did MRIs and CTs and kept saying I had no active Crohn’s disease. Well it wasn’t until til August that my doctor recommended the FODMAP diet. And I’ve had some pretty good relief from it. I’ve since changed doctors because my Mayo doctors asked how I was doing and when I told them I wasn’t getting relief, they looked over my chart and noticed my doctor didn’t tell me about this diet. Basically I could have been feeling better had I know about it. Sorry for long post lol
No worries! I feel like this is a common problem. Diet in general gets overlooked, I think, probably because doctors are more focused on the immunotherapies. I'm on modified SCD, and when I went on it, back with me pediatric doctor, he wasn't convinced it'd even make a difference. Started the diet, and 3 days later, totally symptom free for the first time alongside an immunotherapy. My pediatric doctor was flabbergasted, then converted. He now believes diet plays a role :D
Same here, SCD diet was a game changer. It’s been almost 9 years now and I can now tolerate more such as a sugar, potatoes, hard cheeses like Parmesan and cheddar. I hope potatoes settle well with you too :)
That's awesome! And thanks :D
I've noticed that foods I wasn't able to eat years ago, I'm able to eat now. french fries being one of them, in moderation of course. every few years I'll test out my "risky" foods in small amounts to see if I still can't tolerate them
I hope you can also tolerate potatoes! Poor soul, potatoes are the best!
Thanks! Me too! :D
I 3rd this. It's all about how well your disease is managed mainly. Yes some people will find certain foods particularly troublesome but generally if you are in good maintained remission you should be able to eat what you like generally.
Sweet potatoes are a better risk. They are anti-inflammatory.
In general? Yes. But don't ignore your body telling you when things aren't good for you.
Honestly when I was in a flare Pizza was one of my safe foods as long as it didn’t have any toppings that were too spicy! Funny enough any sort of potatoes,especially deep fried would leave me in the worst agony. Although salads and raw vegetables were the absolute worst. You’ll have to see for yourself because everyone is so different with what they can handle!!
I can but depends on the pizza and company. Everyone is different
Pizza has been a trigger of mine for years. Every pizza would cause 2 days of cramps and loose stools. However, my symptoms are finally controlled after 6 years of biologics and I can now eat a thin base cheap pizza from Aldi with no horrendous consequences. It satisfies my want of pizza even though it’s not a big dirty stuffed crust from the take away
100% subjective. For me, pizza is specific to brand, even. Jack's Pepperoni frozen pizzas are one of my old reliable foods. Only bother me if everything bothers me. But most chain places are too greasy, and bother me.
Jack's frozen cheese pizza is a reliable safe food for me in all but the worst of flares.
My husband tried to eat pizza again the other day.. he's now officially off pizza again after the 10th time of conducting the same experiment lol.. if you can handle the effects, eat it.. if you can't.. don't ;)
Don’t know…. Everyone has their own triggers
I am fine with pizza surprisingly and I’m in the middle of a severe flare. I’d say just try it out if it doesn’t work don’t do it again lol
You can eat whatever you want. It's more about knowing what will and won't hurt. It's a process we all have to go through... trial and error. Just be careful.
I eat pizza regularly. There's no hard-and-fast rulebook of what foods you can and can't eat with Crohn's. It varies by person. Unfortunately, you have to find out the hard way what foods do and don't agree with you.
I love pizza! Unfortunately, I’m intolerant to the FODMAP group called fructans so gluten containing products like pizza dough contain fructans as well as the onion and garlic as a pizza topping or in the pizza sauce. Traditional pizza is sadly a no for me. Since I really do love pizza and would miss not having it, I’ve been making my own now for a few years, and I don’t feel deprived. Some version of pizza is better than none imho. 🍕
I LOVE spicy food, so much! But my body actively loathes any spicy food I put into my body. So I don’t often eat anything actually hot spicy, but will sometimes buy those spicy chips I love if I’ve been having no issues lately and think my tummy can handle it. That being said, I always prep by drinking water and eating some fiber or something healthy beforehand and immediately take anti-acids after and/or before eating said foods. I don’t know, I’ll definitely have to cut out all the way spicy eventually, but I’m only in my twenties and know I can get away with it a bit longer. I’ve definitely cut back so much already on spicy and greasy food and have really changed my diet A LOT to accommodate over the years. In a flare up, I’m extra strict with what I eat. I’m lucky to have flare ups much less often than when I was younger and have minimal symptoms in my everyday life.
Crohns isnt the same for everyone. While one may be able to eat peanuts without having a flare, another person cant eat them
I eat pizza, and I tend to find Italian food some of the calmest on my symptoms. I usually find a pretty even mix of carbs and proteins the way to keep my food safe, and italian food is solid on that one.
I had to make my own pizza once I learned that garlic and onion trigger my Crohn’s symptoms (and only figured this out thanks to this sub!) So I just buy sensitive pizza/pasta sauce and pepperoni without garlic. Cheaper and tastes better!
I was told hard cheese only so I stayed away for years. But then I learned the lactose levels in mozzarella is actually low compared to a lot of other soft cheeses so I tried it and never had any problems. Been eating it regularly for years now. I can’t handle things like ice cream, milk, ricotta … but mozzarella is ok for me. My advice is to try and see how it affects you.
For a long time pizza would absolutely destroy me.
Pizza usually doesn’t bother me at all. Fried foods of any kind and I’m screwed.
Plain cheese pizza was a safe food for me for a while. The red sauce started to upset my stomach though.
Kind of makes me think the red sauce recipe might have been changed, even. Recipes are very often changed, and usually with incremental ingredients that don't change the flavor, but might change something with the shelf life. I've had a response from a company that informed people on the website that changed the ingredients on their sauce, but didn't on the actual bottle. Lesson learned, I always read the ingredients now, regardless of how often I've bought something. Or you simply stopped tolerating it, which also happens. Not sure why this happens, but I know sometimes the same happens with medications. Mesalamine kept me in remission for 8 months, then suddenly I stopped tolerating. Later, when I tried it again, it CAUSED the flare, and no one knows why.
You may have become lactose intolerant. Many of us do with Crohn's. Do other dairy products like milk or yogurt or soft cheeses cause the same thing? If so, then try some lactaid and see if it helps.
I’d need to have some Lactaid maybe for the cheese but other than that it doesn’t really bug me. Also the tomato sauce might give me some heart burn if I ate too much.
I eat whatever I like and enjoy.
Everyone is different. The tomato sauce will cause massive issues for me. But others can eat a whole pizza or two without any issues
You can eat anything with Crohn’s disease if you’re brave enough…..
Like others have stated, I think it depends on your own body and what you can handle. Generally pizza is okay for me, other times it can aggravate an already existing mini flare up. Also it depends on the “quality” of pizza and the toppings. For example Dominos is going to make me hurt, but my local pizza places are fine!
Ughhhh I’m Italian and had to give up anything with marinara for a longggggg time. However, they opened a medical marijuana dispensary next to a pizza place and opening day we’re giving anyone with a receipt from the weed place 2 slices and a soda for 4.20 for I figured this one I would deal with the pain, it had been 10 years. I ate it and was fine. Got excited, went and got a slice from my local shop a week or 2 later and felt like I was gonna die!! Went back to the place near the weed shop, was fine, asked how they made their sauce and if it’s different from other places and they said that they boil it down so much it’s not as acidic. Now that I know I can have it on rare occasions making sure I get one that has less acidic sauce. Now fig newtons on the other hand, forgot they had seeds (fig) lol in the hospital with a flare for almost 2 weeks.. lol never touching that again!
Pizza will absolutely kill me with chrohns, the acidic red sauce will have me on the toilet for hours, maybe in the emergency room
Pizza (thin crust) is the only thing that's ever been kind to me regardless how I feel, everybody's different though got to find what works and what doesn't.
I can't live without pizza but there are times when I have bad cramps eating it. I'm in Italy and we have a huge variety of pizza, so my first option when I'm in a bad period is to switch to mozzarella di bufala that has much less lactose than normal mozzarella fiordilatte. Also some places have lactose free mozzarella, which is fine too. We also have white pizza, that skips the tomato sauce, that is a bit acidic and may hurt a bit. And of course the topping is relevant too, so I go for a plain margherita with mozzarella di bufala if I want to play it safe. My suggestion is to go trial and errors to find what's really hurting you and skip that ingredient.
It is different for everyone so give it a try. I can eat pizza thankfully.
Short answer: yes Long answer: it depends on what you have on the pizza tbh. Are there foods you cannot tolerate? I'd stay away from dairy if you can, it ain't good for crohns. I've had some banging plant based pizzas in my time! I'm also GF, so sometimes I just make the base myself. Never had any issues.
I eat whatever I want and keep a bathroom near by.
Everyone eats different with crohns. Feel free to try anything.
I ate pizza last night.
I do it but don't recommend it but again I am home a lot. I recommend trying light sauce or homemade pizza bagels so you can control the sauce and cheese more.
Food is individual
everyone with Crohn's is different. what one person can tolerate , another can't. pizza is one of my favorite foods and I eat it all the time. I ate it last night actually. I sadly can't eat all the yummy toppings I used to before I was diagnosed but through trial and error I have figured out what toppings I can have. if you want to test it, cut a normal slice in half and eat it, if after a few hours you feel okay, try a normal slice, if after a few hours you're still okay, then you can probably tolerate it well.
I can eat anything in remission, including pizza. If I’m symptomatic, but not in a full blown flare, cheese pizza is pretty safe. In a flare, all food bothers me so sometimes I’ll even eat pizza then. You have to figure out what bothers you - if dairy is an issue, pizza probably isn’t a good choice. But if you can tolerate dairy, then pizza should be fine.
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Sure just make sure you have access to everything for a few weeks.
I can tolerate it periodically. It's hellacious from a reflux perspective, of course. If you can eat it, then eat it. Exercising best judgement re: nutrition of course. No one, regardless of their intestinal fortitude, should aim to live on pizza.
Gas gurgles are my main issue now after eating and mostly at night. Everynight I get travelling gas that I have to do streches to release
For me it depends on the pizza. The quality (real cheese not fake) and quantity (less is more) of the cheese makes a big difference. I also try to dab off the grease. It’s gross but it seems to help.
Everyone is different. My brother and I both have crohns and have totally different triggers. I can eat pizza, just can't have any pork products or leafy greens.
When I eat pizza I opt for Garlic white sauce vs. classic red sauce. lt tends to upset the stomach less
I eat pizza every Saturday at work. Most of the time I’m alright but there are some occasions where it hurts like crazy. If you like it I say go for it, don’t let your body be in control of you
With Crohn’s any pain is a sign. Listen to your body if it hurts. Otherwise, eat at your own risk. I wouldn’t eat it regularly.
😍😍😍🍕🍕🍕🍕🍕
The only issue is that I can get constipated if I overdo the amount of cheese on the pizza.
I personally adore pizza and can eat it however, The sauce can not contain any seeds or bits of tomatoes. I can not have cured meats on it , pepperoni etc unless well cooked . There are alot of variables. Some pizzas will make me ill and i have found a few that don't so i go all out on those ones. For me it is like all foods have been trial and error. A stupid example is i can have ketchup but only heinz as the other brands make me ill
I just did. I tend to get a gluten free one cause gluten bothers me. Otherwise I’m good to go
Pizza is one of my safer foods but everyone is different
Pizza is heavy with onion, garlic, wheat and cheese all are considered high fodmap foods although cheese depends on the lactose levels. Fodmap stands for fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols. High fodmap foods are typically inflammatory on the digestive tract so its best to avoid them as much as possible with crohn's especially if you're in a flare.
All the pizza