Q: I would like to give you my background and personal information that can help you find the best diet possible for me. I am 38 years old male. I am 5.8 tall and weigh 112 pounds now. I am of medium built but to be honest with you I do not do regular exercise. I am an engineer by trade but don't have a job due to my illness. I have lost about 12 to 15 pounds since my last surgery of the take down of the pouch. I do take food through mouth but since I don't have large intestine my digestive track will have to rely on small intestine. I love medium spicy food but since my last operation of J-pouch I am having real hard time to tolerate even mild spicy food. I am Gujarati and pure vegetarian. I do eat eggs and very occasionally eat chicken curry. I never had a problem eating any kind of food until my last surgery. I am also having bad heartburn when I eat cheese or pizza and for that I take antacid medicine called Nexium 40 mg. As far as vitamin-mineral supplements goes, is there anything I can eat that would provide me the supplement or should I take multivitamin? I would really like to see my bowel movements slow down from 12 a day to 4 a day. Please advise me on how to do that. I am married for 13 years. I have a 5-year-old son. Life here in USA is very stressful and the original problem I had which was ulcerative colitis was I think directly related to stress. It might not have caused but sure did trigger and made things worse for me. Funny thing was that every time I came to India my disease would stay very calm and I will not have any bloody diarrhoea like I had here in USA. But last October, when I came back from India things just went overboard and I had emergency surgery in which they had to remove my large colon and left me with Ileostomy. Then I had two surgeries after that which were scheduled for temporary pouch and then permanent J-pouch.

A:I understand that you have to make some modification and changes in your daily life diet. I am recommending some changes, and hope they will help you. You have to avoid spicy and fried food all together, butter will be better option than oil. You can take cornflakes/roasted suji with a glass of toned milk for breakfast, for a change toasted bread with half boiled egg or paneer (not cheese) with butter on bread. For lunch and dinner have rice / khichdi / suji / chapati with vegetable like potato, sitaphal, yam, carrot may be taken, avoid leafy vegetables. Salads, fruits and washed dals can be taken. Fruits like papaya, mango, cheeku, over ripe banana and melon are good, strained juices can be taken. You can try small quantity, say 2 small pieces of boiled chicken / fish with little butter, if it suits you can increase. Ulcerative colitis does get affected by stress and strain, even now you should try and relax, just go for walk in open air.