For the longest time I also had to be careful about taking vitamins. I simply couldn't take a vitamin for about the first six years after my diagnosis. If I did it made the diarrhea come back or get worse. Finally in the past few years I've been able to add a mixture of vitamins to my daily regimen but have taken great care to find vitamins that do not contain preservatives, artificial sweeteners, or colorings. I find my local health food store to be the best resource for quality vitamins. But, that said, I cannot stomach most "natural" items like ginseng, Echinacea, fenu greek, etc. My body seems to be hypersensitive to these things and they set-off my gut within an hour or two of taking them.
The most important thing I learned from the elimination diet is that it pays to listen to your body. It takes time, effort, and patience but in the long run I've found that by listening to my body, taking the extra time to learn what it needs, and making the effort to eat well for me has made a difference in my quality of life living with IBD. I still take Asacol, and do have flare-ups every now and again, but for most of the time I live a good and symptom-free day-to-day life. And, I hope that you can too.
