Quiz: How Good Is Your Diet for Ulcerative Colitis?

If you have ulcerative colitis (UC), you may not be able to eat everything you want, but your diet shouldn’t be strictly limited either. In fact, when you’re in remission, you should be able to eat most of the same foods as anyone else.

That said, some foods can trigger UC symptoms, particularly in people who are in the midst of a flare, according to the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation. Even seemingly healthy foods, such as raw vegetables, can bring on painful symptoms, such as diarrhea.

Knowing what you can and can’t eat can take a bit of trial and error. “While one person’s way of eating may work for them, it may not work well for all people with ulcerative colitis,” says David Gardinier, RD, whose specialty is inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) at Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Human Nutrition. Take this quiz to gauge how your food choices are affecting symptoms.

This assessment is part of a series aimed at helping you check in on UC before your next checkup with your doctor. Take more assessments.

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Additional Sources

What Should I Eat? Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation.
Diarrhea: When to See a Doctor. Mayo Clinic. August 11, 2023.
Radziszewska M et al. Nutrition and Supplementation in Ulcerative Colitis. Nutrients. June 2022.
Ulcerative Colitis Flare-Ups: 5 Tips to Manage Them. Mayo Clinic. March 25, 2025.
Pountney A. The Rainbow of Urine Colors: What’s Typical, What’s Not. Mayo Clinic Health System. September 26, 2023.

Ira Daniel Breite, MD

Medical Reviewer

Castle Connolly Top Doctor

Ira Daniel Breite, MD, is a board-certified internist and gastroenterologist. He is an associate professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where he also sees patients and helps run an ambulatory surgery center.

Dr. Breite divides his time between technical procedures, reading about new topics, and helping patients with some of their most intimate problems. He finds the deepest fulfillment in the long-term relationships he develops and is thrilled when a patient with irritable bowel syndrome or inflammatory bowel disease improves on the regimen he worked with them to create.

Breite went to Albert Einstein College of Medicine for medical school, followed by a residency at NYU and Bellevue Hospital and a gastroenterology fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Working in city hospitals helped him become resourceful and taught him how to interact with people from different backgrounds.

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Erica Patino

Author

Erica Patino is a freelance writer and editor, content strategist, and usability specialist who has worked for a variety of online health outlets, including Healthline, Sharecare, and Twill Care. She was previously a senior editor at Everyday Health. She is also the founder and editor-in-chief of Hear 2 Tell, a website that covers advances in hearing loss treatment. Patino lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband and twin sons.

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How Good Is Your Diet for Ulcerative Colitis?

Question 1

How is your appetite?