Okay, this probably seems like a silly and ignorant question, but I'm genuine in asking it.
It seems the number one bit of advice is to change your diet. Some seem to claim that diet change alone can heal the fissure(s).
But, if your BM are usually soft and you maybe take out nuts and seeds from your diet (ow), how exactly does the diet change help? Is it just avoiding a hard stool at all costs? (Yet most people seem to take softeners to manage that). It's not clear to me.
I don't feel like hard BM got me here, and I don't see how a diet change could have that much of an effect. Some people avoid alcohol - why? Is it the alcohol, or the hard BM that they (and presumably not everyone) get after drinking alcohol?
Is it just a suggestion that doctors make when really there's nothing they can do to help?
I know I'm always told - 'eat more fibre' by the doctors but this is so unhelpful. Clearly there are different types of fibre and only some types are of any use to AF people because we want soft stools. But they miss out the relevance of the soft stools - that is what helps us because it's easier on the fissure, right? There's nothing in the diet itself that helps. Yet it doesn't necessarily help it heal, because the problem is the tightness of the sphincter muscles. Even if your BM are early liquid, if those muscles are being really tight, any opening at all is a real struggle and could cause a retear.
Anyway, that's my theory. I just feel unsatisfied without good clear logical explanations of things.

This is a good question... Hopefully others will add but here's my experience and opinion. As you probably already know, most CRS's don't really tell us to avoid all the things that most folks on here have found can cause trouble. Mine said to avoid fried and spicy foods and that's it. I found that to be not enough and most of us have agreed on foods that have aggravated our fissures or made them re-tear. I found that I could manage with my fissure unless I ate anything sharp such as nuts or tortilla shells. Others have said nuts gave them no trouble at all. Most will agree the red meat makes bm's harder. I know it definitely is harder for the body to process which can delay and slow down digestion. Alcohol could go either way- the runs or harder bm's, and could also burn like acidic foods.
We are really all different with how we process foods and the effect they have coming out. It's all trial and error but their seem to be foods that the majority will say aren't good with the fissures.
I agree with you about the sphincter and the clenching. Unless my poops were pure liquid, I would have a re-tear. It didn't matter if I ate and did the same thing everyday.

I wanted to add- I found keeping a food diary in the beginning to help me to discover what was and wasn't setting well with my fissure, but I also think it left me thinking there wasn't anything safe to eat as my fissure kept re-tearing anyways

Dawn wrote:I wanted to add- I found keeping a food diary in the beginning to help me to discover what was and wasn't setting well with my fissure, but I also think it left me thinking there wasn't anything safe to eat as my fissure kept re-tearing anyways

. Dawn - that's a great idea of keeping a diary - Now I can see what I can n can't tolerate . :) thanks sweetie

When my fissure was active I made soup and put a little tomato base. OH MY I dearly paid for it. Hurt so bad.I have heard others it does not affect. Try just a little and wait 24 hours. Everyone is different. I would just be sooo hungry and deprived that I would gobble stuff down. One thing I have found I can do is coconut dream milk (I have IBS too ). Has anyone tried decaf coffee. Is it the caffeine or the coffee its self.

Sterling,
I had decaf coffee and tea right after surgery and had no problems at all. Actually I started drinking 1 glass of tea with caffeine daily fairly early post-op and had no trouble. I think the main thing you need to do is be sure and keep up with your water, but please don't hold me to this, LOL... Caffeine is dehydrating and dries out the colon.
I ate quite a bit of soup post-op too (15 bean- I hate it now,Lol). I added the progresso tomato soup and spinach to it. That sounds kind of gross now but anyway, I didn't have any trouble at all with the tomato base but it could have been the brand I used?! Who really knows, but as you said we are all different. That's for sure. :)