Going Vegan

Have been bouncing off and on clean eating for a while now. Hubby still fighting weight, diabetes and fatigue issues. Oldest daughter weight and acne and youngest weight, headaches and stomach aches. You all know O is the CD girl with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis.

The family has been doing a lot of soul (or should I say stomach) searching this weekend and they have decided to try a vegan diet to help solve everyone's issues.

So happy mother's day mom! You get to now do your obesseive research on vegan diet and laern all new recipes etc. and I am the only one without any issues!!!!

Don't get me wrong, I am happy to do this to help everyone but not once in any of the literature etc did they say vegan cures IBD. Oh it cures cancer, diabetes, heart disease, weight issues etc just not IBD. What is it about this disease!!!!!!!

O.K. whining over...my main concern is getting enough calcium and iron into O on vegan diet. Yes, I could feed just her some dairy or meat but honestly we are hoping this helps her "other" issues so would like to give it the good ole college try. Plus, she isn't a dairy or meat eater to begin with.

Any suggestions from seasoned vegans would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. nothing she eats bothers her and we have the green light on all seeds, fruits, veggies etc from her doc. Just not popcorn.

If you're on Facebook check out these two groups/ladies:

Fast Food Healing: Fast Food Healing...most folks have no idea how fast the body can heal with the right food. Sarah Singer can show you. Food Healing Fast...Sarah introduces you to medical literature that proves that just food alone can reverse diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and most other chronic diseases. She has a program. Healing Fast Food...we all need to Heal from Fast Food. Sarah educates you about what our food industry does to make fast food addictive. She then teaches you how to set yourself free to create optimum health and weight. Simpy food, Simply Sarah, Simply amazing energy and results.

and

Healthy McG, Holistic Health and Nutritional Consulting - Bethany McGaughy

Both of them are EXTREMELY knowledgeable on the subject. I've known Sarah for *years* and in a simple conversation about son #2 she was able to give me answers to issues the doctor's never could (he doesn't have Crohn's - tested, but battled eating food (because of taste and texture) and constipation - until I worked with her - *amazing* results!! She was also very helpful during my 3rd pregnancy.

Bethany is phenomenal - she has tons and tons and tons of information on vegan living. She learned from her Mother/Father n laws, who are both vegans (raw vegans). pm me for more info on the family if you'd like - stellar group!

Good luck!

PS - Sarah used to live in the Berkshire Mountains of Mass (recently moved to FL, I think), but both do work via phone too.

I have been on this 3 step acne(.org) product and it clear me up unlike other acne stuff. Had issues since I was 13 hardly ever clear.

Don't vegan ppl get acne too? Hope it goes well.

No advice just wanted to wish you all the best.

:goodluck:

Good luck with going vegan I hope it helps with all the issues you have

Good luck with it! Think my family would lock me up if I suggested such a thing :ylol:. Amy was on a calcium liquid that was recommended by the dietician at the hospital. I think it was called calcium sandoz.

Sascot yeah it's called calcium sandos
It comes in liquid form Lucy takes 10mls
Of it a day x
Good luck with going vegan x

Good for you guys. Let us know how it goes will ya!:ghug:

I've been vegan since 1999. 2 of my favorite places for recipes are vegweb and veggieboards.

Wow guys! Thanks for all the encouragement and resources!

Swirl: haha yeah vegans get acne and my daughters we are told is hormonal. Does the product you are using have benzoyl peroxide or salicylic acid...she blows up like a balloon on those.

Champsmom: I have managed to avoid Facebook up until now. You just gave me a reason to join. UGH! Must think of an alias so no one finds me. The forum obsession is enough for now

Sascot: haha yep! We talked about it quite awhile and when my oldest daughter finally realized what was happening she said, "you mean we are going VEGAN?!"...like we were joining some fringe cult or something. Have to say that being Italian the cheese is going to be way harder than the meat....I don't think we eat a meal without it!

There is daiya rice "cheese"
Ener-g egg replacer

I live and cook in a community with a few vegans. I have found it better (tastier) to make vegan recipes and use vegan ingredients that don't try to simulate non-vegan food. Most vegans here don't like vegan cheese. And forget tofurkey. You can make delicious nutritious vegan food-- it's just different than non-vegan food. (Egg replacer is ok for cooking.) If you don't know or haven't tried nutritional yeast, I'd check it out. It has a lot of vitamins and some protein.

Will you continue the enteral nutrition?

Thanks again guys!

I have stumbled across info on nutitional yeast and am planning to pick some up today.

O hasn't been drinking her shakes for a while 8-10 a day for 8 weeks pretty much turned her off them...and doc isn't pushing them for added nutrients/calories etc so I have little leg to stand on:ymad:

I must have missed something! Why was O on 8-10 drinks a day? Was she off food? Has O's weight been stable on 8-10 shakes a day? If so, I'd be concerned about dropping them cold turkey. It may be hard to get so many calories in with food esp vegan food. Best wishes!

Re the shakes... to add some extra nutrition, perhaps try the fruit flavoured drinks. I think they're call Resource Breeze??? As we're tapering down on the formula that requires the NG tube, I'm hoping Stephen will replace the formula with a couple of shakes but... as he's always been a big juice drinker, I'm hoping the fruit drinks will be easier for him to manage daily. They come in the same tetrapaks as juice boxes - maybe you can just send one with O's lunch???

xmdmom - I think what Crohnsinct meant was that O did exclusive for a while (the 8-10 shakes), hence she got sick of them... Crohnsinct tried to keep O on supplemental EN but GI didn't really push for it so, O went with the GI recommendations and not the mom's!

I understood that O went with the GI's rec. I'm just confused about the timeframe. If she was just on the shakes, the GI's rec doesn't make much sense to me.

I can certainly understand being sick of the shakes. My son is sick of having 1 or 2 a day! So it's amazing that anyone can drink or 10!

O was on remicade but it needed a 'boost', GI considered methotrexate but they ended up going with 6 or 8 weeks of exclusive EN (with the remicade) to induce/solidify remission. This was a year or more ago??? After the exclusive period, Crohnsinct kept O on supplement EN for a bit but, at some point, GI didn't feel the supplemental EN was really necessary anymore and, as I suppose O, being tired of drinking them (even if only one or two), is happy to skip them.

Crohnsinct... hope you don't mind I'm answering for you!

Got it!

Whoa Tesscorm! Scary how much and it what detail you know about me and O:lol2: Stalk much? Or maybe I just share too much!

xmdmom: Tess has it right. 3 months post dx and into Remicade and Prednisone she wasn't in remission. Doc wanted to add Mtx I asked for EEN. EEN did the trick and it has been smooth sailing until the Remicade induced psoriasis reared it's ugly head. Now we have added low dose oral Mtx which is an even greater demotivator for O to keep the shakes. Feels like between the two meds she is invincible as far as CD goes. I would like to try EEN again if she ever has a flare so I am reluctant to push the point. Saving it up my sleeve.

She is however, still only in the 4th percentile for BMI and an extreme athlete so I really want to put some meat on her bones and you are exactly right! Hard to do vegan...and hard to do when GI isn't as woried and harder to do healthy when nutritionist is saying let her have a milkshake a day:ymad:

An A+ for Tess remembering about someone else kid!

When I have a Q about Grace's past I'll make sure to ask you!:ylol:

Like Dusty ... I just never forget! A trait my poor hubby does NOT always admire! :lol:

crohnsinct my forum friend do you have a simple link that explains the vegan diet in a nut shell?

I have been really surprised at how little GI doctors seem to care about weight and BMI.
Most vegans are thin. Vegans I know who are trying to put on weight add olive oil to everything and eat a lot of nuts and nut butter but it is really difficult as you said.

Vegan diet includes any food that is not of animal origin. So no meat, fish, chicken, eggs, or milk. Some people go further and say nothing that was made by animals so no honey, and other foods may be excluded if they were processed using animal products. Some people are vegan for health; others are vegan because they are against killing animals or taking advantage of animals.

Thanks xmdmom! Is that enough for you farmwife?

The md's I am following currently are actually against oils. Not sure why. Haven't gotten to that chapter. But everything I read everywhere else says olive and coconut oils etc are fine for you.

I made dinner tonight and they said to sautee the veggies in vegetable stock. It was o.k. but being Italian sautee=olive oil and quite honestly I think my family will adapt better if we use the oil. Also, the recipe didn't include garlic...what's up with that? Don't worry paesono's...I put some in for good measure. Thanks xmdmom for a new excuse to use evoo!!!!!

These docs say carbs are good so I am hoping to carb O up for weight gain. I am very thin and eat like I am going to the electric chair! I worry O has my metabolism (and GI keeps saying you are thin she will be thin) and will lose weight so am planning to watch weight closely. Any chance her metabolism will slow on vegan diet?

If I need to start adding I will start with eggs and yogurt (she eats greek yogurt)...make her lacto vegetarian.

p.s. we are trying vegan for health...still wearing leather shoes!

crohnsinct said:

Thanks xmdmom! Is that enough for you farmwife?

The md's I am following currently are actually against oils. Not sure why. Haven't gotten to that chapter. But everything I read everywhere else says olive and coconut oils etc are fine for you.

I made dinner tonight and they said to sautee the veggies in vegetable stock. It was o.k. but being Italian sautee=olive oil and quite honestly I think my family will adapt better if we use the oil. Also, the recipe didn't include garlic...what's up with that? Don't worry paesono's...I put some in for good measure. Thanks xmdmom for a new excuse to use evoo!!!!!

These docs say carbs are good so I am hoping to carb O up for weight gain. I am very thin and eat like I am going to the electric chair! I worry O has my metabolism (and GI keeps saying you are thin she will be thin) and will lose weight so am planning to watch weight closely. Any chance her metabolism will slow on vegan diet?

If I need to start adding I will start with eggs and yogurt (she eats greek yogurt)...make her lacto vegetarian.

p.s. we are trying vegan for health...still wearing leather shoes!

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That's my crohnsinct!:ylol:

I recently came across Dr. David Klein's website, who if memory serves, was diagnosed with colitis in the 80's and claims to have cured himself by becoming vegan. His book is entitled "Self Healing Colitis and Crohn's". Only fruit and pure juice, nuts, and veggies to be eaten. No processed foods (so no veggie burgers), sugars, soy, or basically anything else. Not sure how you get all your nutrients on this diet, but he claims you do. Veggies should be eaten cooked when there's a flare up, but raw otherwise. He says inflammation is one's body trying to get rid of all the toxins ingested. He also says there's no such thing as auto-immune diseases. I know our GI doc would flip over this! Let me know if anyone reads, or has read this book, or tried the diet. Good luck!

Hmmm interesting.

I have done a ton of reserach on nutrition through the years and every site/book I read claims that diet can reverse just about every disorder/disease but few mention IBD. I actually wrote to Dr. Larson of the anti inflammation diet fame and asked him why IBD is not on his list of ailments but have not heard back.

I will pick up the book you are referring to. We are following Drs Esselstyn, Campbell, McDougall and Barnard.

I don't think I will have a clear idea of how it is doing for my ibder as I am not willing to withdraw her meds to test the waters and see because she is on a biologic and returning to them would be difficult.

But I will let you all know how the rest of the family is doing and if ibder's psoriasis goes away.

Hey cic!

Sarah is vegan/raw vegan and has been for about two and a half years now. She does bounce a bit between the two.

The other thing she cut out or greatly reduced was her sugar intake. She juices daily but does limits the fruits she juices because of it.

I don't know huge amounts about her diet but will link you to a couple of threads as they have some great links and advice in them:

Vegan - http://www.crohnsforum.com/showthread.php?t=35087

Sugar - http://www.crohnsforum.com/showthread.php?t=31166

It does help that Sarah lives in Sydney and has access to supermarkets that have extensive sections for vegan and kosher foods.

Dusty.

We're trying a loca-vore option for or CD sufferer, and it's proving successful in the northeast (I'm blaming the lack of local citrus and higher consumption of foods made entirely at home where tweak the ingredients to avoid our triggers, plus I feel it's helping him learn to prepare his own food which is important to us. Mom thinks the cooking process is reducing his stress, too. I realize this is soft anecdotal advice, but we're still new to living with cd.

We make a lot of hummus variations and east lots of eggs in terms of primary food stuffs.

Yeah we have eased up on the diet and added back in dairy and eggs. So vegetarian now although hubby and kids will have chicken from, time to time. I do notice when we aren't full on vegan a dip in energy and more complaints from the family members.

I'm 14 years vegan, 51, 120 - 125 lbs, 5' 7" and pretty much a couch potato. Super low blood pressure, but I never remember the # for some reason. Blood levels on everything are always very good, even though I almost never take any vitamins. I love spinach and kale salads, hummus, lentil soup and stir-frys. I can eat however much I want and never get over 130. So far, the only negative effect of perimenopause was insomnia and that has basically gone away. Still having pretty regular periods, occasionally a week early or a week late...sorry if that's tmi.

Our family is not vegan (we eat animal protein) but we use a lot of vegan recipes b/c we are dairy free. I have found a lot of easy and tasty recipes on this website:
www.wellvegan.com

crohnsinct said:

Yeah we have eased up on the diet and added back in dairy and eggs. So vegetarian now although hubby and kids will have chicken from, time to time. I do notice when we aren't full on vegan a dip in energy and more complaints from the family members.

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Back on chicken. Say it isn't so.

Well, at least........maybe you could............never mind, nothing good to say.:tongue:

Not the meat just the eggs! Plain old vegan was getting boring for the kids and they do love their quiche. Also added cheese! OH NO What's this world coming to? But no cow's milk....sorry!

You can make a delicious quiche with tofu. My kids actually prefered scrambled tofu to scrambled eggs, too.