Eating on the IBS Diet as a Vegan
#110452 - 10/04/04 07:25 PM
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Sheryl
Reged: 10/04/04
Posts: 26
Loc: PA
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Hi,
I'm new to the forum here. I've just ordered Heather's book and I've read the site as thoroughly as I can. I would be interested to know how I can eat on this diet and still remain a Vegetarian/ Vegan and lose weight. I attempted to eat as a Raw Vegan and...as you can all imagine, my tummy wasn't at all happy with me. I ate fruit shakes for breakfast with almond milk, and I fared fine, but the salads, avocado, olives, dehyrdrated bread for lunches and dinners completely did me in. I then found myself binging on bread that I would get at restaurants...and lo and behold I find on this site that eating bread is just what the doctor ordered for my IBS/IBD condition. My concern is that if I overdo it with the white bread, that my Candida will come back. White Flour, fermented foods, sugar along with high fat cause Candida to flourish, doesn't it?
Everything I've read and studied also has shown me that red meat, chicken and fish are no longer safe for us to eat because of Mad Cow's disease, the tumors that are found on the chickens and that are filled with hormones and antibiotics....and now I've heard the fish...aren't safe to eat except for once a week or once a month...with the mercury, PCB and the ammonia that they swim in. So I can't...good people, in good faith go back to eating red meat, chicken and fish. I have been eating egg whites...but would love to eventually give up eggs as well. Cheese and milk..I have an allergy to - it's not the lactose that I react to but the whey and the Casiene that causes the cold like symptoms.
So if anyone out there is a Vegan or Vegetarian who also has IBS...please let me know what is safe to eat.
Thanks so much.
Gratefully and indebtably yours,
Sheryl
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To every problem, the answer is love.
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Welcome to the boards! I'm also a vegan and need to gain weight.
Toffuti is fabulous for dessert. Miso soap and steamed rice are safe to eat. If you can tolerate soy products, Safeway of all places stocks Morning Star "Better 'n Burgers" and Amy's Tofu Lasagna which are good. Their are varieties of soy "turkey" lunch meat, and soy hot dogs. Soy protein powder (get it at Trader Joes or a health food store) is good in a smoothie with Rice Milk. Or mix it with Chocolate Almond milk for a yummy snack drink. For protein bars, I've found that Clif Bars make dairy-free varieties.
Keep us up-to-date on any other ideas you get!
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Luna bars are completely ibs safe, and fine for you to eat.. add back in COOKED veggies slowly and try using an SFS in place fo some of the large quantitiy of white breads.. also rice products do the same thign as long as they are based on white rice- pastas, breads, etc... as well as rice itself, so you can mix it up and eat all kinds of things, and potatoes too.. don't know much about candida, but I do know SFS is basically nil on the caloric scale so that helps a ton with eating a lot of other stuff and still getting that soluble fiber without gaining the weight.
good luck
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Dietetics Student (anticipating RD exam in Aug 2010)
IBS - A
Dairy Allergic
Fructose and MSG intollerant
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Hi there! I am also vegan and it can be done with IBS. In fact, I think it's a great idea. You've got some good suggestions (all the many soy products out there) and I just wantd to let you know that you're not the only one. 
The weight issue is still a bit of a challenge for me though. I'll have to admit that. I have lost weight from cutting out dairy from my diet. I take a vegan protein supplement in my soy smoothies every day (with fibre added too). I also try to snack as much as possible. I met with a nutritionist and she told me to have as much fortified soy milk as possible per day to get enough calcium and b12.
Oh ya, I considered the whole raw food thing as it makes sense to eat living enzymes and all that but it's defintely not good for people with IBS. You can still have fresh carrot juice though which contains some of the same benefits. 
Anyhow, welcome!
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hey Sheryl, welcome to the boards!
I have recently adopted a vegan diet and have not had much of a problem adapting it to the IBS diet.
Right now, as I write this (I am on lunch), I am eating rice, and a stirfry of veggies and tempeh. If I am stable I can handle cooked veggies, as long as I am having lots of rice, bread, or pasta.
I also make the same stirfry outta tofu, I marinate and brown it in the oven first, so it is not the slimy stuff. ( I can get a more exact recipe ofr you if you want, I follow one on the Mori-Nu brand packaging)
I also eat Boca Vegan burgers occasionally, although they can make me acidy.
I have heard of, but not yet tried, of vegetarians blending silken tofu in pasta sauce to add an extra something to their dinner. I can only eat tomatoes in small doses, cause of acidity.
I also make lentils and eat them with rice, or in a pita, with veggies of course. I smush up the lentils with my fork before eating them, and have not had a problem. Some IBSers can get away with them if they are careful, some say they cannot. My advice would be to DEFINATELY make sure that you are stable, and that you eat alot more quantity of the rice than the lentils, especially at first.
Also, I make easy versions of hummus in my blended (mushed up garbanzo beans). I like to stuff that in a pita.
Breakfast, I alternate between dry cereal, like kix, with soymilk, bagels, and oatmeal. I always have fruit with breakfast. I also made french toast out of soymilk and banana last weekend, but it turned out a little mushy.
For recipes, check out fatfree.com (especially good for lentil ones) or vegweb.com (make sure they are IBS safe) or the IBS recipe index (just be sure to sub in vegan products for animal products.)
Also ,buy EnerG egg replacer, available at health food stores, to use in baking. (It is a powdery mix) I made muffins with them, and they were delicious!
If you can handle peanut butter (some people can in small doses), PB&J can be a quick lunch.
I also (after making sure that the sauce does not contain meat base) order out for pizza minus the cheese, adding broccoli. My first choice to go out to eat is at japanese restaraunts. Order white rice to go with your meal and eat it first. Then, for appetizers you could have steamed veggie gyoza (dumplings) or miso soup. For the entree, they usually have vegetarian sushi meals or rolls. Try a roll with advocado, they are delicous! The pickled ginger served with sushi is SOO delicous, too.
I am new to cooking and do not have much free time, so most of my suggestions are easy fast and quick ones, but if you have more time and patience on your hands and are better in the kitchen, there is a wealth of recipes out there! If you are not sure if something is safe, post it and we'll let you know.
i won't discuss B12, because someone else already posted about it, but remeber that it is impossible for your body to get it from nonanimal sources, so it is VERY important to take a supplement or have fortified soymilk everyday.
Sorry, you hit my latest weak spot, just let me know if you have any questions!
Good luck, it is such a great decision to go vegan.
In my case ( I am IBS-A - mostly D), it has helped my IBS by making my bms more complete... but I can't guarantee the same results for you, but good luck!
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-Sheri
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Sheryl, just wanted to say hi and welcome! I'm not a vegan, but as you can see we have several people who are! I do have a past history with Candida, but I've had absolutely no problem with it for the past several years as I've adopted the IBS diet. White flour is absolutely no problem, in fact it's one of my staples. I think as long as you mix it with other foods (including some whole grains), that it's a good thing, not a bad thing. Just my personal experience!
Welcome aboard!
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Laura
Keep it simple!
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Hi, welcome! I've been vegan for one year this month and on the IBS diet for about a year and a half. It's actually easier to be vegan on this diet than to eat meat, in my opinion.
My only caveats are that 1. I have gained weight on the IBS diet, I don't know if it's because of the white bread or what. Only about 5 lbs, but just the same and 2. it became harder to go out to eat since I couldn't have a salad in a restaurant.
Typical day:
Breakfast: Wheat chex w banana and Vitasoy light vanilla soymilk (I don't have as much trouble with whole wheat as some people do)
Lunch: Pasta primavera, easy on the veggies, soy parmesan and some white bread
Snack: saltine like crackers that are vegan with a little PB (another food I can tolerate in small doses)
Dinner: Tofu stirfry, heavy on the rice.
Good luck!
Meredith
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Wow, awesome response Sheri. I can take some lessons from your varied meals. It sounds like you're doing quite well adopting the new diet.
Let me know if you ever want to share any vegan recipes or the like!
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Will do!
#110580 - 10/05/04 01:57 PM
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Sheri01
Reged: 04/19/04
Posts: 1731
Loc: New Jersey
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I try and keep it varied because I find that I will get sick if I eat the same thing too many days in a row. like, I will find a breakfast that works well for me, so I want to eat it everyday. If I do that, I wind up with D or C.
I am expecting to spend the colder winter/fall months baking, so I will share any recipes that turn out well!
I found a couple of tofu-pumpkin pie ones that I want to try on vegweb.com.
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-Sheri
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That would be great! Thanks. 
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Hi Sheri01,
My goodness. So thorough and complete. I'm going to print yours out so that I can refer to it often. Thank you soooo much. I'm still eating egg whites. Whole Foods puts out a liquid egg substitute in their dairy section. I vascillate about going completely Vegan because I've been told that the body has a natural reserve of B12 for five to ten years and then your body will show serious set backs. What Dr. Gabriel Cousins said is that we can get Vitamin B12 through making "Kefir" from seeds and nuts. LifeWay puts out Kefir Starter for something like $2.39 a packet. But you need to invest the time to presoak the nuts and to take the resulting milk and ferment it over a period of days. This resulting mixture is probiotic and enzyme rich and helps to line the intestines with healthy flora...but I haven't had the time to order it yet. So when I try it,I'll let folks know how it worked for me.
So I'm hearing: I can have Tofu (baked), beans and tempeh...but I imagine I need to stay away from the Seitan because that's basically wheat gluten, and I have a mild problem with Wheat unless it's sprouted...then I seem to be OK with it.
I'm going to check out those web sites you talked to me about. Thanks so much. I am so grateful to have happened upon this site. I have been suffering with IBS for years, and I have been able to cope with it because the bouts were not so close together as to be unbearable...but the last five years, the stress (career changes and disappointments) has taken its toll on my body and my IBS/IBD has become more persistent and life debilitating. So I am deeply grateful to have this online support system. Thank you sooooo much.  )
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To every problem, the answer is love.
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Hi Meredith,
Thanks so much for responding to my quest as to how to integrate Heather's IBS diet to a Vegan lifestyle.
I was afraid about the weight gain...but I'm thinking as you are...that I have to do what I have to do to get this condition under control...then I can figure out a way to work on portion sizes so I can lose the weight. I'm 5'1 and bulging in a Size 12...so I would really like to lose the extra weight if I could while helping my tummy to feel better. I just got both of Heather's books today so I'm going to climb in and see what kinds of menus I can come up with that will make this work. I'm going to try your menu ideas. Thanks so much for your counsel.
Sheryl
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To every problem, the answer is love.
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Hi Laura,
It's great to meet you in Cyberland. Thanks for alleviating my concern about the Candida risk with increased white flour consumption. There are so many theories that abound about the causation of Candida. Of course, stress is a biggie. Interestingly enough, I've recently heard from a Raw Foodist...that Candida may be caused by a high fat intake combined with high sugar intake. It's not the increase in sugar that's the issue..but increasing fat consumption along with the sugar that's the issue...this is Doug Grahms contention. And here we are learning that high fat hurts our IBS condition. So just by limiting our fat consumption we'll be alleviating Candida overgrowth and our IBS symtoms. Sounds like a plan to me.
Thanks for your welcome to the message board.
Kind regards,
Sheryl
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To every problem, the answer is love.
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Sheryl- B12
#110654 - 10/05/04 07:41 PM
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Sheri01
Reged: 04/19/04
Posts: 1731
Loc: New Jersey
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Glad to be of service!
I have read that although it is EXTREMELY rare to have a shortage of B12, it is very serious. they make tablets, lozenges that dissolve under the tongue are popular amongst vegans, but the only ones I found had sorbitol in them, which is an IBS trigger. There may be IBS safe alternatves, but that is something I have not yet set my focus on.
The book that helped me the most was "BEcoming a vegetarian for Dummies" By Suzanne Havala. I know, I know, it sounds silly, but it is REALLY good and full of information. I borrowed it from my local library. I picked it up off of the shelf as a joke, then wound up taking it home cause I couldn't put it down! havala is a respected nutionist in the vegetarian community. There are sperate "vegan" sections in the book, too.
Anything that I thought I knew about vegan/vegetarianism before I picked up that book, I really didnt know much! So much dietary info in that book. helps that I learned Heather's diet really well, I could apply that to the veggie info.
If I find out more about the B12, I'll let you know.
Oh, and you don't need to bake tofu, I just like it that way... Another EASY good recipe you can look at is on the REcipe board on the recipe index, and is called Berry Smoothie or something of the sort. It has tofu, fruit , and soymilk in it. It was posted by TessLouise, I think.
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-Sheri
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Hi Sara-Sage,
Wow...lots of Vegans here online. How wonderful. I have to admit, I really wanted to make it work as a Raw Vegan. I have a Raw Vegan Cafe near where I live and their advice seemed so sound...but as I increased my raw food consumption, the more my IBS kicked into high gear. From lunchtime till the time I went to bed for days on end, I can't tell you how I suffered...I experienced my peristalysis completely stalled...with lots of bloating. I was told that I was in a "cleansing", "detoxification" stage and that these symptoms would subside in a couple of weeks...well it's been eight months and no relief in sight. I wasn't consistent with the regimine. I have to admit that I did cheat on occasion. But I see now from reading Heather's guidelines that for a person with my condition, I need to greatly modify my regimine. I will cautiously introduce some soy into the diet. I think I am entering into Menopause right now...so it may be safe. When I was in Periomenopause when my Estrogen was spiking, I was eating a lot of soy and I think that I caused my Estrodial count to go through the roof...soy contains phyto-estrogens and with all of the false estrogens we have coming into our bodies from a polluted environment, my adding soy six days a week into my diet caused me to have an excess of estrogen in my body...not a good thing... So I cut out soy completely. But maybe I'll bring it back and eat it sparingly.
Thanks. It's nice to make your acquaintenance.
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To every problem, the answer is love.
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Thanks. I'll look into what Whole Foods has in that area for B12.
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To every problem, the answer is love.
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Hi Sheryl, nice to meet you too.
I know. I wanted to do the raw thing too but it just doesn't work for us IBS-ers. Some raw foods might still be ok though. I can have baby carrots, cucumber and a couple other things. But juicing is still a great way to do raw foods. I have found it to be safe in my situation.
Yes, I have heard that soy can cause trouble for women. Although if you're entering menopause, I have read that it can help with hot flashes. It can adversely affect thyroid problems too.
Anyhow, you're got lost of info from us friendly vegans! Good luck and ask any of us anything you'd like.
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The vegan diet will put you at risk for B12 deficiency, but if you have intestinal troubles, you can get low on B12 even eating lots of meats and dairy. The only place in your whole system that will absorb dietary B12 is the lower portion of the upper intestine (get it?). The lower portion of my upper intestine is GONE! (surgery) so I'm sorta screwt for B12 and have to have a shot every month. (Fortunately I can do it myself so it doesn't cost me a dr. visit every month.)
If you get pretty low on B12 you will feel really bad, and it doesn't take long at all and some PERMANENT nerve damage can set in. This is not something to mess about with. If in doubt at all, get some blood drawn and hike it to the lab and have your B12 checked. Before I started the shots, my lab results came back so low that my doc said she was surprised I could even stand up.
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not bad, and if anything it will alleviate menopause symptoms, not worsen them. Soy contains phytoestrogens - these can lock onto estrogen receptors in the body in place of real estrogen, which means that the real estrogen will be excreted at a higher rate. This what you want, because it lowers the net amount of estrogen circulating in the body. Lower estrogen = lower breast cancer rates. As an aside here, the people with the highest soy consumption rate in entire world are the Okinawans, in Japan. They are also the longest-lived people in the world, and they have some of the lowest breast and reproductive cancer rates. They also have pretty much zero problems with menopause. It's thought that soy is one of the main reasons for this.
So, do your own research here, check your sources of information, make sure you're looking at double-blind studies published by legitimate clinical researchers. When you do that, the evidence in favor of soy, especially for women (but also for men - it lowers prostate cancer and protects against heart disease) is overwhelming.
- Heather
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Heather is the Administrator of the IBS Message Boards. She is the author of Eating for IBS and The First Year: IBS, and the CEO of Heather's Tummy Care. Join her IBS Newsletter. Meet Heather on Facebook!
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I have not had any problem with B12 deficency since I became a vegan a year ago.
About 6 months into being vegan, I had a full panel of blood tests done to make sure I was ok. I had heard so many things about what "could" happen to vegans. Turns out, I was fine, even my B12 was fine.
If you are drinking/using fortified foods, it shouldn't be any problem. Find a doctor who is a vegetarian (I looked for Indian surnames in my PPO directory and started calling around to ask, since so many Indians are veg) and have them do your physical, if you have one.
Best suggestion, though, is to find the book Becoming Vegan by Vesanto Melina--you will find everything you need to know about health and veganism--it's not an easy read but it is so helpful.
And just remember, while vegans have some specific health concerns to keep in mind, we often have low cholesterol, and lower cancer rates/illness rates than other groups. I for one have not had a cold since I became vegan, after having at least 3 colds every winter since I was a kid.
Meredith
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