Results with a mostly vegan diet?

[Sam7777]

I'm in a weird predicament.

There's a few reasons I don't think I can rely on meat much anymore.

1) Can't get the really super fresh, expensive wild game and grass fed stuff that is technically low in histamine and anti-biotics and inflammatory fatty acid profiles.Now even frozen salmon bothers me with histamine reactions. I get histamine reactions to peanut butter. So just about no animal meat is safe.
2) It's dubious my digestion prefers heavy protein at any rate.
3) I might legitimately have a CBS issue, since I continue to really just respond poorly to animal protein and in fact have only ever recovered health wise during a time when the animal protein I ate was largely limited to just modest portions of fish. I avoided poultry and livestock for 3 years.
4) I can't tolerate high thiol food because of Cutler's chelation issues and Hg. I know I tolerate eggs, dairy, and legumes particularly poorly.Legumes seem to offend my body in multiple ways and are definitely off the list.


Only thing I don't seem to have an issue with is Cod and organic butter. That's it.

So I'm thinking, use hemp seeds, chia seeds, sorghum flour, flax seed, and sweet potatoes and some pecans along with the two animal foods I tolerate. I mean these are the bulk protein calorie foods.

 

[L'engle]

If you feel better on a mostly vegan diet then that is your best bet. I felt much worst on a vegetarian and vegan diet. Everyone is so different though.

 

[Bansaw]

My doc says she sees a number of vegan patients pass through her office and she doesn't recommend a long term vegan diet.
I did try a couple of years ago a simple vegetable-only diet (soup and roast veg) for 14 days or so and felt a real tangible benefit, - more energy better sleep. I cut out dairy, etc and just made it very simple.
I often think of the potential benefit of doing a 14-day simple vegetable protocol and then going back to "normal" for a few weeks and switching back and forth.
My wife knows someone who healed their gut by just doing potato and tomato meals every day for a few months.
I think there is healing in a short term simple vegetable diet. But long term vegan, not so much imho.

 

[Timaca]

Sam7777~ Reading your post reminded me of myself. I also have a histamine intolerance and for that reason don't tolerate most animal protein well at all. I could eat very fresh fish (bought it the day it came to my local Whole Foods) but even though I ate mostly low mercury fish I ended up with high mercury levels in myself! So I'm not eating fish anymore.

I am allergic (per scratch test at allergist's office) to wheat and oats. And I know I have other food intolerances / possible allergies (should get more testing at some point in time.)

I am eating some legumes for protein, but they do seem to give me intestinal *gnawing* feeling. However, I need protein from somewhere!

I have been living on sweet potatoes and yams the last 3 years, along with lots of olive oil and macadamia nuts. I am cutting back on the olive oil and mac nuts in hopes of normalizing my cholesterol levels (those foods and the fish were the only sources of fat in my diet). I am trying to incorporate some legumes for protein.

Quinoa seems to be safe for me (so far). I will retest rice and corn soon but am dubious of those.

It seems sometimes we have to eat what our bodies will allow us to eat! I recommend that you use the Cronometer to help you track your nutrients so your diet can be as balanced as possible.

You can read some of my journey if interested on my blog, You Season with Love.

I can tell you that being on antimicrobials has helped me. Modifying my diet to include / exclude foods has also helped me (a lot). Today I did a hike in the Grand Canyon that I haven't been able to do in 12 years!!! (3 miles round trip, 1000 feet elevation loss / gain each way).

I recently started a probiotic which seems to be helping with brain clarity. Histamine wise, it seems to be OK....I've been taking it less than a week though. GI wise it is not helping with the legume issue. I may try upping the dose starting tomorrow.....

So, to answer your question.....for me a vegan diet, in and of itself is not the answer, since I have so many food allergies / intolerances. But I am eating primarily vegan now due to my histamine intolerance. But sure wish I could eat wheat, oats, berries, almonds, peanuts, and lots of other vegan foods.....

Good luck!

 

[ahmo]

@Sam7777 Your intolerances make my diet look absolutely expansive. How very frustrating. I spent half of my life as vegetarian, very short period vegan, longest of all macrobiotic and macro-derivative. I was horrified, once I'd chanced upon the GAPS understanding and diet, to contemplate a meat-based diet. But so it was. and is. I'm eating abut 100g meat/day. I have thiol issues, but this works fine. I also have histamine problems, but now eat 1 spoon yogurt + sauerkraut every other day. It took me 2.5 years to put those histamine foods back in.

Over the past few months I've had a chastening experience. My body seemed happy enough for me to switch from animal fat to coconut oil, which I'd been intolerant to. So I quit the tallow, and I also started alternate day fasting to shed a few pounds. Like the boiling frog, I slid into a state of feeling less and less well. Dietary expert @whodathunkit (lot's of experience) pointed to the possibility that I wasn't losing weight and feeling lousy because I'd put myself into adrenal stress. And then Dr. Christianson put out a book on the same issue, how we tax our adrenals through diet. The Adrenal Reset Diet. When I resumed eating daily, with animal fat, I felt so much better, and continue to do so.

GAPS developer Natasha Campbell-McBride is a neurologist, who was looking for help for her autistic child. She talks about the importance of fats to heal and seal gut and repair neurons. My sense is that this has been a large part of my healing. So my suggestion is that you include some animal fat. It's possible to find duck fat in grocery stores. Ghee...my body doesn't want too much ghee, it's got K2, other things. Avocado's histaminic.

Have you looked into gluten cross-reactive and autoimmune foods? Maybe something you're eating is keeping you inflamed (duh...but I mean some class of food.)

FMN form of B2 has made a huge impact on my histamine tolerance. I've written about it, see my signature. @Gondwanaland has an understanding about B vitamins and histamines, she's just flagged healthypixels article I'm linking.

It's taken 3.5 years to feel like I've somehow recovered myself. That includes not only diet, but focussing on metals, bacteria, fungus. I was only off nuts and seeds (inflammatory) for less than 6 months. I can't eat green veggies, due to the folate-blocking effects, nor high thiol/histamine foods. My vegetables are carrot, avocado, and peeled cucumber, my fruit green apple, and I'll add watermelon soon. Not a lot, but it works.

http://autoimmune-paleo.com/AIPavoidlist.pdf

http://aiplifestyle.com/what-is-autoimmune-protocol-diet/

http://www.thepaleomom.com/2013/03/...re-eating-gluten-even-after-giving-it-up.html
http://blog.primohealthcoach.com/blog/bid/79586/18-Gluten-Cross-Reactive-Foods

The Many Faces of Histamine Intolerance http://healthypixels.com/?p=1044

http://thelowhistaminechef.com/wondering-why-you-react-to-everything-you-eat/

http://www.histaminintoleranz.ch/download/SIGHI-FoodCompatibilityList_HIT(EN).pdf

[url]http://thelowhistaminechef.com/these-probiotic-strains-lower-histamine-rather-than-raising-it/


http://peelingbacktheonionlayers.com/could-histamine-be-sabotaging-your-digestive-health/[/URL]

 

[ghosalb]

Horses (very fast) and elephants (very strong) mostly eat green veggies and few meals.....they are normally quite healthy...I wonder where this concept of balanced diet for humans' came from....some one needs to sell lot of stuff for profit...and for profit medical system needs unhealthy people.

For me, since switching to veg. diet 2 years ago, I can not believe I did not do this all my life. Nothing negative...neutral or positive effects only...was worried about strength but no negative effect. Lots of cooked greens, lentils, oat, berries, seed and nut spreads, v. little rice or bread. Mostly eat high nutrient veggies or fruits....but try to eat as many varieties of veggies as possible...I heard that we still do not know all the good chemicals in each natural foods.

 

[Sam7777]

I'll be looking into those links. In a sense about all my immune system doesn't hate is sweet potatoes and butter. Thankfully, I really like sweet potatoes and butter.

Ouch on the cross reactivity with coffee. The caffeine struggle is real. Coffee is a weird one, and I wonder why fresh coffee is safe when instant is problematic for cross reaction with gluten? Plus coffee is a histamine food and thiol food, but it also has anti-histamine properties because of the caffeine and cachetins. . .