Hello Beautiful!

It looks like you're new to The Community. If you'd like to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Badges

shaanacarolta

About

Username
shaanacarolta
Joined
Visits
6
Last Active
Roles
Member
Points
11
Badges
1

Community Page

Shaanacarolta also has a community page on The Rawtarian. Click the button below to view it.

Community Page
  • ~chrons, colitis, ibd~ gaining weight as raw vegan?

    This might seem obvious, but...make sure you're eating more calories than you're burning.  A moderately active woman of child-bearing age should be eating 2000 calories a day to MAINTAIN her weight.  Very hard when you're raw, but try to get 2500-3000 a day until you are a healthy weight.  That will add almost a whole kg a week, which is on the high end, but in the range of healthy weight gain.  Calorie counting in your situation is incredibly important.

    It's going to really depend on what foods trigger your symptoms, but raw nuts and seeds are high in healthy fats and calories.  Air-popped popcorn, raw corn on the cob, hummus. There are all kinds of vegan protein powders made from peas, hemp, flax...Sunwarrior brand is one I've seen highly recommended by the raw community.  If you exercise, including yoga, cut it down to one or two days a week or cut it out completely until you get your weight under control.  

    Juicing is another way to get extra calories and additional vitamins and minerals into your body without all the chewing.  Make sure you're getting enough protein and fiber from things like kale (juice-able) and legumes, if you can eat them.  Split mung beans are very easy to digest, and if you soak them in your fridge for two days with plenty of water and rinse them well, you can blend them and put them in soups and smoothies or make hummus out of them with very little, if any, gas.

    Fruits are natural diuretics, so the pooping is a normal part of what's happening.  However, if that's happening frequently, you're not keeping anything in your body, so there may be absorption issues.  It's really important to bulk up your digestive tract with insoluble fiber--dark, leafy greens, like kale and spinach; cabbage; celery; and psyllium husk to maintain a healthy colon and slow your digestion to a healthy pace.  Another point to consider is you may have an allergy to one of the those foods you talked about gorging on.  If you have a latex sensitivity, bananas and avocados can be serious trigger foods, which may be causing you to poop too much.

    For some other insight, try looking at http://www.joyfulbelly.com/.  It is an Ayurvedic lifestyle website, so it focuses on being vegetarian, though meats are listed on there for the Western audience.  The fundamental principles of Ayurveda are about maintaining a healthy digestive system and that food is medicine.  You can sign up for a free account, and then take all of the quizzes, especially about digestion and poop.  After that, it will tell you which foods are best for your conditions and body type to help you balance it, and there are free recipes, which may help bring your weight to normal.  You can also purchase a consultation with the owner, and he can help you determine if certain Ayurvedic herbs will help balance your digestion.

    If it still doesn't work, I would see a nutritionist.  It also could be that your body type needs meat and/or dairy.  As crazy as it sounds, the people that tend not to want meat are the people who actually need it most.  It may not be possible with your digestive issues, though, I don't know.  I'm not a doctor. 

    ClaireT