Vegan Update
It has almost been 2 months since I started my vegan diet. I must say that I did have a bit of a rocky start, trying to find enough calories that were not from refined carbohydrates. I still find it difficult, not to eat some refined carbohydrates though, in the form of rice pasta, kamut or rye breads, and potatoes, among other grains. I try to keep them to a minimum though as my metabolism, like most peoples, doesn’t handle the starchy carbohydrates well. By limiting portions and having plenty of healthy fats, this has really helped to keep my blood sugar stable and allowed me to focus on the true benefits of a vegan diet, a lot of nuts, seeds, local fruits and veggies.
As with all of my clients, I am always a little hesitant to advise the consumption of a lot of raw fruits and veggies, especially at the beginning of a program. In fact even nuts and seeds are often hard on peoples guts and can create a lot of problems for some people. These “health” foods, however only seem to be difficult for people to handle when a lot of opportunistic fungus and/or major imbalance in the bacterial populations of the gut are present. After performing hundreds of private stool analysis’ with my clients and other testing, like organic acid profiling, that quantifies dysbiosis* of the gut, I can confidently say that roughly 90% of my clients suffer from some form of bacterial or fungal overgrowth in the intestines. It is becoming more and more prevalent in research around cancer, autoimmune disease, allergies, along with any condition that directly affects the gut, that dysbiosis is a contributing factor to the pathogenicity of chronic diseases.
As a result of my recent diet changes, in order to make sure that raw foods will not make me sick, I decided to do a private stool analysis on myself, for which the results may be found here. Although, I do not really have any digestive concerns, as a result of my blood test results from December, I was quite certain that I had a parasite. The stool analysis did not find any signs of worms, but what I did find was a few other things that were interesting! According to my results, I actually have a difficult time digesting meat in the first place, I also found that I tend to over produce acid. On the positive side, it was determined that my bile production and fat digestion are very good and that I have no signs of inflammation in my digestive system. Most importantly I was happy to find no fungus in my gut.
Although I was overall very happy with my test results, what I did find that surprised me, was the slight overgrowth of 2 strains of bacteria, Klebsiella and Enterobacter. Both of these bacteria have been associated with a lot of problems, ranging from autoimmune diseases to prostatis and urinary tract infections. My stool test results have provided my with a natural solution to address the overgrowth of these microbes, with minimal influence on the other bacteria in my intestine. About 2 weeks ago I started taking the natural antibiotics suggested in the stool test, and noticed a difference in my stool quality almost immediately. I feel quite empowered, overall, by knowing all of this, and it has aloud me to confidently eat a lot more raw fruits and veggies without concern.
In general, although I still encourage the majority of my clients to eat lean proteins, I would encourage anyone to take the vegan challenge. I feel like I have detoxified my body a lot over the last few months, and am feeling lighter and lighter as time goes on. Now that I’ve got the hang of eating no animal products, I’m finding it easy to enjoy a lot of veggies and fruits, knowing that my body is getting cleaner and cleaner as time goes on.
Yours in health.
* Dysbiosis – an imbalance in the microorganism populations with in the intestinal tract (the body).