I am currently working on becoming vegan. I’m a kid, and it’s sometimes hard to be accommodated at family gatherings, especially if I don’t have time to cook my own vegan equivalent of literally everything they serve. With my current homework load, the best I try to do when going to relatives houses is bring a block of tofu in a cooler. Currently I’m at my grandmas house. She is okay with me cooking my own food. But I feel she doesn’t really like vegans. She spent half an hour yesterday complaining about a raw vegan friend of hers who is “so annoying” and “too health obsessed” and “calls anyone she doesn’t like a flesh eater”. The “humans have canine teeth” argument came up too. Anyway, I didn’t want to make trouble. So for breakfast the next day I had some of the raspberry coffee cake she made. It had milk, butter, and eggs. Not too long after I threw up. I’m worried about a correlation. At some point, will nonvegan foods become inedible to me? Will I eventually have to make trouble to get a safe breakfast?
Can too much vegan food & non-vegan food Intolerance
- Thread starter 9squaredis81
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It may have been as simple as your mind was so concerned about eating non-vegan that it affected your stomach. I certainly sympathize that being vegan and 15 in a non-vegan family would be challenging. If I was in your situation I think that instead of tofu I would take with me a can of breakfast beans, some bread and some peanut butter. Baked beans on toast is an amazing meal and a side of toast with peanut butter at anytime is filling and satisfying. It is also inexpensive.
I don't think non-vegan foods will ever be inedible and if you do find yourself in the situation again I would try to not stress about, acknowledge to yourself that it is ideal but it is practical and necessary. The stress to your body is worse than having a bit of milk, butter and eggs. IMO.
Emma JC
Find your vegan soulmate or just a friend. www.spiritualmatchmaking.com
I don't think non-vegan foods will ever be inedible and if you do find yourself in the situation again I would try to not stress about, acknowledge to yourself that it is ideal but it is practical and necessary. The stress to your body is worse than having a bit of milk, butter and eggs. IMO.
Emma JC
Find your vegan soulmate or just a friend. www.spiritualmatchmaking.com
Lou
Forum Legend
I'm pretty sure that is a myth. But a persistent one being that I've been hearing it for like 20 years.
Like @Emma JC I believe most of the time it is psychosomatic. Stress, fear, guilt.
In out culture we often see the heart as the source of our emotions but of course its the brain. but there is a relationship between our gut and our emotions.
Your brain talks to your gut, and your gut talks back. If you’ve ever had a “gut feeling,” you’ve experienced this communication. It’s how the thought of an exciting event can make you feel “butterflies in your stomach,” while the thought of something dreadful might be “gut-wrenching.” And it’s how the feeling in your gut can influence your decision-making, as in “going with your gut”.
What To Know About the Gut-Brain Connection
Find out what your brain and gut talk about all day, and how this friendship could affect your health.
my.clevelandclinic.org
Like most myths there may be a kernel of truth in the myth. Our bodies can't "forget" how to digest animal proteins. But...
...when you stop drinking milk, you may lose your ability to digest it because your bacteria lose their ability.
There is research to suggest that the bacteria in your gut can affect how well you tolerate lactose, and that the amount of dairy in your diet can affect these bacteria. It’s not 100% certain that this is what causes people to develop lactose intolerance, though.
And... speaking of gut bacteria.... It has been shown that the composition of the gut bacteria is different depending on your diet. So although our bodies don't forget how to digest animal proteins, a change of diet may affect our gut bacteria - which may affect our digestion.
I believe going vegan for a while and then eating non vegan can make it taste not as good, like when I switched from vegan to vegetarian most of dairy/eggs did not taste good. It didn't make me sick, I just did not like it
I think I can attest to the truth of the claim that you lose the ability to digest dairy after some time. For a couple of years I was transitioning from lacto-vegetarian to vegan, and I had been eating pretty much no dairy in probably a year when I found myself in a situation where I had to choose between an Indian vegetarian meal containing paneer cheese or starvation. So I ate. My stomach was not happy - not happy at all! It was a horrible experience, but I woved never to eat animal products again. And in fact I count that as the beginning of my vegan conversion, 19 years this autumn.
Lou
Forum Legend
Lactose intolerance is poorly understood by many people. I'm reminded of a study that was done on people who self diagnosed themselves as lactose intolerant. Most of them were wrong.
lactose intolerance is not a binary condition. There are degrees. Some people are just slightly lactose intolerant.
@Second Summer, paneer cheese if very low in lactose. Just like 10% of what milk contains. It shouldn't cause "a horrible experience". I think the most likely cause is psychosomatic. Or perhaps you were always slightly lactose intolerant and didn't know it. but even so - we come back to the low lactose in paneer. However to be fair, I don't want to rule out the role of gut bacteria. Their role bacteria have in digestion is commonly under appreciated.
References and further reading
Everything You Need to Know About This High-Protein, Non-Melting Cheese
Being vegetarian, a search for high protein options always landed us with tofu. Now, we can’t blame all tofu for being bland and lacking flavor. But, most are. We believe that people looking for natural vegetarian protein options deserve better, and more, options.
sachfoods.com
Could Lactose Intolerance Be All in Your Head? | TIME.com
Most people who suffer from the telltale symptoms of bloating, gas, gut pain and nausea after consuming milk believe they have lactose intolerance. But a new Italian study suggests that only a third of such patients actually do.
healthland.time.com
Spectrum of Lactose intolerance — LG Nutrition
Lactose intolerance is not an all or nothing condition. There are different degrees of lactose intolerance. There are also different types of lactose intolerance. The two most common types of lactose intolerance are: Primary lactose intolerance - deficiency of lactase enzyme that general
www.lgnutrition.com
It really differs. I have found after eating a wfpb diet free of oils and sugar that when I had something with oil I felt bad, as well as sugar in a different way.
The years I've avoided dairy I had at times given in, usually about a year of no dairy, to things like pizza. Early on, I intentionally ate a lot with the intention of making myself sick -- but I never had any adverse reaction
--at least not any digestive issue, dairy of course made my arthritis flare, as it always had
Even now, I have times when I'll have something that contains egg or dairy and don't have any reaction. Why I don't identify as vegan
Think your grandma may enjoy veganizing one of her recipes? Like maybe look at it as a healthy option rather than vegan? Things like that breakfast pastry can be unreasonably loaded with eggs sugar and dairy--like doughnuts!
The times I had unknowingly had meat however immediately makes bile come up my throat, and tastes putrid. I have to spit it out right away.
Your gut biome does change when you switch your diet type.
If you really want to learn about your bodies reaction to what it eats i recommend
How Not to Diet by Dr Micheal Greger
The years I've avoided dairy I had at times given in, usually about a year of no dairy, to things like pizza. Early on, I intentionally ate a lot with the intention of making myself sick -- but I never had any adverse reaction
--at least not any digestive issue, dairy of course made my arthritis flare, as it always hadEven now, I have times when I'll have something that contains egg or dairy and don't have any reaction. Why I don't identify as vegan
Think your grandma may enjoy veganizing one of her recipes? Like maybe look at it as a healthy option rather than vegan? Things like that breakfast pastry can be unreasonably loaded with eggs sugar and dairy--like doughnuts!
The times I had unknowingly had meat however immediately makes bile come up my throat, and tastes putrid. I have to spit it out right away.
Your gut biome does change when you switch your diet type.
If you really want to learn about your bodies reaction to what it eats i recommend
How Not to Diet by Dr Micheal Greger
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I’m aware of this. I’m considered slightly lactose intolerant, which I inherited from my dad. While there was never a time when I was completely unable to drink milk, I would always get bad reactions from cheese, ice cream, and other such products. My dad was the same way as a child, but he says he grew out of it and now eats the same amount of dairy as everyone else. I gave up cheese almost completely long before discovering veganism, and would also opt for sorbet instead of ice cream when it was available. I haven’t had anything like that happen since becoming vegan. I can attest to it being somewhat psychosomatic, since I still feel nervous about even vegan ice cream. There’s a tub of mint chocolate chip oatmilk ice cream that I bought languishing in the freezer because I’m still conditioned to dislike ice cream even though this ice cream won’t make me sick.
Well, there may well have been other dairy in that meal besides the paneer. Also, there are other substances in dairy besides lactose, such as casein and whey. It's also possible my experience was a case of food poisoning. What it was not is psychosomatic, nor a case of being a little lactose intolerant
However, I have heard similar stories from other long-term vegans. Since apparently this isn't a topic that has been the subject of peer-reviews research, I choose to go by personal experience and anecdotal evidence for now.
This cookbook author states, in one single sentence, that going vegan (or dairy-free) doesn't make you lactose intolerant. She offers no evidence whatsoever to back up that claim. And in the same sentence she also says many people who remove dairy from their diet are then no longer able to tolerate it. Her hypothesis seems to be that the reason vegans experience dairy intolerance is because a) they were always lactose intolerant and just didn't know it
and/or b) they were eating so much garbage food before, so now when they "eat clean" their bodies reject the "garbage" food.She also uses terms such as clean eating and detoxing, both red flags for me. So, I'm afraid I'm not convinced by this.
I didn't become lactose intolerant after 8ish years. I do have GERD, tho
Hi @9squaredis81 - I'm sorry you're getting flak from some of your family, and that a lot of this isn't your doing (it's your grandmother's unpleasant experiences with her abrasive vegan friend). I hope she soon understands that you're just as passionate about your commitment to veganism, but you still love humans.
(Off-topic: I ONLY JUST NOW realized what your username means!)
(Off-topic: I ONLY JUST NOW realized what your username means!)
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The problem with my grandparents is that they’re hunters. They don’t understand that the point of veganism is to help less animals be killed, because someone saying that would feel like a personal attack on their “hobby”. So they’re convinced that veganism is a diet, and that people are vegans because it’s “healthier” or “more natural”. Which they spent a lot of time debunking both points.
Edited to add: I was thinking that your body might be losing its ability to digest milk/lactose, as you mention above. Back when I first started weaning myself off dairy, I think I sometimes paid for it if I gave in to the temptation to drink some milk. But most here don't think that is happening to you.
Whoa- that will make it hard for them to understand you. You might be able to make that happen, but it won't be easy. I remember my immediate family didn't hunt, although my Dad avidly collected magazines like "Outdoor Life"- but we did all fish. I think that was why it took me several years after I stopped eating meat to stop eating fish also.
Lou
Forum Legend
I'll have to look up the reference later but I remember a good argument aimed at hunters about not eating beef and chicken (and maybe milk and eggs).
Something along the lines of how no self respecting hunter would cage an animal and make it suffer like the livestock industry routinely does.
I think the Omnivore's Dilemma by Michale Pollan touched on this subject. Have you read that?
Pollan does not advocate for veganism in the book so it's not something an omnivore would NOT read. Pollan even goes wild boar hunting in one of the chapters. But IMHO, it's a must read.
Something along the lines of how no self respecting hunter would cage an animal and make it suffer like the livestock industry routinely does.
I think the Omnivore's Dilemma by Michale Pollan touched on this subject. Have you read that?
Pollan does not advocate for veganism in the book so it's not something an omnivore would NOT read. Pollan even goes wild boar hunting in one of the chapters. But IMHO, it's a must read.
Honestly I know people that hunt that do more for animals than almost any vegan I know. They would love to just live with nature, and honestly, in many climates that would involve hunting, and meat would be limited. They respect my choice more than those who stay ignorant
I very well remember when Pollans book came out, as well as In Defense of Food. I think those books did more to get people thinking and reduce their intake of animal products than any documentary.
If you are not used to eating something it will taste pretty bad. When my children were young, they were on a pretty strict diet. My youngest was allergic to dairy products, and my eldest was ADHD and couldn't have sugar.
My mother had purchased Frosted Flakes, and then put spoonfuls of sugar on it. My children couldn't eat it. When I ran out of my homemade granola, I bought a "low sugar" version at the health food store. They all said it was too sweet. Their palates had been trained on a low sugar diet
I have occasionally eaten a slice of meat free pizza at a party. A bite or two to be polite, and it gets dumped in the wastebasket. My body won't accept the greasy cheese.
My mother had purchased Frosted Flakes, and then put spoonfuls of sugar on it. My children couldn't eat it. When I ran out of my homemade granola, I bought a "low sugar" version at the health food store. They all said it was too sweet. Their palates had been trained on a low sugar diet
I have occasionally eaten a slice of meat free pizza at a party. A bite or two to be polite, and it gets dumped in the wastebasket. My body won't accept the greasy cheese.
@LoreD Hmmm... I hate to waste food. I would have just explained that I had a digestive issue with cheese and it would make me sick. I find that so long as I don't disrespect or judge the people I'm eating with, and explain why I'm not eating something, nobody is offended. I often say something like "That does look/smell good, though." (The food in question often does).
Most people accept that people have different dietary restrictions: low-carb; low-fat; Kosher; pescatarian, vegetarian, or vegan; various allergies/sensitivities to things, such as gluten (I am SO GLAD I don't have to deal with that last one!!!!)
Most people accept that people have different dietary restrictions: low-carb; low-fat; Kosher; pescatarian, vegetarian, or vegan; various allergies/sensitivities to things, such as gluten (I am SO GLAD I don't have to deal with that last one!!!!)
