Vegan Health Failures

I'm copying and pasting these stories from a 2007 post called "Dealing with Ex-Vegans" at vegblog these are from the comments from his really silly post IMO. Anyway I'm keeping this here for posterity and research.

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1. groundhog

   Hello…

   Just like to add my own story here…after years of reading about what might be the perfect diet for humans, and short experiments with such things as macrobiotics, and just plain old vegetarianism, I was very healthy, but constantly reading about health and diet and finally fell into veganism. A few months after that, began eating according to Dr. McDougall’s plan. Right away, my daughter’s ibs improved dramatically, and we were all encouraged. But also right away, I began having similar symptoms to ibs, for the first time in my life. Other McDougallers said this was normal after switching from SAD to McDougalling, just temporary, etc., so I ignored it. Even though the thought never occurred to me that I’d never experienced this with other experiments in diet that I’d tried out previously. Time went along, life was busy, and I got used to ignoring my symptoms, which became worse and worse over the years. By the 10th year of McDougalling (my only McDougall slip-ups were that I never quit coffee for more than a few months at a time, and we would eat out, about once every two or three months, in either Japanese or Indian restaurants, and have vegan dishes with oil added…we ordered a vegan pizza now and then too, but the place where we got that was not into using much oil, so it was much lower fat if it was vegan)– I was 100% vegan for over 10 years, and 99% oil free during that time. My health got so terrible, and I had gotten so used to just ignoring, even denying my problems, and finally it came to the point where I HAD to figure out what was wrong…I was sick each and every day…BAD sick, and looked terrible too. I was starving and eating tons and tons of food each day, thinking this is what McDougall said to do.

   After lots of digging and trial and error, and reading over discussion boards of celiac organizations, I discovered, through a lot of difficulty and a lot of TIME, that apparently for me, all of the bread, pasta, grainy foods I was eating abundantly in place of the stuff I’d dropped from my diet had instigated either a gluten intolerance or full-blown celiac disease. It took me 18 months to get back to anywhere near normal, and along the way, during the healing of my chewed up intestines, I became intolerant to some other foods.

   This idea, of gluten intolerance or other carbohydrate intolerance, lectin intolerance, etc., doesn’t seem to go over well in discussion with most other cooked vegans. The raw folks are quite open to the idea; however, my attempts at being raw have all been failures. Now I eat fish, lots of fish, becuase I can’t eat soy anymore. Corn is questionable in small amounts. I took up eggs to have somethign to eat, and now seem to have on and off intolerance of them too.

   I feel the McDougall diet screwed up my body. I’ve seen others on his message board with things like ulcerative colitis, different autoimmune diseases, diabetes, etc., who didn’t seem to be doing well with either the gluten or other starches or lectins in the legumes, etc. They are usually treated as just not following the rules…there is big denial going on there, and they either get worse by sticking ever more strictly to ridiculously limited forms of the diet, or they disappear from the board.

   This is my story of veganism…not only didn’t work for me, but turned me from a healthy person to a sicko. I don’t wanna be militant or angry, but it’s hard to be happy about it. I would have liked hearing a litte bit of warning that so much grain could possibly harm some people…maybe I would have listened to it. I remember my old SAD days of eating, when I was healthy,
   happy, and even skinny, and could eat and enjoy whatever I wanted…they’re gone forever now, because I can never eat
   anything with gluten in it ever again, and have to be extremely careful about what I eat, have to watch out for other intolerances that tend to pop up out of nowhere, etc. Starch-based veganism is obviously not for everyone…too bad most people find that out after the fact. Now, in addition to having to be careful about my food selection, I also have to wrangle with my own ethical issues over eating fish, but havne’t found out another way to just have enough to eat.

Carla My experience as a raw vegan (9 months)

The Good:
Lost weight (down to a 4/6), improved digestion (for a few months)

The Bad:
BAD mood all of the time, no matter what I ate. Very heavy and extremely painful periods within a month of starting that diet, long cycles.

The Ugly:
Gray teeth (and they are still gray ), hair falling out, increased hypothyroidism, more estrogen dominance, increased ovarian cysts, horribly depressed in the last two months. The teeth part is frustrating because I was blessed with naturally white, straight (w/o braces) teeth and now I can hardly smile because I cant get used to gray, dingy teeth. Now I’m worried about the health of my teeth overall.

That doesn’t make the “good” part sound so good. I broke that cycle when I had salmon and brown rice for Thanksgiving.

Now I eat a diet of humanly raised, grass fed beef, chicken, limited fruits, lots of vegetables and plenty of fats (raw butter, coconut oil) and fermented foods and beverages. I have not gone back to eating grains because of my compromised digestion and gluten intolerance.

I have never been better health wise in my entire life. I’m not longer horribly depressed and suicidal, my weight is still down, I have normal cycles, my thyroid levels are normal, no more ovarian cysts, etc and have tons of energy.

My brother on the other hand, has been vegan for the past 15 years and have done very well. Different strokes for different folks and we should accept that no particular diet works for everyone.

1. ExVegan#1921892329 permalink

   I am an ex vegan. I was vegan for 16 years, had two vegan pregnancies and finally last year I threw in the towel. My oldest child had rotting teeth and my younger had a few cavities so I completely changed their diets. I added in raw milk and raw cheese, local eggs and sometimes fish. My youngest child’s decay has stopped! My children are healthier and happier! They never did get THAT sick, but now they NEVER get sick! I am so relieved. I was a hard core vegan too! I never thought it would come to this, but my children mean more to me than a special diet. I myself have only eaten eggs and dairy in things. I haven’t brought myself to eat meat yet. It’s a long process, and my mind is having to be completely trained to think differently than I have for half my life. I wish I had never gone vegan in the first place! The first years of the diet I was so malnourished because I didn’t know what I was doing. Things got better, but I’ve never felt normal. I have always needed excessive amounts of sleep. I have always supplemented with B12 too.
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   ExVegan#1921892329 permalink

   I just wanted to add, that it’s not just my ex vegan children with the tooth decay. Naomi Aldort has worked with tons of vegan families and said most if not all of them have tooth decay! http://mothering.com/health/child-refuses-healthy-food
   This is a serious concern. When I was researching what to do about my children’s teeth and about vegan children, I found more and more vegan children with decay. I found fully grown people who had been raised vegan and raw who have now had children with rotten mouthfuls of teeth! I used to think I had the supreme diet and that I was feeding my children the supreme, life giving diet. Boy was I brainwashed. If you are vegan and considering pregnancy, please think about using animal products at least while pregnant and breastfeeding. Raw milk and local eggs are highly nutritious. You don’t even have to eat loads of it! You can just add a bit in to cover your bases. You might feel better too.

   
   

   Ex-Vegan permalink

   After having been vegan for almost ten years I can say with more experience than most vegans that, for a lot of people, this lifestyle choice is dangerous. I used to be one of those brainwashed people who scoffed at those who couldn’t remain vegan, saying they were ‘lazy’, ‘doing it wrong’ or were ‘junk food vegans’.

   There may be situations where people can thrive on veganism, and I’ll never discount that. I do, however, now strongly believe they are exceptions.

   I almost died because I was vegan.

   There’s no more and no less to that story. I don’t want to get into specifics, because it’s a lot of pain and anguish but in the end I had to begin consuming animal products again. I wasn’t a junk food vegan. I ate very, very well and took supplements. My health went severely downhill after about six years.

   I already expect most vegans to take it harshly. It’s like a personal attack on their diet choices, and in some ways it is. Being vegan is dangerous to some, and the dangers of it need to be addressed and clearly stated to those who are considering beginning the diet.