Vegans Help - Post VSG

Sadly, this might be something that you just have to force yourself to get over. Combining veganism, picky eating, and WLS all together is a recipe for malnutrition.

Are you a dietician or someone who can base this theory as factual?

Just wondering?

Thanks

A

Anatomy and Physiology is hardly "theory." But you do you.

If you don't believe in the biological sciences, there's also Logic.

You've had a surgery that provides restriction and malabsorption. This limits how much you can eat, what you can eat, and how much of what you eat will be absorbed. As you should have learned pre-op, if your nutritional intake isn't correct, you will suffer from malnutrition.

You are seeking to restrict your dietary choices even farther by being vegan. (Many people on the forums are anti-veg*n, I'm not one of them. I firmly believe it's possible to live a healthy post-WLS life as a veg*n. However, it DOES require significant research, planning, and education to prevent the aforementioned malnutrition. At the moment, it doesn't seem like you have done these things. It also requires a varied diet within your increased level of restricted diet.)

You have restricted your dietary choices even more by being a picky eater. This makes the chances of you getting the varied diet you must have to be a healthy post-op vegan even slimmer.

You are treading on thin ice with your life and something will need to give for you to be able to properly nourish yourself. Since you can't change your surgery status, you CAN change your veg*n status or your picky eating habits. My recommendation is that you work on being a less picky eater within the constraints of veganism.

NYMom gave you good ideas of things to try with tofu - I foolishly assumed that you would have tried the things she suggested already. There are a ton of phenomenal vegan resources out there and there are people here who have had success with veg*nism post-op.

Find a protein powder you enjoy (Vega makes great vegan protein powders), research the hell out of vegan protein options, accept that, in your healing days, you might need to rely more on protein powder than you would like to because you won't have the diet advancement that is required for digesting the high protein vegan options out there.

Once you are able to eat more solid foods, there are a ton of great veg*n meat alternatives out there. Some of them work better for some people - for instance, there are vegan burgers that supposedly taste like "REAL" burgers. My vegan BFF would never eat one because, yuck? She doesn't want to eat things that taste like animal flesh even if they're not? However, then there are vegans who are vegan for different reasons and would gladly eat a vegan burger that tasted like a "REAL" burger, because the fact that no animals were harmed in the process is the important part of the equation for them.

Tofu- you can put it in your shakes with the blender

you can make it mousse-like with sweet flavorings in the food processor.

Use firm silken tofu

tempeh, they make vegan 'chicken broth' powder. Break it up in sauce pan with broth made from vegan powder, keep cooking until liquid evaporates and chicken flavor sticks to tempeh. Cool and use for 'chicken' salad.

Thank You!!! I never thought to blend tofu!!

And great tip for tempeh.. thank you!

A

This is excellent advice Julie!

Dr. Alvarez is a Bariatric surgeon and vegan. He has his own blog. You should look him up and ask the questions to him. He would definitely have better answers for you. Check him out on youtube. My daughter is vegan and is very healthy and doing well. Good luck.

This is awesome, Thank you!!! Will look Dr. Alvarez up.

Ana

You can also look up Dr. Matthew Weiner on youtube. He isn't strictly vegan/vegetarian, but his post op approach is more "vegetable first" than the typical bariatric "protein first" program. While I am somewhat dubious of his suggested protein levels for all but the shortest women, his approach does have a lot of merit, particularly in the long term.