Vegan & Plant-Based Diets for Ulcerative Colitis | Pros and Cons – Gut Doctor Explains

vegan plant-based diets for ulcer of colitis do they actually work and what’s the best way to maximize your result in this video we’ll break down everything that you need to know about vegan and plant-based diets for ulcerative colitis and how it measures up against other diet options we’ll go over some common pitfalls food to pay attention to and what foods to avoid and how to monitor your progress along the way so stick around [Music] hi I’m Dr Tan OAS a surgeon dedicated to reducing inflammation caused by gut microbiome imbalances I myself struggled with digestive dysfunction and autoimmune inflammation in my early 20s and successfully put together a methodology that worked not only in me but also my patients my method is called the Mind gut immunity approach and has resulted in thousands of successes over the years if you were someone you know struggles with ulcer of colitis and wants to rid themselves of inflammation for good check out our website mgic clinic.com and schedu a discovery call with me I’ll walk you through some practical steps for ulcerative colitis recovery and how to achieve lasting results in just 6 weeks on the website there are also multitudes of free resources on how you can eliminate ulive kidus naturally to help get you started so check out the description below to get started also before I forget please like and follow to receive more content such as this all right let’s jump in here’s a 2023 study that explores the effectiveness of plant-based diets for ulcerative colitis and highlights remission and symptom improvements in patients without relying on conventional medications and here’s a 2019 study that analyzed the link between plant-based diets and ulcerative collided symptoms showing a lower relapse rate compared to Conventional treatments most gastroenterologists will tell you that diet doesn’t matter for ulcerative kitis so how do we know what truly works as I mentioned in another video called ideal diet for ulcerative colitis I’m a huge advocate for customized phytonutrient based diet plans for each individual and I use four key criteria to determine whether a diet will work or not ulcer of colitis now that doesn’t mean the diets need to be vegan or entirely plant-based so here’s a recap the four criteria are phytonutrients macronutrient requirements microbiome specificity and food sensitivity if you want to learn what these exact criteria are check out my other video called ideal diet for ulcerative colitis I’ll also give you a quick rundown here so let’s first talk about the plant-based diets and how it compares to other diets like the phyto diet which I recommend for Ulster of colitis you may remember from my other videos there’s a concept of complex protein a protein is basically a bunch of amino acids connected together when the protein enters our digestive system enzymes in our intestine break up these into individual components called amino acids which then get absorbed these intestinal enzymes are called proteases and the reason this is relevant is sometimes the proteases don’t get the job done and we’re left with large particles of protein that linger in our intestines and bloodstream for long periods of time why why does this happen well certain types of protein are hard to break down also there may not be enough proteas to break down the proteins as you already know the gut is just one big giant immune organ so these incompletely digested proteins register as a foreign threat and generate an immune response basically the body thinks it’s under attack by these large undigested proteins so then it secretes a bunch of immune chemicals which cause inflammation and that can be a problem next you also have the arachadonic acid pathway which is directly related to the consumption of animal-based cholesterol all animal cells have a membrane wall that contains fats and cholesterol which convert into arachadonic acid and cyto kindes in our bodies and generate inflammation do all animal derived products contain arachadonic acid no just meat and fat containing dairy product there are certain complex proteins that elicit an immune response causing ulcerative kaleidos to become worse next you also have the radonic acid pathway which is directly related to the consumption of animal-based cholesterol you can also have problems with saturated fat causing ulcerative colitis inflammation so taken as a whole this is the case for why vegan diets sometimes work for ulcerative colitis is that they eliminate these problematic foods from the equation cutting down the source of inflammation but as I’ll get to into this video vegan and plant-based diets can also have some great downsides which you must plan for in order to be successful the vegan diet for ulcerative colitis is centered entirely around plant-based foods and can be high in fiber and carbohydrates compared to fats and proteins there are also variations of vegan diets that are considered lacto or ovo vegetarian but for our purposes we’ll be discussing plant-based diets as a whole this diet does allow for some substituted items like vegan meats and cheeses it also find substitutes for butter there are also a lot of cashew based soy based and coconut based items that mimic non-vegetarian foods for example is beyond meat or impossible meat or Dia of cheese soy oat coconut based milk the idea here is to avoid the inflammatory characteristics of meat products but here’s the catch remember those four criteria I mentioned let’s see how this diet Stacks up in the long run for ulcerative colitis let’s dive into the first criteria which are phytonutrients phytonutrients are micronutrients derived from plant-based superfoods they’re packed with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds that can help people with ulcerative colitis by reducing inflammation in the gut here’s a 20124 study that shows the polyphenol cortin and its importance in ulcerative kitis and here’s another study that discusses the role of Prebiotic fiber in resistant plant Stars when you follow a vegan or plant-based diet for ulcerative kitis it’s certainly possible to get large amounts of phytonutrients but only if you’re paying attention to them let’s say for example because you’re vegan you’re eating a lot of flour or sugar or fake meats and cheeses and let’s say these processed foods do not contain a whole lot of beneficial phytonutrients and instead contain chemicals that perpetuate gut microbiome mediated inflammation then you’re shooting yourself in the foot not a great strategy now let’s say that you have a more balanced diet which includes resistant starch fibers Omega oils and lots of herbs and Whole Food vegetables and you can get enough phytonutrients in the vegan diet then you’ll actually try to heal ulcerative colitis next let’s talk about macronutrient requirements the vegan plant-based diets for ulcerative colitis are pretty terrible when it comes to fulfilling the macronutrient needs by entering your height weight and activity level into the calculator on my website you can estimate your macronutrient needs in general a diet that gets half of its calories from fat is normally a good thing for ulcer of kitis although I don’t particularly like saturated fats in meats and certain plant-based Foods because as I said before saturated fats are associated with certain inflammatory processes I also don’t like the animal-based cholesterol in the meat which allow for increases in arachadonic acid in the body and I described both of these Pathways of inflammation in another ulcer colitis video so if you need a refresher feel free to take a look at some of those other videos so when I design diets for my ulcerative colitis clients they are generally lower in carbs anyways for obvious reasons and most of the fats come from plant-based Omega sources so you don’t have these problems there also needs to be at least 100 gram of protein in the diet which can be difficult if you’re trying to do it with a plant-based diet so you’re most probably going to be doing protein shakes with some type of plant-based protein and then you have to be sure that some of these proteins don’t cause sensitivities in the gut and the other thing I’ll mention is because the vegan diets for ulcer of colitis don’t really count carbs fats and proteins they also do a pretty poor job of tracking fiber as well which can be a problem when you’re trying to optimize the gut microbiome so now let’s look at microbiome specificity let’s go back to this equation you have bad bacteria and fungus that feed on carbs that lead to inflammation vegan diets are higher in carb anyways and some of these carbs are not helpful so do vegan diets mean that you have healthier bacteria the answer is a clear no and I know this might sound a little controversial because there are plenty of people on YouTube who argue that the gut microbiome diversity is actually good in people following a vegan diet even on Reddit people are commenting about this but let me give you a practical perspective I’ve reviewed hundreds if not thousands of stool studies in my career and most of the time people following vegan diets for ulcer of colitis do not appropriately select for good bacteria in their intestines through their diet the very nature of ulcerative colitis involves inflammation caused by dysfunctional gut microbiome so at the start of our program we use patented probiotics from Japan to recalibrate the microbiome and flesh out harmful bacteria but after that how do we carefully promote the good bacteria it’s not by avoiding carbs it’s by selecting the right ratios and quantities of phytonutrients this is where the Mind gun immunity method truly excels we designed the diet to encourage the growth of specific strains of beneficial bacteria which form a protective biofilm and push out the harmful bacteria and fungi over the course of several weeks the body produces fewer pro-inflammatory markers like tnf Alpha and Incan 6 thanks to these beneficial bacteria the biggest issue with the vegan diets for ulcer of colitis is that it doesn’t address the root problem you tend to feed bad bacteria non-selectively because there’s no requirements as far as resistant starches or Fiber is concerned in fact vegan and plant-based diets allow for a lot of plant-based sugars carbs and chemicals which can all cause flares seen in ulcerative colitis so I’ve seen this pattern where people may get partially better for a short period of time but then they have lots of problems and fail the vegan diets for ulcerative colitis because the diet itself doesn’t fix the gut microbiome dysfunction now you can certainly make a plant-based diet work for ulcerative colitis but you have to follow certain principles and here’s where the phytonutrient diet comes in and actually tackles the root cause of the microbiome problems associated with alterative colitis this means that long term typically you’ll enjoy more dietary flexibility even incorporating cheat meals without consequences I typically teach my clients how to cheat in the second or third month of the program because by that time we’ve mostly resolved the gut issues in a lasting way and I’m not a fan of temporary fixes and while the vegan diet can help during a flare up it’s not a sustainable long-term strategy compared to the customized phyto diets that we create for our patients all right let’s move on to the final criteria food sensitivities food sensitivities are a key topic when it comes to ulcerative colitis in my talk I cover the four main types of food sensitivity test available the skin prick test the IG blood test the igg4 blood test and the new remediator release blood test if you need a refresher on these test be sure to check out my other video that dives into food sensitivity testing for ulcerative colitis now specifically regarding the vegan diet there are tons of foods that are vegan and plant-based that can cause sensitivities the most relevant ones are processed foods sugars sugar alcohols dyes chemicals and even Whole Food proteins like beans lentils and peas I’ve seen all of these pop up positive over the years for ulcerative colitis that means that the likelihood of being sensitive to one or several types of vegetables and vegan foods is quite High that’s why adopting a vegan and plant-based strategy for ulcerative colitis is risky because your food options become very limited and you develop sensitivities all right that’s my talk in the comments below tell me about your experience with vegan type diets and ulcerative colitis what’s worked for you and what didn’t I’m curious to hear about your experience as you know I’ve had a great deal of success with the Mind G immunity approach in my clients and I’m a strong supporter of customized phyo diets and focused gut microbiome recalibration for our clients to achieve lasting success so if you found this video helpful don’t forget to like And subscribe for more content such as this as always this is Dr Chan ostri with the mun clinic and I’ll see you next time [Music] a