Looking for input on going Dairy free/ Vegan for UC

Hi all!
I'm working on a project with a Vegan Youtuber about going Dairy free and potentially Vegan for health/ medical reasons. Due to my recent diagnosis of UC, researching all about it and seeing how many people are affected by it I really wanted to get information out there. Things like the fact that 70% of our immune system is in the gut, sharing about certain anti-inflammatory foods/ ingredients (turmeric, walnuts, beets, etc.), staying away from meat and alcohol will all be included.
We are planning on including a couple of recipes with "gut healthy" items just to give ideas to people.
This community has a lot of UC veterans and I would love to hear what you guys would think is important to share about the disease and dietary restrictions.

Because many vegans have a lot of grains in their diet it would not be good for my gut to be vegan. I was a vegetarian when I got UC and loved the food I ate then but in order to get to remission through diet modification I needed to be gluten-free, grain-free and dairy free.

Now that my gut has healed I can eat some dairy and it is gut-friendly but wheat/gluten and most grains are not gut-friendly for me. I really wish they were.

Being vegan while dealing with UC is a very, very tough road, hard to maintain weight and get enough vitamins and minerals from food. It was super hard for me to figure out my diet mod. and restricting the food list to vegan would have been almost impossible for me.

My advice is "listen to your gut" and it will tell you by symptoms what food/drink it cannot handle. For me the "no" list was very long to start: wheat, other grains, fiber, raw veggies, dairy, fruit, honey, fruit juice and many others. Vegans can do the same investigations.

With these kinds of diets I found it humanly impossible for me to stay on them for very long, I think you will find this too unless you have a fulltime chef preparing everything for you so you never have to think about anything, cook anything, wash any dishes, go shopping for anything, etc. If not I think you will find yourself almost possessed after a short time to eat things you are not supposed to eat on th ediet.

I've been vegan for almost 4 years. Was vegetarian when I got UC in 2007. This is actually the kind of thing I hate...when vegans tell everyone if they'd only go vegan, they would cure their chronic diseases! My veganism had absolutely no effect on my UC. Diet doesn't cure UC.

I agree with Sara, it's a great way of life, in fact, I wish I had the determination to do it myself. I don't think it's going to change anything with your UC, but it probably won't harm your UC either. Better off doing it because you want to, versus doing it with hopes of it as a treatment - if you do the latter, you will likely be let down. Good luck.

is going veganeeze a good treatment for UC ? for some maybe - one way to find out -

BUT, for all you ethnical vegan types out there: don't preach to the peach - if you don't want to eat animals or applaud folks that do, great - i have no problem with that being an ethnical carnivorian meself - but just leave it at that - don't go on & on about how healthy it is, cuz if you've been around the butt block a few times, you know that there are a gazillion different diets that work for UC and the world, not just one - tell my soon to be 89 year old smoking mom (don't quit mom !) how unhealthy a carnivorian diet is -

The best diet for UC is one that your healthy forebears followed I believe from all the research that I have done and 30 years of trying every approach in the book. A person can come from a long line of vegans and be genetically well placed to live on this diet. Give that diet to someone who is not, and there will be trouble. I for instance have a dearth of enzymes that can convert beta carotene to Vitamin A, without a direct source of Vitamin A, of which there is none in the vegan diet, I am in big trouble.

The reason so many high dairy eating countries are getting into trouble with bone health is due to the lack of vitamin D as most high dairy consuming countries have been more Northern, they could keep and use dairy whereas warmer climes could only do so by fermenting. When these populations worked outside or just got from A to B outside instead of in covered transport and hadn't been scared into wearing sunscreen every time the sun appears they had more exposure to the Sun/vit D.

Many vegans get into trouble with being short of B12, for those with Crohn's or UC reaching into the terminal ileum they are particularly at risk because this is where B12 is mostly taken up in the body. Look deeply into the diets of traditional vegan communities and you will find a source of it, be it insects that got into the food because there were no strong pesticides or particular products within the diet. Fermented palm products for instance contain B12.

Personally, I am not tolerating dairy well anymore and I do worry a bit about the potential of MAP infection. However, I would probably be severely malnourished on a vegetarian diet as I cannot tolerate any traditional vege protein sources except for eggs and on a vegan diet I would need a tonne of supplements.

If you are going to go on a vegan diet please be sure to have regular screening for vitamin and mineral levels.