Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I originally went Vegan about 4 years ago (cold turkey). I noticed after a month or two, I was experiencing symptoms of arthritis in my hands - I was only 35 yrs old. I went back and forth with dairy and eggs and at some point lost my way and was back to eating meat. Yuck.

Anyway, here I am back to Vegan - more inspired to stay here than ever I might add - and about 6 weeks into it, I am experiencing those same symptoms.

I read to limit nightshade vegetables as they can cause these symptoms. I have all but eliminated those, but still the symptoms persist.

Every other search I do says that a Vegan diet can help alleviate arthritis.

I take B-12, omega 3, zinc, multi-vitamin, etc.

Any clues?

Do you find that you're eating more carbs and omega 6 fats now than as a vegetarian or omni? You might want to try cutting back on carbs, especially grains(particularly refined), and anything cooked in oils high in omega 6s (corn oil, sunflower, peanut, sesame, soybean, and safflower) and replacing them with more good fats (monounsaturated from nuts and avocado and omega 3s from pumpkin/flax/hemp/chia seeds). Have you read about the anti-inflammatory diet? http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguide ... flammatory

They include low fat dairy, fish and other meats in the diet but it can definitely be done vegan. What does a typical day's food look like for you?

Here's a breakdown on what foods have what kind of oils. You want low saturated, low omega6, high monounsaturated and/or high omega 3.
http://math.ucsd.edu/~ebender/Health%20 ... _good.html

Thanks Vegimator!

I definitely haven't increased processed carbs - the opposite - carbs only from whole grains. I will focus in on the oils - again not much change there, but definitely worth looking at.

Typical day:l
Breakfast:
oats or quinoa with almond milk/water and blueberries, almonds and a little agave or butternut squash soup (homemade)

Lunch:
some type of stir fry with veggies and greens with barley, quinoa, or brown rice and tofu or tempeh, or spaghetti squash with greens, or a Rudy's wrap with hummus and veggies

Dinner:
Veggies, greens, grains and seitan of some form, or sweet potato, or "tacos" with homemade corn tortillas and avocado, sometimes pasta with field roast "sausage" - hard to say with dinner - lots of variety

For cooking oils, I usually use olive oil but very sparingly. Sometimes a touch of sesame oil for flavor, or coconut oil

I have some protein shakes that are pea, hemp and chia... usually 1 a day or 4-5 times a week.

Hmm, that does sound like a pretty healthy diet though somewhat grain heavy. But if you were eating even more carbs/grains before being vegan then you're right- it must be something else. In the meantime, if you're not already, it might make sense to take one low dose aspirin every day. They're anti-inflammatory and it might be a good idea anyway since there was a huge recent study showing that doing that can reduce the risk of several types of cancer - http://www.highlighthealth.com/research ... ncer-risk/

a friend of mine's mother has arthritis in her hands - it was pretty bad for a few years (cortizone shots and such) then she found that this worked for her:
- vitamin E + B12 together in the morning, every day.
- eliminated all nightshades. no exceptions.
- gluten-free diet. (as gluten is linked to inflammation. a good book to read is "Crazy Sexy Diet" - a number of people following the "diet" (it's really more of a lifestyle, kinda like how it's a "vegan diet") had some great success going gluten-free in reducing arthritis, fibro, etc. anyways - the "diet" is all vegan, 60% alkaline foods + 40% acidic foods, all gluten-free, low sugar, etc.)

I just find it odd that I have this issue when Vegan. I used to eat night shades often - more often than now - potatoes, peppers, tomatoes mostly.

Vegimator - not too high with grains, I just gave lots of examples - usually only 2 servings a day - and I mean true servings - like a half cup cooked - not a ton.

And gluten free - I want to try that, but again when I was eating crepe - there was lots of gluten - breads, pasta, etc.

I will try the B12 and E also. I am pretty bad at taking vitamins etc. regularly.