Great article of a personal struggle with health and morality. Also, one that I can relate to, minus the veganism.
Several years ago, I became fairly suddenly ill. I gained weight had no energy and was struggling with IBS and other conditions.
I have a friend who is also a physician, and when I mentioned my recent and sudden health issues, he suggested I get tested for food allergies, using the blood test instead of the scratch test. The results...
I was allergic to Brewers yeast, bananas, yogurt, egg whites and oatmeal. For health reasons, this was a lot of my diet.
With in weeks of finding out about the food allergies, the excess weight came off and I started feeling better.
One sentence my friend said stuck with me. If you are having digestive issues and your digestive system is irritated and inflamed it is because you are putting things in that are aggravating it. Find out what those things are and stop doing it.
People with IBS have damaged guts and if they heal their gut much of their food intolerance disappears.
The GAPS diet explains how to heal your gut. it was devised by a doctor. I've outlined it in a comment below.
The thing is right now almost everything aggravates either my IBS or IC because my bladder is all open wounds. I am eating very, very bland now only from the safe list. The amount of foods I can eat is so limited right now but I have no doubt that once my bladder heals more foods will open up. :)
Thanks for sharing your story! I had to just be honest that a lot of the things bothering me were vegan and that the only solution is to add at least fish into my diet for the time being. :)
I have some excess weight to drop off too but I know that'll happen now that I am on this diet. Even if the meds can cause weight gain.