For as long as I could remember, I have had severe abdominal pain, bloating, and constipation. This was heightened after I ate food and would linger for most of the day.
It would be painful to the point where it affected my ability to go about my day and function at work. I’d also have backaches, headaches, and brain fog. I felt sluggish a lot of the time affected my ability to socialize with the people around me.
Gradually, I learned to live with these symptoms because I thought that they were normal. But in 2018, I decided to see a doctor because I reached a low point in terms of the physical pain that I was experiencing.
I had taken several scans and was told that there was nothing wrong with me. I was then given medication to help get rid of my stomach pain and my headaches, which I took for a short period of time, but it did not help at all.
Hearing that medication was the only solution to my problems didn’t sound right to me.
During that same year, the vegan movement was becoming more mainstream in the U.S., so I started getting targeted for a lot of YouTube and Instagram advertisements about going vegan.
Random videos began popping up on my feed, which made me think that maybe I could consider changing my diet. I saw loads of success stories from people who decided to quit meat and go vegan, so I thought: “This medication is not helping me, let me try this diet thing.”
I decided to become a vegan not only for my health but also for environmental and ethical reasons.
After doing some research, I spoke to my doctor about changing my diet and they said that as long as I was taking vitamin B12 tablets along with a whole-food plant-based diet filled with vegetables, fruits, and grains, I won’t experience a vitamin deficiency.
I didn’t make the connection at the time that what I put into my body affected how I felt. In January 2018, I slowly began eliminating certain foods from my diet. During the first week, I eliminated red meat from my diet, and during the second, I eliminated chicken. For the third week, I took seafood out of my diet, followed by dairy and eggs.
So, instead of eating chicken, I ate tofu, green peas, and asparagus. I swapped white rice for brown rice, which is more nutritious, and I also added peanut sauce to my food to increase my protein intake. For breakfast, I’d eat fruits like blueberries and bananas. I’d sometimes make a smoothie with chia seeds and hemp seeds for fiber and protein. I would then add some almond butter for the nuts. These little things were not in my diet previously, but these different foods gave me so much energy.
As soon as I changed my diet, I felt lighter. My bloating went away, and so did my constipation and stomach pain. I immediately had so much more energy. My day-to-day life changed drastically. Before, I would feel so terrible to the point where I couldn’t exercise, so I’d lay in bed instead.
But when I got my energy back, I was able to do more things like taking walks around my neighborhood, signing up for the gym, exercising, and putting various other healthy habits in place. I felt better because I was mentally in a better place.
Before, my energy was focused on how I could get better because I was constantly in so much pain. But after my stomach pain cleared up, I began thinking: “What else can I do to be my best self, and to feel good?”
There are social situations where I eat dairy and eggs because there is no decent vegan option. But when I do consume dairy eggs, I feel awful. I’d get some acne and my stomach pain will come back. But eating dairy and eggs is something that I’ve accepted will happen once in a while when I am out and there are no other alternatives.
Currently, I create plant-based recipe videos online, in the hopes that if people were interested in incorporating more plants into their diet, I could show them how to do that.
I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback from people of a similar background to me that have said, “Thank you so much for sharing this vegan recipe,” because now they can feel like they’re not missing out on what they grew up eating.
I put a lot of emphasis on Vietnamese and Chinese recipes. When I became a vegan in 2018, there weren’t that many of those types of recipes online in comparison to now, which sometimes felt isolating because I wasn’t able to eat the foods I grew up with.
I would be lying if I said that I didn’t crave meat after changing my diet. I grew up eating meat, so I absolutely did, especially during the first six months. But anytime that I was about to reach out for some meat, I would remind myself of how awful I felt when I was eating it, and now, I do not crave it anymore.
I’m not a doctor, but changing my diet has been something that has helped me tremendously. It’s made such a big impact on my life.
Tiffany Bach is an NYC-based plant-based recipe developer and content creator. You can find her plant-based recipes on her website here or recipe videos on Instagram here.
All views expressed in this article are the author’s own.
As told to Newsweek associate editor, Carine Harb.
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