Any thoughts?
Going to dinner with some friends of friends the other night...
One of them was asking my fiance and I about other plant sources of processed protien besides tofu that we might know of. The reason she was asking is because she was diagnosed years ago with Crohns Disease and IBS... after much pain, trying different dietary plans with a nutritionist, and having to have a couple surgeries to remove scar tissue from her intestines.... her doctor and nutritionist finally told her that she just seems to have the most trouble digesting plant cellulose and should just lay off eating most every kind of plant there is you can eat.
Sickening, right?
Well anyway, she was saying how at first she enjoyed it... doctors orders to just fill up on all the stuff doctors usually tell you are bad for you. The kinds of palnts she can most readily take in are less fiberous ones... many root vegetables are easier... she said she has no problem with potatoes, or beets or things like that. But she said for the past few years she was mostly living off of meat, sugars, starches, bready things, etc... She said she's gotten very sick of it though, and wants to start better looking out for her health over all. She's an adventerous eater and likes trying new things but hates how limited her diet feels. She says that she has been in remission for a couple years now though, so she is slowly, carefully, and occasionally adding vegetables back into her diet. That night at dinner she ordered a tofu appetizer to try... the more processed a plant food is the easier it can be for her to break down the cellulose apparently.
Since I'm wanting to go to school to study nutrition and cases like hers really just fascinate me... I decided to do some research on the matter.
I'm not one to just whole heartedly take a single doctor's advice as the undeniable truth... especially when it comes to typical western/modern medicine... most of the time such practices only look at the symptoms and don't delve very deeeply into the causes.
She explained that the doctors figured her issue is that the cellulose fibers of the plant food scrape at her intestinal lining, causing damage... then scar tissue builds up, and if too much scar tissue builds up then the intestines are virtually totally blocked and the tissue must be cut out. But my question then is... why is the cellulose reaching her in such a raw form enough that it can cause so much harm? Food is supposed to start breaking down in the stomach and so forth, with the acids and enzymes there. I suggested to her perhaps she ought to look into digestive enzyme supplements... particularly those designed for vegetarians, as they may have more of an effect on digestion of plant matter.
Anyway... in doing research here online I found out that the enzyme Cellulase, is what is needed to break down cellulose.... it is sort of a bacteria... and only true herbivores can contain the bacterium within themselves to then help them break down the plant matter.... this includes animals like cows and rabbits etc...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulase
From everything I was reading it was saying humans can hardly digest plant matter, or even though they digest it, they lose a lot of the nutrients that are in it, in the process.
I tried to see if there were particularly cellulase based supplements that could be taken, safe for human consumption... I found some dog and cat vitamins here and there which claimed to include it... but not really much of anything regarding people.
Anyway...
I just found it all interesting food for thought per se.
One of them was asking my fiance and I about other plant sources of processed protien besides tofu that we might know of. The reason she was asking is because she was diagnosed years ago with Crohns Disease and IBS... after much pain, trying different dietary plans with a nutritionist, and having to have a couple surgeries to remove scar tissue from her intestines.... her doctor and nutritionist finally told her that she just seems to have the most trouble digesting plant cellulose and should just lay off eating most every kind of plant there is you can eat.
Sickening, right?
Well anyway, she was saying how at first she enjoyed it... doctors orders to just fill up on all the stuff doctors usually tell you are bad for you. The kinds of palnts she can most readily take in are less fiberous ones... many root vegetables are easier... she said she has no problem with potatoes, or beets or things like that. But she said for the past few years she was mostly living off of meat, sugars, starches, bready things, etc... She said she's gotten very sick of it though, and wants to start better looking out for her health over all. She's an adventerous eater and likes trying new things but hates how limited her diet feels. She says that she has been in remission for a couple years now though, so she is slowly, carefully, and occasionally adding vegetables back into her diet. That night at dinner she ordered a tofu appetizer to try... the more processed a plant food is the easier it can be for her to break down the cellulose apparently.
Since I'm wanting to go to school to study nutrition and cases like hers really just fascinate me... I decided to do some research on the matter.
I'm not one to just whole heartedly take a single doctor's advice as the undeniable truth... especially when it comes to typical western/modern medicine... most of the time such practices only look at the symptoms and don't delve very deeeply into the causes.
She explained that the doctors figured her issue is that the cellulose fibers of the plant food scrape at her intestinal lining, causing damage... then scar tissue builds up, and if too much scar tissue builds up then the intestines are virtually totally blocked and the tissue must be cut out. But my question then is... why is the cellulose reaching her in such a raw form enough that it can cause so much harm? Food is supposed to start breaking down in the stomach and so forth, with the acids and enzymes there. I suggested to her perhaps she ought to look into digestive enzyme supplements... particularly those designed for vegetarians, as they may have more of an effect on digestion of plant matter.
Anyway... in doing research here online I found out that the enzyme Cellulase, is what is needed to break down cellulose.... it is sort of a bacteria... and only true herbivores can contain the bacterium within themselves to then help them break down the plant matter.... this includes animals like cows and rabbits etc...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulase
From everything I was reading it was saying humans can hardly digest plant matter, or even though they digest it, they lose a lot of the nutrients that are in it, in the process.
I tried to see if there were particularly cellulase based supplements that could be taken, safe for human consumption... I found some dog and cat vitamins here and there which claimed to include it... but not really much of anything regarding people.
Anyway...
I just found it all interesting food for thought per se.