Advice on Dairy/Egg free diet and supplements

[-Lex-]

Hi, my first post on here.

So a few years ago while at Uni I was really into weight training and cardio. I was ~11 stone 5 (I'm 5.8'), I was fit and had managed to build a good physique. And I loved working out. At this point I became pretty sick and was eventually diagnosed with Crohn's disease. Long story short I lost a dangerous amount of weight (near 7 stone), had to cut out a lot of food, and had to stop any training until I finally settled into a diet and some aggressive treatment to get me back on track.

Now I'm back out the other side, and despite some significant life changes things have been fine for a year. 5 years after i first became unwell and had to ditch working out, I'm looking to start back on the weights, but given circumstances I need a bit of advice on supplements.

I used a weight gainer before i was diagnosed that contained casein and egg protein, and I'm sure it triggered off some nasty reactions. Since then I've realised I basically cannot eat any dairy or egg, both upset me bigtime, and I feel so much better after cutting them out. This includes lactose free foods; a tiny amount in something won't do me any harm, but the risks of experimenting with dairy outweigh the benefits for me.

So I'm looking to what alternatives to dairy and egg are out there, in terms of both diet and supplements, that can offer me similar results, and what people could recommend. Currently I eat a lot of pulses, red kidney beans and lentils, lots of white rice, wholegrain bread, mince, chicken, pork, lamb, tinned and fresh fish, porridge with 50:50 soy milk and water for breakfast and fresh veg. Although i take multivitamins I'm currently using no post workout supplements but I'm really happy to have found alternatives to dairy on MP, I'm just not sure which is best for me!

Any and all replies and advice gratefully received, cheers.

[chill9]

That's a tough one man, I would probably stick to food sources for the protein. The majority of protein supplements are milk based, apart from soy proteins which aren't ideal. MP do a vegetarian selection of protein powders.

Don't worry about supplements too much, they are used as a convenient source of protein. If you can eat your calories and get the right amount of protein in the day through food you'll be fine.

Are you a vegetarian?

[-Lex-]

No i eat all meat, I should have said in my first post. In general I eat well, it'd just be nice to have supplements as an available option post workout. Or for on one of those mental busy days where you accidently miss your protein intake without noticing.

Having searched the web I notice a lot of diet plans contain both dairy and egg, so I'd be interested to hear if anyone's developed a diet plan that cuts either or both of these out.

[chill9]

Yeah well my diet doesn't include either, apart from the milk based protein shake. I can't stand milk or eggs. I only have one of these a day and could replace it with food if necessary. I have it out of convenience as you say. I have to get my calcium through supplements.

[rattyryan]

Just take some bcaa's and dextrose/wms pwo followed by a meal if you cant have a protein shake. You dont even need a whey shake really pwo

[wilfred]

Your diet looks fairly fibre heavy and excess fibre is strongly linked with crohn's and ibs. You may want to reconsider all the pulses and wholegrains you eat.

You could cut them out and just use white rice and potatoes as your carb sources for a month or two. Gluten has been shown to exacerbate crohns symptoms as well, so may be worth kicking bread to see if it makes a difference.

I have had two friends whose crohns virtually disappeared on a paleo/primal diet. google it.