I mentioned last year that I had to completely overhaul my food choices to support a vegan endometriosis diet. That was quite the process, and with big things like this, I tend to take them in steps. So today, I wanted to outline what I do eat and why. I also want to note, that for the past 6 months, I have followed a mostly Ayurvedic diet. More to come on that.
To begin, I want to outline a few things that have helped me significantly. Also, I need to reiterate that I have not been diagnosed with endo due to not wanting to undergo surgery. I explain this in the post linked above, but wanted to mention as my intention is not to sound like a guru here, just someone who’s tried a lot of adjustments, for multiple years, and have finally landed on something that’s (mostly) working.
Also! I am not a dietician. I am not a nurse or doctor or an Ayurvedic practitioner. This is just what worked for me. Do not take this as medical advice! Talk to your doctor. Read endo blogs from medical institutions. Be your own health advocate.
Now, here’s my best tips for a vegan endometriosis diet.
What To Cut From Your Vegan Endometriosis Diet
What I cut out: all alcohol, sugar, artificial sweeteners, chocolate, caffeine, and dairy. Quite frankly, the hardest to cut was caffeine, and it still to this day literally breaks my heart that I can’t have coffee, chai lattes, or matcha lattes anymore. I also have acid reflux so decaf coffee unfortunately doesn’t work for me, either, and that’s also why I had to give up chocolate mentioned above, and tomatoes mentioned below.
I have mostly cut out or limited greatly: gluten (I eat bread only once a day now), soy (I eat tofu about once every other week), tomatoes (I eat tomatoes maybe once every other week tops), and most spicy foods (this has been so depressing for this native Texan/New Mexican transplant).
Those are the biggest drivers of endo pain that I not only have found personally, but also have learned in the books I’ve devoured (again, covered in the above linked blog).
Caffeine Substitutes for Your Vegan Endometriosis Diet
For morning coffee, for about a year, I was OK with the reduced caffeine in Ryze’s Mushroom Coffee. About 6 months ago, my endo pain really started up again, and I simply just have the worst acid reflux so I had to finally cut out all caffeine completely. I’ve switched to their Mushroom Chicory, and it’s good… I’m not in love with it like I was their Mushroom Coffee, but it works and satisfies my cravings. I also start each day with a cup of warm water, then move to a cup of decaf herbal tea (currently Buddha Tea’s Calm blend), and then move to 1 cup of the Mushroom Chicory.
I also found a decaf Chai blend that I love, so on mornings that it’s really cold or I woke up super early and need an extra bolt of yumminess a little later in the day (I’m also in perimenopause so sleep is a BITCH), this chai is delicious. I heat 10 oz almond milk over the stove for a few minutes, add 1/2 tsp. of this chai, a tiny bit of agave nectar, and whisk. It’s delicious.
What else? Throughout the day, I sip on hot water or fresh ginger “tea” (AKA ginger in hot water with lime and a bit of agave nectar), and at night, I always end my day with a cup of lavender sleep tea or lavender tulsi tea.
Foods to Eat for Your Vegan Endometriosis Diet
I’ve been working with Emily Glaser at TejasVeda for these past 6 months. I have followed her for YEARS and finally bit the bullet and signed up for her coaching. She’s incredible. She’s also based in Santa Fe so I’ve had a handful of her in-person Ayurvedic and health treatments as well. If you’re into Ayurveda, you will love her offerings. If you’re dealing with awful digestive issues and perimenopause issues like me, you will be over the moon to work with her. I cannot recommend her enough.
So! All that said, she really helped me clean up my diet and it has really, really made a difference.
Breakfast
I now eat the same breakfast everyday: steel cut oats cooked with water, and then in the last 5 minutes of cooking, I add in approximately 1/2 a cup (or more) of almond milk, 1 tsp. of chia seeds, and 1 tsp. of hemp seeds. Once the chia seeds expand (about 5-6 minutes later), I remove from heat and stir in 1 tbsp. of almond butter.
Emily says nut butters do not help digestion, so I pull almond butter out during the week of my menstrual cycle, as well as the day before my cycle hits. However, the rest of the month, I leave it in. I love almond butter so, so much and feel like I’ve already given up a lot of my fave foods with endo (looking at you, coffee) that I just need a break here. I will say, I used to eat almond butter during the week of my periods, and my pain was worse. So, she’s onto something here.
I do not change up this breakfast. My old acupuncturist recommended congee as a substitute for oatmeal, and I used to eat that (cooked brown rice) with chopped-up dates in the morning, topped with a bit of cinnamon and cloves. It is a delicious, wholesome option as well, but I prefer oatmeal, so that’s what I stick with for my vegan endometriosis diet. I’m offering this as a suggestion though as congee is really good for digestion as well, and you might prefer to switch things up more than I do.
Lunch
For lunch, I’ll often have a very simple wrap that consists of a whole wheat wrap, most often filled with cooked sweet potatoes, spinach, and garbanzo beans, and topped with smashed avocado, walnuts, a cut-up date, and a vegan dijon vinaigrette.
My next fave lunch these days is tacos filled with smashed, “refried” pinto beans, sweet potatoes, avocado, and homemade cashew sour cream.
Gluten has not been a huge driver of pain for me (good lord I hope not at least), so I just limit it instead of completely cutting it out. As I explained in my previous post on endo, what works today will most likely not work tomorrow, so I may have to eventually cut out gluten, too. For now, I keep it in my vegan endometriosis diet in small quantities (for me at least…. this may be too much for you, but I was eating a lot of bread before).
While I’m on my period, and the day before my period, I’ll substitute my typical lunch for kitchari. This was Emily’s suggestion and I think it has had the greatest impact on the amount of my endo pain. I won’t get into all the Ayurvedic details here as I’m not an expert, but eating cooked, easy to digest foods, is the best choice for digestion. And the thing with endo is that it effects our digestion, big time, as well.
I also eat kitchari during my fertile days, which are often just as painful as my period days. If you’re in the same boat, I highly suggest switching to a cooked, warm, and simple-to-digest meal during those days. It helps tremendously.
For kitchari, I use the recipe that Emily gave me during our coaching, which is beyond delicious (this one by Kate O’Donnell is delicious, too). On the days when work is nuts or I forgot to soak the lentils before cooking, Divya’s Kitchen has several pre-soaked and dehydrated kitcharis that are incredible. Really, really, really delicious. I’m linking to Emily’s page for the Divya’s info as I found out about this through her, but either way, I really recommend you grab a few (or more) packs to have on hand when you’re in a pinch – they cook in 20 minutes! I now buy them in bulk so I’m never without.
I highly recommend kitchari for your vegan endometriosis diet. If nothing else, please consider increasing cooked, warm foods (veggie- and grain-focused) and see if you notice a difference. It truly amazed me on how quickly I saw a difference in my pain levels!
Dinner
For dinner, I’ll often make a veggie soup of some kind. I rotate between my own recipes, Oh She Glows, Make It Dairy Free, and Kate O’Donnell’s cookbooks. These days, I’m mostly making Indian-inspired dishes, so Make It Dairy Free and Kate O’Donnell have been my faves to work with. However, MIDF’s Vegan Golden Soup has got to be the most delicious soup on this planet, so it is heavy in my rotation and thankfully hits all the marks with my vegan endometriosis diet. Big thank you to my friend Laura for sending this recipe my way. I very often pair whatever soup I’ve made with cooked basmati rice (and crusty sourdough) to complete the meal.
I also quite often make Oh She Glow’s Buddha Bowl (one of my top-5 favorite meals; it never gets old) or will steam veggies and pair with basmati rice, topped with a homemade sauce of my choice, often a tahini or peanut butter sauce, depending on my mood.
Again, during my period, and during my fertile days, I switch to just kitchari. About half the time I make my own using Emily’s recipe, and half the time I cook up one of Divya’s simple options.
Snacks
Snacking is a big no-no in Ayurveda as it interrupts digestion. I rarely ever snack, aside from my daily vegan golden milk latte. This is my afternoon chill beverage that replaced my coffee and then matcha drinks. I’m hooked, I love it, turmeric is good for me, and it’s just so comforting. So I snack with this, and I don’t see myself changing that anytime soon. Also, with a vegan endometriosis diet, I do not know the medical literature around this, but snacking can’t be great…anything that interrupts digestion is not going to help with your pain, in my opinion.
I currently use Kate O’Donnell’s golden milk recipe from her Everyday Ayurveda for Women’s Health (a fab book in and of itself), but I switch this up often and you can find so many on the internet that are simple and delicious. Please note with turmeric lattes that it’s best to drink them from a straw as turmeric stains your teeth, and my dentist says it does not come off easily. I use these glass straws for my daily golden milk ritual.
Notes for Your Vegan Endometriosis Diet
So a couple of things to keep in mind:
- With endo, you really need to look at what you’re putting in (and on) your body. I cannot stress this enough.
- With your vegan endometriosis diet, take it slow. As I mentioned in my last blog, I removed a few of the biggest food triggers at a time. More recently, I also removed caffeine, and I’m almost completely off of soy as well (tofu is pretty much my only soy as I use coconut aminos for soy sauce).
- I also removed almost all spicy foods, which aside from coffee, has also been the hardest to cut. I have to be really careful throughout the month on the amount of spice I eat, and I have to completely remove it during my menstrual cycle. Not only does it affect my digestion, but I’m literally allergic to green chiles, yet only allergic while I’m on my period – I break out in a full-body rash only if I eat this during my cycle (endo significantly impacts histamine as well). Fun!
- I cannot stress enough how much these vegan endometriosis diet changes have impacted my life for the better. Yes, it’s annoying. But you most likely already gave up cheese when you chose to eat vegan. You’re used to making food sacrifices for the better of your health. This is just one more step, and I promise it gets easier. Take one small step at a time.
- Eating out gets real difficult on a vegan endometriosis diet. I still eat out about 2-3x a week, but I try as much as I can to make sure I’m eating only veggies, rice, and beans, and I know that there’s no such thing as perfect. As Emily likes to remind me, 80% is the magic number. Just try to eat this way 80% of the time.
- You’ll notice this is a combo of Ayurvedic principles along with the vegan endometriosis diet suggestions. For me, they’re one in the same these days. I cannot stress enough how great I have felt after working with Emily on eating cooked, healthy foods, and I simply can’t talk about one without the other anymore.
- You’ll also notice I don’t have a lot of protein. This is the biggest pain point in my vegan endometriosis diet right now. Thankfully, I’m eating a ton of fiber. However, my protein intake is low and I’m working on ways to increase that. I do not use powders (totally OK if you do, but they are not for me), and with removing tofu, my main drivers of protein are rice, beans, and veggies. I have considered switching to tempeh which yes is still soy but not as processed as tofu, so I’ll report back on how that goes. Just know for now, this is a work in progress. Just like endo.
- I still have to take pain meds (prescription-strength naproxen on my really heavy days and Midol on my lighter). However, the pain meds work now – whereas before, no amount of meds would stop or even come close to stopping the pain. I would love to one day be meds-free, but for now, this is working.
- I try to always remember these tips work today. Tomorrow may be different, and to take each day (and monthly cycle) one at a time.
That’s it for now! I hope this post helped you a bit in finding the best foods for your vegan endometriosis diet. Please reach out if I can help clarify anything.
Next week, I’ll be posting my top lifestyle tips for managing endo, so please check back in if you’d like to learn more.
With love,
Jen