Need Food I can share with a no-oil vegan

food
help
vegan
(Whitney) #1

Hi there! (This is my first post.) I’ve been eating keto since April 2018. My mother-in-law has been put on a vegan diet by her doctor and she has also been instructed to eat NO OIL (even plant-based oils) in addition to no animal products. This has made it difficult when we visit her (she lives in another state) because she and I have so little that we can eat in common. We have managed so far, like when she has grilled mushrooms on a bun and I have a bunless burger when everyone else in the family has a burger on a bun. But I would like some new ideas for things we can cook at her house that work for both of us. This is what I have so far:

  1. low carb salad: leafy greens, nuts, avocado, mushrooms…She can add her preferred non-oil dressing and have a baked potato and I can add an oil-based dressing, cheese, and boiled egg to my salad.

  2. low carb vegetable soup: I can have the soup with added olive oil and maybe grated Parmesan on top. She can have it with the added pasta or rice. Celery, spinach, mushrooms, zucchini, tomato, cauliflower, jalapeño, broccoli, okra, snow peas, etc. are all low enough carb that I could make it work.

  3. veggie fajitas with grilled onion, mushrooms, peppers and homemade salsa and guacamole. I could just add some oil to mine and go without the tortillas.

Anyone else have any ideas for meals that lend themselves to both a keto and vegan/no oil diet with minor modifications?

Thank you!

(Ethan) #2

No animal products and no oil. How does she get any fat? Avocados have lots of natural oil. How can she have that? With this little fat in her diet, I don’t think she will survive really well. Fats are essential to life.

(Whitney) #3

I agree with you that it doesn’t make a lot of sense. She freely eats tons of nuts and avocado, which both contain oils/fat, but I have not pointed out the seeming lack of logic there. This is a diet she was put on by her doctor about 2 months ago to combat high blood pressure. Even though I know keto is great for losing weight and lowering blood pressure (she needs to do both), I don’t feel comfortable having that conversation with her, both because I’m not her doctor and also because she has another daughter-in-law (married to her other son) who is a long-time vegan and whom she is really fond/proud of, so I feel like telling her “hey, ignore your doctor and other daughter-in-law and eat tons of animal fat!” would go over really poorly. She and I have butted heads in the past over lesser stuff. I’m hoping that leading by example will help and that eventually she might come to me asking for more information on her own.

(Ethan) #4

It’s a cringeworthy position to be in. I understand, and we all have to do such things in family life. I’m too stubborn and would make it my mission to make sure she understands that she can’t actually eat any of the foods she is eating, since they contain oil. But, if you somehow ignore logic and assume she can eat any oil that comes in a whole-food, solid, and vegan form, there are very few items that can cross between that and keto directly. I’d say to just make two meals. Don’t try to intersect them.

(KCKO, KCFO) #5

I have several vegan friends, none of them would make it through their day without oils. I would suggest you check out some low carb recipes on some of the vegan sites, you should be able to substitute veggie broth for oil when they say to saute something. This isn’t an easy way to eat and personally I think her dr. is NUTS.

Good luck. Remember to take lots of add ins, I think you will need them.

(Charlotte) #6

I’m familiar with this particular variety of vegan diet–basically they don’t believe in adding oil to food, but rather in only consuming fat in whole food forms. So avocados, nuts and olives are OK, but avocado, nut and olive oil are not. It works for some people–one of my friends revitalized his health and lost a ton of weight this way–but I was constantly starving and tired when I tried it, and keto works much better for me.

(Ethan) #7

The point is that there is very little longterm tolerable intersection between this whole-food vegan diet and a ketogenic diet. I would recommend just making separate meals and not trying to intersect them.

(Charlotte) #8

True. I was just responding to your question about whether she can have avocado because it contains oil. But yeah, outside a “build your own salad” type setup, there is very little intersection between keto and low fat vegan eating.

#9

I do a vegan ‘stirfry’ sometimes with coconut milk; obviously now keto I happily use olive oil first & peanutbutter to make a satay sauce, but presumably peanut butter’s out, so you could just ‘stir fry’ chillis, veg, tofu cubes & soy sauce for her, & have whatever you fancy alongside it? Coconut milk, chilli, lime & coriander is a lovely marinade, she could have tofu in that then maybe grilled or fried, you could have whatever you like with it, tuna steak is yum like this. Otherwise pre-keto when cutting down on fats I’ve ‘stirfried’ veg, tofu or nuts just in water & soysauce to stop it sticking, you could add in a little sweet chilli sauce if that’s okay with your carb levels? Some of the quorn products are vegan now & fairly low in carbs, I coat mine in almond flour & parmesan (you could get some vegan parmesan for hers!) & bake, with veggies or salad, then you could cook chicken in a similar way for yourself?
If you both like pesto, you can make a kind of pesto with nuts & avocado blitzed, add lemon juice & water to the right consistency; she could have it with pasta, you could have courgetti, or real pesto?
Vegan is hard enough, but with no oil? Eek!

(Whitney) #10

I definitely understand what you are saying. Because she lives so far away and because she doesn’t travel well, we only end up going to see her about 3-4 times a year, so thankfully trying to intersect the two lifestyles is only on a rare occasion. I also do some IF (16/8 or even 22/2) when we visit and that also makes it easier for me because she can eat her food and I just don’t eat that meal at all. My husband keeps looking for something we can make his mom when we visit that I can also eat, which led me here. I’m grateful it isn’t something I will have to do often.

(Whitney) #11

This is a good idea. Thanks!

(Roy D Rushing Jr ) #12

Ugh. That’s hard. I would probably just lean on a rotating assortment of steamed and grilled vegetables, add butter to my portion, and call it a day. Geez that diet sounds unappealing.

(German Ketonian) #13

I agree, nuts are the way to go for no-oil vegans (Nuts-only diet). Although I would caution against making nuts a staple of your diet long-term because of the O3-6 ratios of most nuts. Be sure to suggest walnuts, as those are a bit better in these regards.

(Candace) #14

I have a great deal of friends who are whole foods plant-based, no oil, no sugar. Many of them are thriving. Depending on which doctor they follow, some will include nuts, seeds and avocados, others will avoid those as well.

You’ve actually have a great deal of options listed. I know someone else had a thread going recently where several people shared links to some really great keto/vegan options as well.

Did you see this @ggv shared this in a previous post:
http://www.veganatheart.org/vegan-ketogenic-diet-plan/

#15

Sounds a lot like Dr. Esselstyn’s (Cleveland Clinic) diet plan, although he doesn’t allow nuts, seeds, avocados, olives, OR oils. Low fat carby stuff. My sister was on his diet for months for her cardiac symptoms and it did ZILCH for her. It wasn’t until she was Dx’d by a knowledgeable endocrinologist that it was found that her cardiac symptoms were caused by extreme hypothyroidism.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #16

The no-seed-oils prohibition makes a lot of sense, because they contain a lot of PUFA’s and are hard to consume for any length of time. Dr. Phinney’s experience is that a lot of people who can’t do keto “because all that fat disagrees” with them, are trying to get their fat from seed oils.

I wouldn’t quibble with the logic at work here. Avocadoes are not oil, they are fatty fruits, just like olives. There is perhaps some benefit from consuming the fiber in the whole fruit, instead of just their oils. By this logic, peanut butter is also not an “oil,” so you and your mother-in-law ought to be able to share the stir-fry @jules4 suggests. Also, almond milk and coconut milk are not “oil,” nor are almonds and coconuts themselves.

(Laurie) #17

I’ve given up on sharing complete meals with others. When I visit or have visitors, I suggest we bring our own food to the table or just not join each other for meals. If you’re not staying in your mother-in-law’s house, maybe you can meet at other times of the day or evening–not mealtime. An alternative would be sharing certain foods such as the soup or salad and perhaps tea or coffee, while each eating other things that suit them. Good luck!

(Aimee Moisa) #18

My mother in law is the worst cook in the world so I have used “I eat a special diet” as a way to get out of eating her food, so I down a protein shake while at the dinner table and maybe have a salad, then when hubby and I go out for a late movie or whatever later we would stop somewhere for me to eat edible food. This was even before I ate keto, and fasted, so it is going to be even easier to get out of eating now. “Sorry, that chocolate soup made of baking cocoa and no sugar that you made for dinner looks delicious, but I am on a fast right now.”

I shit you not.