Rachel Huban
Vegan with Crohn’s
For anyone asking the question… yes, you can fight Crohn’s with a vegan diet! Prescribed diets for IBD come in all shapes and sizes - low carb, high carb, carnivore, herbivore - you’ve got to find what works for you but for anyone looking to go vegan Rachel is your gal.
Rachel is a Nutritional Therapist who studied with the Institute of Health Sciences Ireland. She has also completed Plant-Based Nutrition training from the University of Winchester in the UK. Most of Rachel's career in nutrition has solely been focused around educating and supporting women with their additional nutritional needs during pregnancy. Recently however, Rachel has started working with clients in another area that is a passion of hers - IBD.
You see, Rachel was diagnosed with Crohn's disease when she was only nine years old. When she started removing common allergens and animal products from her diet she saw an immediate improvement in her symptoms - she even had severe cystic acne and saw major improvements in the health of her skin just by changing her diet. Rachel has now been in remission and off medication for three years after changing her diet and lifestyle.
It was a very stressful period in life for an 8 year old Rachel. She had just found out her parents were separating and she began expediting stomach pains. She decided she would do her best to hide her pain and cover up her symptoms. No one would believe her anyway, she thought. But by the time Rachel was nine she couldn't ignore her symptoms any longer - she was hospitalized and given medications to keep her symptoms under control.
By the time Rachel was a teenager she had already been in and out of the hospital several times and put on many of the common medications used to treat Crohn's disease. They helped to control her symptoms but her friends and family didn't understand why she needed to be on medication as they couldn't understand how she felt on the inside - invisible illness indeed!
When Rachel was in her 20s she began digging into the research behind Crohn's disease. As she read more about the long term effects of the medications she was on and after she had a severe reaction to Humera where she had to be bed bound for months unable to move her joints she decided she wanted to go medication free. She had been told by her care team that "diet doesn't do anything to help" but when she changed her diet to try and clear up her skin she noticed her GI symptoms declined as well. Empowered with this discovery Rachel found a doctor who was willing to work with her to taper off her medications.
While Rachel has been in remission and off of all medications for the last three years she still has Crohn's - but her outlook on her disease has changed. She feels much more confident now to handle whatever it decides to throw at her next.
Rachel's immediate response was "Get curious!" The more we know and understand about our disease the better position we will be in as we move forward with life. "Western medicine is trained to manage symptoms via medication (which isn't a bad thing) but they aren't addressing the root cause." Rachel, like myself, is well aware of the stories of people having success with IBD every day and she wants to help people find improvements in their symptoms just like she has.
Thank you Rachel for sharing your story with us and we wish you continued health on your journey with IBD!
At the end of our chat, Rachel explained to me that a plant based diet is generally a low-inflammatory diet that is high in good fiber and provides a wealth of the vitamins and minerals your body needs to keep a strong immune system. The extra fiber might not be best during an active flare so she recommends doing a plant based diet during times of remission to keep your body in remission for as long as possible. Thanks Rachel for the advice!
Take a few minutes to check out Rachel's website and social media below. She's also shared her story on Medium which you can find below as well.
Rachel's website: https://www.hubanhealth.com/
View Rachel's Instagram here
Read Rachel's story on Medium here
