Sticking to a vegan diet can make it difficult to gain weight without consuming a lot of grains (oatmeal, wheat, rice) that aren’t good for your gut—and if you struggle with irritable bowel syndrome or IBD, your body often can’t tolerate legumes (beans, lentils, soy, etc.), so you can end up in a downward spiral between your mind’s values and your body’s needs.
I advise vegans who suffer from digestive issues to consume at least some fish oil (cod liver oil is ideal) for the sake of their health – but this leads directly to the downward spiral between your values and needs mentioned above. And that’s why I’ve put together some well-tolerated vegan ingredients that you can use to create your own nutrient-rich shakes:
Vegan building blocks for weight gain
Here are some gut-friendly vegan nutrients (no grains, no legumes) that you can use as building blocks:
- Udo, linseed or MCT oil
- Yacon powder
- Lucuma powder
- Germinated chia powder
- Ground flaxseed
- Vegan protein powder; Rice, pea, quinoa or hemp protein (or Absorb Plus VEGAN)
- Non-acidic fruit; Bananas, peaches, mangoes, papaya, pears, avocado, etc.
- nuts; Cashews, almonds, hazelnuts, macadamia, pistachios (raw nuts should be soaked and then slowly roasted to deactivate phytates and other antinutrients. If this is not possible, then simply use roasted nuts)
- seeds; Pumpkin, sunflower, hemp, sesame (chia and flax seeds are also seeds, but already listed above)
- Coconut water
- Nut, oat or coconut milk (but not carrageenan) – dilute with 1/3 – 1/2 water if it is too thick or strains the intestines
- Sweetener: Stevia, Luo Han Guo (Monkfish), raw honey, maple syrup (avoid sugar alcohols such as xylitol, erythritol, sorbitol, etc. as these can cause bloating/diarrhea)
Mix any of the above ingredients of your choice and blend into a smoothie! Try using 1 tbsp of healthy oil per shake (start with 1 tsp and then increase).
Here are some well-tolerated shake recipes that I like, but you can modify them based on your tolerance to include more calories or increase or decrease the amount of fillers, etc. The measurements below are more of a guide (since I don’t always measure when making my smoothies!) so you can adjust these ingredients as needed – some people prefer denser smoothies, others slightly thinner. You can also add or reduce liquids as desired in these recipes:
Brazilian tango
1 cup coconut water or coconut milk
25 – 30 g protein powder (rice, pea, hemp, quinoa)
1000 mg L-Glutamine powder
1 tbsp lucuma powder
2 tsp yacon powder
1 tsp chia powder (or 1 tsp ground flax) – if you want a thicker shake, increase the amount of chia up to 1 tbsp depending on your taste
10 roasted cashews
Sweeten to taste
1 tbsp linseed or udo oil
Stir everything until smooth
Creamy goodness
1/2 cup coconut water
1/2 cup nut milk
25 – 30 g protein powder
1000 mg L-Glutamine powder
1/2 cup non-acidic fruit
1 tbsp hemp hearts
1 tbsp linseed or udo oil
Stir everything until smooth
Chocolate nut butter swirls
1/2 cup water
25 – 30g chocolate protein powder
2 tablespoons creamy roasted peanut butter
OR creamy toasted almond butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Sweeten to taste
1 cup ice cubes
Mix at high speed until smooth
Whole Food Boost
1/2 cup nut milk
1/2 chopped water
1 tbsp hemp hearts (seeds)
10 cashew nuts
2 tbsp pistachios
Half an avocado
1 banana
1 tbsp linseed or udo oil
Sweeten to taste
Stir everything until smooth
Here is a well-tolerated juice recipe that you can use instead of water or nut milk as the base for these shakes. You can make a batch of this juice and then freeze individual portions in either zip-top snack bags or ice cube trays for easier use:
Gut-friendly juice base
1 bunch of chard or young leafy vegetables
1 cucumber
1 avocado
7 stalks of celery
A handful of parsley
2 apples
1 cup of water
*Makes about 3-4 cups of juice after blending
You can also use any of your favorite vegetable juicing recipes, but then add the following to your vegetable juice and blend for a meal that will help you gain weight:
25 – 30 g protein powder
1-2 tsp chia powder (or ground flax)
1000 mg L-Glutamine powder
1 tbsp linseed or udo oil
If you decide to try any of these out for yourself, I would love to hear your feedback! Have you made any changes to the recipes? Write me a comment below…
Jini Patel Thompson is an internationally recognized expert in natural healing for digestive diseases. She healed herself from widespread Crohn’s disease and has been medication and surgery free for over 25 years. Jini has appeared on numerous podcasts, TV and radio shows in the US, UK, Canada and Australia, giving people hope and vision on how to heal their colitis, Crohn’s disease, diverticulitis and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) using all-natural methods. Her books on natural healing of digestive diseases have been sold in over 80 countries worldwide. Jini is married and has three children, nine sheep, 11 horses, a cat and three dogs.
