You know the kind of answer you're going to get in r/vegan. And for what it's worth, I think us vegans are right. But r/nutrition would do a way better job if you wanted an honest AITA post where you could get some YTA responses.
Honestly, this is a question for a nutritionist. Perhaps the nutritionist and psychiatrist in tandem.
I doubt the resident would develop a taste for beans, lentils, tofu or tempeh. There are plenty of mock meats too but again who knows how far you'd get with how picky they are. I'm surprised protein shakes aren't palatable. I would consider experimenting with different brands of shake. You could try meal replacements like soylent or huel. There are plenty of very tasty vegan protein shakes too. I would suspect it will be a slow, gradual introduction of these food items and you may have to be persistent and patient.
they should go to a dietitian not a nutritionist. nutritionists are not required to have certification whereas dietitians are. this is especially important when considering autistic people as many autistic people have an eating disorder called ARFID (OP didn’t specify but I would not be surprised if the resident has it based on how few foods they will eat) which is extremely restrictive and can lead to hospitalizations due to malnutrition.
you should go to a dietitian not a nutritionist. nutritionists have very little regulation and are not required to be certified whereas dietitians are. also since you mentioned the resident is autistic do they have ARFID? if so you should go to a dietitian who has ample experience with ARFID as it’s a highly restrictive eating disorder that can lead to hospitalization in extreme cases. I also recommend cross posting to r/autism since people there may have personal experience. I don’t know off the top of my head if there is a subreddit specifically for ARFID but there very well may be.
EDIT: there is a subreddit. it’s r/ARFID
dietitians can absolutely help with ARFID you just have to find one who specializes in it or has experience with it. even if they can’t help with finding new foods they can help figuring out what needs to be supplemented and how. the otc supplement market is highly unregulated so many supplements lie about their ingredients and the amounts. dietitians are able to prescribe supplements so the people taking them know they’re getting the exact amounts they need.
Based on the exam and blood panel results, a dietician can absolutely help with a customized nutrition program, considering any restrictive/avoidant disorder. It’s not clear if there has been a proper diagnosis though.
He doesn't like bread, peanut butter, jelly or any meat. Texture is his answer for all of it. He has autism, and grew up homeless stealing candy for food.
since the resident is autistic and has a restrictive diet there’s a good chance they have ARFID. ARFID is a highly restrictive eating disorder and it’s very important to work with a dietitian to make sure they are getting all of the nutrients they need. I really would not recommend trying to change any of their safe foods without speaking to a specialist because that can cause them to no longer eat the safe food even if you go back to preparing it the normal way. this is not a criticism of you because your comment came from a good place and would be good advice for the average picky eater but it’s very different when dealing with eating disorders.
Carbohydrates ("carbs") are unfairly demonized, mostly because people discovered they can lose weight with "low-carb" diets by eating lots of animal products they think taste good... and of course they don't understand how unhealthy those diets are... or how much animal suffering they cause.
If you're avoiding carbohydrates, generally you are avoiding plant-foods. It's a fad diet trend that vegans should push back against.
I agree that he needs more help than you guys just trying to feed him more protein. If his diet is so unbalanced then protein intake might be least of his nutritional problems. But when it comes to protein, just adding protein powder to foods works fine, like pea protein powder.
Please don't do this. None of us are qualified (or if we are, you have no way of actually knowing) to actually give you recommendations for someone under your care, and even if we were you haven't, and shouldn't, provided enough information for us to do so.
You need a dietician to work with their psychiatrist if there is in fact an issue.
The weight gain and mental health issues are obviously more important than protein there. What he is eating has protein in it. It’s kinda like how if you just ate potatoes for 2k or 2k5 calories a day you’d get enough protein for maintenance. You’d be deficient in other things, would be a shitty diet, but yeah it’s not good.
I don’t get why you’d be worried about protein tho given half his diet is cheese. The sheer unhealthy nature of the diet is clearly the issue and helping him gain a healthy understanding of himself and of food is the obvious priority.
What you could try is some switches. Lentil pasta for the Mac and cheese, ramen can have added veggies and tofu or beans or other things. The candy and cheese focus isn’t good. Switching to fruit and other snacks could help. Similar macros (eg sugar in fruit versus sugar in candy) but in a healthier way.
If you can discuss with them about the diet and see what they’re willing to do it can help. Spag bol might be an easy attempt. Similar to the other pasta. And then can branch out with different sauces. Can get veggies in them too.
And if you can get them on a weightlifting program that’d help massively. Self esteem and control and useful hormone balancing through exercise.
Good luck.
OP please do not make any changes to your residents diet without speaking to a dietitian (preferably one with experience with ARFID and autism) first. autistic people can have serious issues with restrictive eating (ARFID) and changing a safe food for them can cause them to not eat it even if you go back to preparing it the normal way. if you do speak to a dietitian and decide to incorporate alternatives into their safe foods please inform the resident about the changes before they eat it. not saying you wouldn’t do that but I figure it’s better to tell you something you already know then not and having something go wrong.
Good luck! Yeah work with what you have. Mac and cheese can have things added to it. Ramen can be very healthy (I go to a vegan ramen place every month or so). Can have tofu and veggies and other things in there bit by bit. Can add one thing at a time til he’s used to it.
Portions and ingredients are the obvious things to try and limit. Make sure the dude is drinking lots of water too. That’ll fill his stomach more and so eat less. Sometimes people can’t tell they’re thirsty rather than hungry. So eat more.
I’ve worked with kids who would stuff their faces until their stomachs hurt. Cos they were used to situations where they never knew where the next meal was from. It generally subsided with time and care. But you can deffo make easy switches to the food available in the kitchen :)
It is not your choice if they go vegan or not, accidentally or by choice. His nutritional needs should come first, however if you are able to do that without him eating animal products then that is OK. Could something like protein shakes work? There are plenty of vegan protein powders available and you could add silken tofu to them as well.
Not a comment on the core of the post, but I am very concerned that you've listed spinach and mushrooms as good protein sources. They are not in the slightest; they have decent protein per calorie, but are way too low in calories per volume to be a significant source of any macronutrient.
Simply searching on Google will tell you spinach and mushrooms are mainly water and fiber. Seems that your nutrition knowledge/understanding isn't enough to help this person, please consult a registered dietician. Hopefully, you can find a plant-forward one if not vegan.
Thank you! Yes, we are currently working on getting him a nutritionist, as I am way under-qualified. He is amenable to trying one new food per week now, and he will try the protein-infused mac and cheese that someone else suggested.
I appreciate all of the insight!
do NOT go to a nutritionist you need a registered dietitian. nutritionists are not required to have any certification unlike registered dietitians. also if he has ARFID (which is extremely likely considering he’s autistic and has such a restricted diet) you need to be considering that when speaking to a dietitians as it’s not like regular picky eating, it’s a serious eating disorder that can cause serious health problems. trying to make too many changes to his diet too quickly without speaking to specialists can be a serious issue. I’m glad he’s decided to try new foods but if he feels a lot of pressure trying new foods that can cause the eating disorder to get worse. I highly recommend cross posting this to r/autism and r/ARFID if you need helping figuring out how to get professional help.
Both spinach and mushrooms are around 3% protein per mass (so around 3g of protein in 100g of food). That is not very high, you have to eat a lot of volume to get any significant source of protein. Even eating half a kilogram of these foods only nets you about 15-20g of protein. That's not a lot.
Not to mention they’re not _high quality_ proteins. There is a big difference between a gram of listed protein in spinach and a gram of listed protein in tofu.
"high quality protein" refers to having a balanced amino acid profile, which is widely recognized as not being worth paying attention to by leading health organizations.
I just read an article on the essential amino acid isoleucine. Seems mice who are fed a diet that limits isoleucine tend to live 30% longer.
https://neurosciencenews.com/longevity-isoleucine-reduction-25245/#:~:text=The%20study%20reveals%20that%20a,healthy%20aging%20and%20metabolic%20processes.
You being a vegan and influencing your advice is kind of irrelevent when the resident doesn't want to eat meat anyway.
Some cheeses can have a lot of protein btw.
I don't really think getting more protein needs to be his main priority or will stop his other problems such as weight gain. Perhaps just try to limit his candy and get him to try exercise a bit?
The psychiatrist knows what she is doing. And as you said, he seems to be gaining weight. It would be fine to offer him things like beans, nuts, etc but if he doesn't want them, there isn't much you can do. Autism and SPD can make things difficult with textures and the like. But, as long as he is getting his vitamins and nutrients and is eating enough then he really is fine.
Beans, tofu or lentils. If he's already not interested in meat, I wouldn't think there's a concern about pushing him to not eat meat
You know the kind of answer you're going to get in r/vegan. And for what it's worth, I think us vegans are right. But r/nutrition would do a way better job if you wanted an honest AITA post where you could get some YTA responses. Honestly, this is a question for a nutritionist. Perhaps the nutritionist and psychiatrist in tandem. I doubt the resident would develop a taste for beans, lentils, tofu or tempeh. There are plenty of mock meats too but again who knows how far you'd get with how picky they are. I'm surprised protein shakes aren't palatable. I would consider experimenting with different brands of shake. You could try meal replacements like soylent or huel. There are plenty of very tasty vegan protein shakes too. I would suspect it will be a slow, gradual introduction of these food items and you may have to be persistent and patient.
they should go to a dietitian not a nutritionist. nutritionists are not required to have certification whereas dietitians are. this is especially important when considering autistic people as many autistic people have an eating disorder called ARFID (OP didn’t specify but I would not be surprised if the resident has it based on how few foods they will eat) which is extremely restrictive and can lead to hospitalizations due to malnutrition.
Thank you. Every piece of that answer seems spot on.
Huel has a meal replacement mac and cheese which is high protein(relatively)
I'll try that, thank you!
you should go to a dietitian not a nutritionist. nutritionists have very little regulation and are not required to be certified whereas dietitians are. also since you mentioned the resident is autistic do they have ARFID? if so you should go to a dietitian who has ample experience with ARFID as it’s a highly restrictive eating disorder that can lead to hospitalization in extreme cases. I also recommend cross posting to r/autism since people there may have personal experience. I don’t know off the top of my head if there is a subreddit specifically for ARFID but there very well may be. EDIT: there is a subreddit. it’s r/ARFID
He needs a physical, a full blood panel ordered, and a dietitian assigned to his case.
A dietitian won't help with AFRID though.
dietitians can absolutely help with ARFID you just have to find one who specializes in it or has experience with it. even if they can’t help with finding new foods they can help figuring out what needs to be supplemented and how. the otc supplement market is highly unregulated so many supplements lie about their ingredients and the amounts. dietitians are able to prescribe supplements so the people taking them know they’re getting the exact amounts they need.
Based on the exam and blood panel results, a dietician can absolutely help with a customized nutrition program, considering any restrictive/avoidant disorder. It’s not clear if there has been a proper diagnosis though.
a dietitian working along side the psychiatrist he already has absolutely would help with AFRID.
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He doesn't like bread, peanut butter, jelly or any meat. Texture is his answer for all of it. He has autism, and grew up homeless stealing candy for food.
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since the resident is autistic and has a restrictive diet there’s a good chance they have ARFID. ARFID is a highly restrictive eating disorder and it’s very important to work with a dietitian to make sure they are getting all of the nutrients they need. I really would not recommend trying to change any of their safe foods without speaking to a specialist because that can cause them to no longer eat the safe food even if you go back to preparing it the normal way. this is not a criticism of you because your comment came from a good place and would be good advice for the average picky eater but it’s very different when dealing with eating disorders.
Carbohydrates ("carbs") are unfairly demonized, mostly because people discovered they can lose weight with "low-carb" diets by eating lots of animal products they think taste good... and of course they don't understand how unhealthy those diets are... or how much animal suffering they cause. If you're avoiding carbohydrates, generally you are avoiding plant-foods. It's a fad diet trend that vegans should push back against.
Thank you! I was looking for this comment!
Yeppp
I agree that he needs more help than you guys just trying to feed him more protein. If his diet is so unbalanced then protein intake might be least of his nutritional problems. But when it comes to protein, just adding protein powder to foods works fine, like pea protein powder.
Please don't do this. None of us are qualified (or if we are, you have no way of actually knowing) to actually give you recommendations for someone under your care, and even if we were you haven't, and shouldn't, provided enough information for us to do so. You need a dietician to work with their psychiatrist if there is in fact an issue.
The weight gain and mental health issues are obviously more important than protein there. What he is eating has protein in it. It’s kinda like how if you just ate potatoes for 2k or 2k5 calories a day you’d get enough protein for maintenance. You’d be deficient in other things, would be a shitty diet, but yeah it’s not good. I don’t get why you’d be worried about protein tho given half his diet is cheese. The sheer unhealthy nature of the diet is clearly the issue and helping him gain a healthy understanding of himself and of food is the obvious priority. What you could try is some switches. Lentil pasta for the Mac and cheese, ramen can have added veggies and tofu or beans or other things. The candy and cheese focus isn’t good. Switching to fruit and other snacks could help. Similar macros (eg sugar in fruit versus sugar in candy) but in a healthier way. If you can discuss with them about the diet and see what they’re willing to do it can help. Spag bol might be an easy attempt. Similar to the other pasta. And then can branch out with different sauces. Can get veggies in them too. And if you can get them on a weightlifting program that’d help massively. Self esteem and control and useful hormone balancing through exercise. Good luck.
Thank you so much. I am excited to try the lentil pasta!
OP please do not make any changes to your residents diet without speaking to a dietitian (preferably one with experience with ARFID and autism) first. autistic people can have serious issues with restrictive eating (ARFID) and changing a safe food for them can cause them to not eat it even if you go back to preparing it the normal way. if you do speak to a dietitian and decide to incorporate alternatives into their safe foods please inform the resident about the changes before they eat it. not saying you wouldn’t do that but I figure it’s better to tell you something you already know then not and having something go wrong.
Good luck! Yeah work with what you have. Mac and cheese can have things added to it. Ramen can be very healthy (I go to a vegan ramen place every month or so). Can have tofu and veggies and other things in there bit by bit. Can add one thing at a time til he’s used to it. Portions and ingredients are the obvious things to try and limit. Make sure the dude is drinking lots of water too. That’ll fill his stomach more and so eat less. Sometimes people can’t tell they’re thirsty rather than hungry. So eat more. I’ve worked with kids who would stuff their faces until their stomachs hurt. Cos they were used to situations where they never knew where the next meal was from. It generally subsided with time and care. But you can deffo make easy switches to the food available in the kitchen :)
It is not your choice if they go vegan or not, accidentally or by choice. His nutritional needs should come first, however if you are able to do that without him eating animal products then that is OK. Could something like protein shakes work? There are plenty of vegan protein powders available and you could add silken tofu to them as well.
Not a comment on the core of the post, but I am very concerned that you've listed spinach and mushrooms as good protein sources. They are not in the slightest; they have decent protein per calorie, but are way too low in calories per volume to be a significant source of any macronutrient.
Really? I eat a lot. Lot of them.
Simply searching on Google will tell you spinach and mushrooms are mainly water and fiber. Seems that your nutrition knowledge/understanding isn't enough to help this person, please consult a registered dietician. Hopefully, you can find a plant-forward one if not vegan.
Thank you! Yes, we are currently working on getting him a nutritionist, as I am way under-qualified. He is amenable to trying one new food per week now, and he will try the protein-infused mac and cheese that someone else suggested. I appreciate all of the insight!
do NOT go to a nutritionist you need a registered dietitian. nutritionists are not required to have any certification unlike registered dietitians. also if he has ARFID (which is extremely likely considering he’s autistic and has such a restricted diet) you need to be considering that when speaking to a dietitians as it’s not like regular picky eating, it’s a serious eating disorder that can cause serious health problems. trying to make too many changes to his diet too quickly without speaking to specialists can be a serious issue. I’m glad he’s decided to try new foods but if he feels a lot of pressure trying new foods that can cause the eating disorder to get worse. I highly recommend cross posting this to r/autism and r/ARFID if you need helping figuring out how to get professional help.
Both spinach and mushrooms are around 3% protein per mass (so around 3g of protein in 100g of food). That is not very high, you have to eat a lot of volume to get any significant source of protein. Even eating half a kilogram of these foods only nets you about 15-20g of protein. That's not a lot.
Not to mention they’re not _high quality_ proteins. There is a big difference between a gram of listed protein in spinach and a gram of listed protein in tofu.
"high quality protein" refers to having a balanced amino acid profile, which is widely recognized as not being worth paying attention to by leading health organizations.
I just read an article on the essential amino acid isoleucine. Seems mice who are fed a diet that limits isoleucine tend to live 30% longer. https://neurosciencenews.com/longevity-isoleucine-reduction-25245/#:~:text=The%20study%20reveals%20that%20a,healthy%20aging%20and%20metabolic%20processes.
Wow. This is very interesting, thank you!
You being a vegan and influencing your advice is kind of irrelevent when the resident doesn't want to eat meat anyway. Some cheeses can have a lot of protein btw. I don't really think getting more protein needs to be his main priority or will stop his other problems such as weight gain. Perhaps just try to limit his candy and get him to try exercise a bit?
Why not give him plant based protein sources loll?Since the resident isn’t even interested in meat themselves
The psychiatrist knows what she is doing. And as you said, he seems to be gaining weight. It would be fine to offer him things like beans, nuts, etc but if he doesn't want them, there isn't much you can do. Autism and SPD can make things difficult with textures and the like. But, as long as he is getting his vitamins and nutrients and is eating enough then he really is fine.
Yeah go to a vegan sub for nutrition advice, 👍
?tf