Going vegan saved my life

Teenager suffering crippling bowel condition claims giving up meat helped him bulk up and play college football. Kenny Honnas, now 20, was rushed to hospital with rectal bleeding. Needed four blood transfusions and lost 2st due to ulcerative colitis. Keen sportsman thought his dreams of college football were over

A college\r\nathlete suffering from life-threatening ulcerative colitis has claimed ditching\r\nmeat and adopting a vegan diet has made him healthier than ever.

Kenny\r\nHonnas, 20, was diagnosed with the chronic colon disease after suffering from\r\nextreme diarrhoea and rectal bleeding.

Desperate to\r\nplay American football at college, the passionate sportsman once ate a diet of\r\nspicy buffalo wings and curly fries twice a day in a bid to gain weight.

On top of\r\nthat, he gobbled six raw eggs and drank chocolate milk shakes for breakfast.

But in 2014,\r\nafter losing so much blood he collapsed, Mr Honnas had to be rushed to\r\nhospital.

During a two\r\nweek stay, in which he received four blood transfusions and lost over two stone\r\n(30lbs), he thought his football dreams were over as doctors battled to\r\nstabilise his condition.

But after\r\ncarrying out independent research on how a vegan diet can help ulcerative\r\ncolitis, he decided to bin meat and dairy from his meal plans.

Now he says\r\nhe is fitter and stronger than ever before and maintains this is down to his\r\nfruit heavy diet - sometimes devouring 18 bananas in one meal.

After a year\r\nof eating vegan, blood results show Mr Honnas, from Bryan, Texas, is within a\r\nnormal range and all signs of ulcerative colitis have cleared.

'Before I\r\nswitched to a whole foods plant based diet I had absolutely horrid eating\r\nhabits,' he said.

'As a young\r\nhealthy football player, I would eat anything I could get my hands on in order\r\nto gain weight.

'My coaches\r\ndubbed it the ''See Food Diet'' - if I saw it I ate it.

'I would\r\nmunch on junk food just so that I could reach the caloric goal I had set that\r\nwould allow me to gain the weight I wanted before my upcoming season.'

After being\r\nrecruited to play for Wheaton, Mr Honnas's dream of having an illustrious\r\ncollegiate career in football was cut far short.

'I noticed\r\non our very first day of training camp that I was having bouts of diarrhoea. I\r\nbrushed it off as symptoms of stress and ignored them.

'The\r\nsymptoms steadily got worse as the weeks went by and diarrhoea turned to blood.

'I continued\r\nto practice and ignore it because I was embarrassed to talk about.

'The fifth\r\nweek in it was really bad. Three times within five days I found myself running\r\nas fast as I could to find a restroom and not making it in time.

'I became\r\nparanoid and began staying in my room nearly all day every day, only leaving to\r\npractice.

'Finally, after\r\nmy bowel movements turned into straight blood I finally told my parents that I\r\nhad to see a doctor.'

After having\r\na colonoscopy, he was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis.

Doctors\r\nprescribed a corticosteroid called prednisone in case of flare ups, but just\r\ntwo nights later Mr Honnas lost a litre of blood and was rushed to the\r\nemergency room where his haemoglobin was found to be dangerously low.

He said:\r\n'There was so much blood I couldn't even tell there was water from the toilet\r\nmixed in with it.

'My head was\r\nswimming as if I might pass out, and my movements were slow and sluggish.

'It was hard\r\nto stand and not fall over. I made my way back to my bed with my lower back and\r\nleft side of my torso throbbing as if something was on the inside of me and trying\r\nto claw its way out from those areas.

'I realised\r\nsomething was seriously wrong with me.'

When Mr\r\nHonnas collapsed in hospital, doctors feared they would have to remove his\r\ncolon to stop the bleeding.

He was kept\r\nin hospital for two weeks, given four blood transfusion and lost thirty pounds.\r\n

Mr Honnas\r\ndecided to do his own research after being discharged and found support online.

Although his\r\ndoctors downplayed the importance of diet, other patients with the same\r\ncondition recommended the vegan diet so Mr Honnas gave it a go.

And within\r\nweeks he had noticed a difference.

'Every\r\ndoctor had told me that diet doesn't play a role at all in the disease. I was\r\ndesperate and ready to try anything and within weeks I was seeing results.

'A month in\r\npeople would never know I had ever had the disease. I was strong, fit, and\r\nhealthy.

'I put on\r\nwell over ten pounds of muscle and I even went back to Wheaton and played a\r\nsecond season of football.

'My health\r\nhas been improving every day since then.'

Now his\r\nbreakfast is fruit smoothie that contains anywhere from twelve to eighteen\r\nbananas.

He also\r\nmunches on fruit for lunch until he is full, up to five mangos, twenty dates,\r\nor one to two papayas.

For dinner\r\nhe fills up on potatoes and rice.

He added:\r\n'When most people hear how much fruit I'm eating daily they are quick to tell\r\nme that I should stop.

'But I have\r\nhad my blood levels tested and am well within the normal range.

'My go to\r\nmeal is three large baked potatoes stuffed with guacamole and jalapenos with\r\nthree cups of steamed broccoli on the side

'On the\r\nweekends I do treat myself to either a large veggie bowl from Chipotle with\r\nextra beans and rice, or a plate of Pad Thai and Thai fried rice.

'I never\r\nthought in my life I would be able to give up meat or dairy, and that it would\r\nbe a constant battle to not be tempted to eat a steak here and there, but in\r\nreality I don't miss it.

'I am more\r\nthan happy with the food I am eating and have no intentions of going back.

'It is\r\ndifficult to put into words what it feels like to regain everything that you\r\nthought was lost once.

'A vegan\r\nlifestyle has saved my life and healed all traces of the disease ulcerative\r\ncolitis.'

By Daily Mail

KATE PICKLES