The Ultimate Guide to Vegan Nutrition

Known as the “master mineral,” magnesium is widely used for a whole host of ailments.

Magnesium is needed for over 300 processes in the body. It’s truly what we call an essential mineral.

Studies show that 68% of Americans are magnesium deficient. The recommended amount we should have daily is at least 300mg, but the latest stidy found that 19% of Americans get less than half that amount.

• Pharmaceutical drugs

• Excess alcohol without enough water

• Existing conditions in the body (those affecting nutrient absorption and digestion)

• Stress

Tip: Have a headache? Try a handful of almonds. The zinc and magnesium present in almonds will help relax blood vessels allowing you to relieve your pain.

Due magnesium’s ability to calm the nervous system, it’s commonly used to treat and prevent anxiety, nervousness, and restlessness.

Sodium

Sodium is exceptionally important in maintaining the balance of fluids within the body. It restricts fluid from entering and overloading the body’s cells.

In turn, it helps greatly with kidney health and the absorption of nutrients and medications.

Iron

Iron is one mineral to which you should pay especially close attention.

Iron plays an important part in energy production, as it boosts the transportation of oxygen around the body.In addition, iron is key in strength and immunity function. And if you don’t have enough of it, the body will let you know through fatigue and lethargy.

There are actually two types of iron: heme and non-heme. Heme comes from animals and non-heme is entirely plant-based. The body does a better job at absorbing heme iron, but that doesn’t mean it’s not plentiful in the vegan diet.

Here are three excellent vegan sources of iron:

• Grains: quinoa, oatmeal, brown rice

• Vegetables: collard greens, swiss chard

• Nuts and seeds: pine nuts, cashews, pumpkin seeds

• Legumes: lentils, soybeans, lima beans

Tip from NoMeatAthlete: the less iron you consume in one sitting, the better it's absorbed into the body.

Zinc

Zinc plays a very important role in keeping the body healthy and safe from attackers. That is, it helps support the immune system and relax the nervous system.

Getting the proper amount of zinc in your diet helps fight illnesses and colds, balance your hormones, and supports the blood vessels.

This in-depth article from Optimal Living Dynamics illustrates just how important zinc is for managing anxiety.

Here are some of the best ways to get zinc into your diet:

• Pumpkin seeds

• Brazil nuts

• Broccoli

• Legumes

• Chia seeds

• Seitan

• Quinoa

• Soy (tip: the harder the soy, the higher the protein content)

• Rice and beans together (they combine for a complete protein!)

A Note On Calories

You’ve heard the term calories, but what does that really mean? Calories are the units of energy that make up the food we consume.

For example, a medium-sized banana contains around 90 calories, while an entire avocado contains almost 230 calories. This simply means that we get more life-sustaining energy from the avocado than from the banana.

However, that doesn’t mean that all calories are the same. That’s where true nutrition comes in.The avocado mentioned above contains 230 calories, the same amount of calories in one bag of M&Ms candy. When deciding whether to eat one or the other, we need to ask the all-important question: what is eating this food going to do for my body? A similar question might be: how am I benefiting by eating this?

In this case, the avocado is providing far better nutrition than the M&Ms, including protein, carbs, and healthy fats!

Supplementation On A Vegan Diet

The goal of this article is to prepare you for a wholesome, nutritious vegan lifestyle.

We’ve gone over some foods necessary to get the proper nutrition on the vegan diet. Every person is different, and you might find you need more or less of a specific vitamin or mineral.

That’s where supplements come in.

B12 supplementation

Many vegans find they are low in vitamin B12. The recommended daily amount is 2.4 mcg (micrograms) - a small amount that makes a very big difference.

At very low amounts, deficiency in this vitamin can cause anemia and nervous system damage.

Like iron, B12 is best absorbed in small amounts. Vegan Society notes that you can take small amounts of B12 each day (10 mcg) or take a larger dose each week (around 2000 mcg).

B12 can be found in fortified foods, vitamins, and supplements that you consume orally or spray in your mouth.

Protein supplementation

While a well-balanced vegan diet should provide the proper amount to build your body and sustain your energy, protein is another supplement you may consider taking.

Taking protein powder to complement your already-nutritious diet is convenient, but there are a few things to watch for when selecting one:

• Many protein powders use artificial ingredients

• They’re notorious for being expensive

• Some are heated to the point where the proteins are denatured (and benefits are lessened)

Here are three of our favorite clean, vegan protein powders that won’t break the bank:

• Vega Protein & Greens

• Orgain Organic Plant-Based Protein Powder

• MRM Veggie Elite Performance Protein

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Oil

Oils are known to contain lots of good, high-quality fatty acids.

There are oils available today, like olive oil and sunflower oil, that are perceived as more healthy to use for cooking.

But in a new study, doctors want to announce this loud and clear: coconut oil is not a health food. And this is not new information - it's just a product of advertising that's been circulated for some time.

Processed oils (including coconut oil) have been found to raise LDL cholesterol and lead to heart disease. In fact, they’re just as harmful to your body as beef fat, palm oil, and butter.

However, the lauric acid present in coconut oil can have some positive effects. It helps boost the metabolism and doesn’t lose its nutrients at high temperatures.

All in all? Skip the oils: the best place to get fat is from natural food sources mentioned in the Healthy Fats section above.

Sugar

Society has become accustomed to blaming their weight gain and unhealthiness on fat. Because you eat fat, you get fat, right? Not really.

The problem isn’t fat. It’s sugar.

There are three main types of sugar:

• Fructose: found naturally in fruit

• Lactose: found naturally in dairy milk

• Sucrose: found naturally in the sugarcane stems, but highly processed into table sugar

Over longer periods of time, sugar can cause more serious issues and is known to lead to cardiovascular problems, obesity, kidney disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and more.

With that said, sugar has a bad rap ... and rightfully so. Here’s how it works in the body:

1. You consume a sugar-filled food

2. Your body releases insulin, a hormone that balances out the blood and allows you to use the sugar

3. Due to the ambush of sugar, the body sometimes often produces too much insulin, lowering the blood sugar below normal levels

4. This results in a sugar crash and our body says: ...we need more sugar to get going!

Addictive and debilitating it is.

Our recommendation on sugar: consume only small amounts. The body can handle small amounts, but repeated use over a long time is what causes problems. Try to stick to fruit as your main source of sugar.

See this excellent overview on sugar by Nerd Fitness for more information: Everything You Need to Know About Sugar.

The Problem With Animal Nutrition

Meat

In 2015, the World Health Organization announced that processed meat directly causes cancer.

In addition to this groundbreaking announcement, they also declared red meat as a Probable Carcinogen. That is, one that has extremely strong evidence linked to cancer development.

In addition to the cancer risks, meat contributes to heart disease, weight gain, and lowers life expectancy.

Dairy

Over the past several decades, many misconceptions have been spread and believed about dairy.

While it’s full of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients, not everyone thinks milk consumption is a good idea. Experts at Harvard University call our consumption of dairy milk “a step in the wrong direction.”

A prominent Harvard researcher in this area is Walter Willett, MD, Ph.D., and his research shows contrary evidence to the common idea that people need milk to be healthy.

Here are some of his thoughts on the USDA’s milk and meat advice:

“…the recommendation for three servings of milk per day is not justified and is likely to cause harm to some people…many studies have shown a relation between high milk intake and risk of fatal or metastatic prostate cancer.”

Dr. Mark Hyman also weighs in on the truth about dairy:

1. Milk or calcium doesn’t actually better bone health

2. Over 70% of the world is lactose intolerant

3. Milk doesn’t benefit performance

4. Dairy is linked to prostate cancer

5. Dairy is linked to heart disease

See Dr. Hyman’s article for more.

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Eggs

The problem with eggs is primarily a nutritional and ethical dilemma. Let’s take a closer look.

Male and female chickens lead very different lives.

Since male chicks are unable to produce eggs and don’t grow large or fast enough for meat, they are “of no use” for the profitable farming system. For this reason, they’re ground up alive or killed in other ways shortly after birth.

For the females, they’re forced to molt through starvation in order to lay eggs quicker. Their bodies are treated like commodified products: after only one or two years of producing eggs, many of them are no longer useful for profit and are killed like the males.

Don’t be fooled: cage-free and organic eggs are no better.

Most of the cage-free hens aren’t kept in the tiny wire cages of conventional farms, but they’re still confined in a warehouse for their entire lives. They’re de-beaked, live in dangerous conditions, and literally never see the light of day.

As mentioned in this Vegan Rabbit article, “from a victim’s perspective, they’re exactly the same thing.”

What about the health concern of eating eggs?

Here are some of the health concerns with consuming eggs:

• Almost 70% of the calories in eggs are from fat (mostly saturated)

• They have zero dietary fiber

• A normal-sized egg has 200mg of cholesterol

Seeing as the American Heart Association recommends a daily limit of 300mg of cholesterol, this leaves very little room for other cholesterol-containing foods through the day.Not to mention: cholesterol contributes nothing than cannot be gotten from other, easily available sources. Humans make all the cholesterol we need within our own bodies.

But hold up: this article by Huffington Post points out that eatings eggs, even daily, is not associated with cholesterol problems or heart disease.

Great news, right? Not so fast. What’s not discussed here is eggs’ disreputable history with cancer. This study from the World Health Organization concludes that the consumption of eggs is significantly and positively correlated with mortality from colon and rectal cancers.

Additionally, eating eggs is known to increase the risk of both prostate cancer (National Institutes of Health, 2011) and bladder cancer (International Urology and Nephrology, 2005).See this article from Forks Over Knives for a deeper look into the health troubles caused by eggs.

Fish

Similar to farm animal farming, fish farming is a commercial operation where fish are raised for food in confinement instead of being caught in the wild. Under these conditions, the fish develop infections, parasites, stress, and other diseases, which lead to them being fed antibiotics.No surprise - these antibiotics and illnesses are then transmitted to the humans who eat them.

In addition, fish absorb many of the toxic chemicals dumped into our water supply including DDT, toxic metals, and mercury.

Learn more about the toxicity of fish in Troubled Waters: The Case Against Eating Fish.

Even the majority of fish oils available as supplements don’t contain the number of nutrients advertised, as they become highly oxidized during processing. They’re very sensitive to heat, light, and oxygen.

These are just the nutritional aspects. For a full roundup of why you should go vegan, including the sustainability, ethical, and health reasons, see our Ultimate Guide to Going Vegan: The Plant-Based Lifestyle

Enjoy our one-week meal of plan of pure vegan nutrition:

Day 1

Breakfast

Whole grain pancakes with strawberries blueberries, and honey

Lunch

Quinoa stir fry with veggies

Dinner

Burritos with beans, avocado, corn, cilantro, and lime

Day 2

Breakfast

Muesli with coconut or almond yogurt

Lunch

Spinach and kale salad with nuts, goji berries, and poppyseed dressing

Dinner

Noodles with peanut sauce and vegetables

Dinner

Portobello mushroom burgers with garlic, oregano, and basil

Closing Statements

As always, do your own research. One person’s nutritional overall requirements may be different from another’s, and it’s to your great benefit to do all the studying you can on the matter.

As you’ve learned in this article, it’s incredibly important to place a focus on the nutrition you’re getting from your food. Now you know what to look for when choosing foods, how to select supplements, and ideas for your first week’s meals.Now go out and enjoy the clean, wholesome, 100% vegan nutrition waiting for you!