Lesson 3: The Vegan Diet |
So what the heck do vegans eat anyway? Where do they get all of their protein, calcium, vitamin D, omega 3’s, etc? How do they avoid nutritional deficiencies?
Let’s get this established: ALL health organizations have finally been forced to admit that a well-balanced vegan diet has absolutely no nutritional deficiencies for any stage of life (infant, child, breastfeeding mother, etc).
How does one achieve a well-balanced vegan diet? (Hint: Not thru vegan junk food!)
Please do not rely on vegan junk foods for your nutritional needs. While you may be saving the animals, your health won’t be a lot better than meat-eaters. You may avoid the cholesterol, animal protein, and animal hormones that comes from animal products, but you don’t avoid much else.
Going back to our vegan food pyramid from Lesson 2, vegans who want to remain healthy should eat WHOLE plant foods. That means raw fruits and fresh veggies that are in whole forms.
Extra tips: (just things I've learned from being whole foods vegan for 4+ years)
There are three main ways vegans become “malnourished” or have problems:
Let’s get this established: ALL health organizations have finally been forced to admit that a well-balanced vegan diet has absolutely no nutritional deficiencies for any stage of life (infant, child, breastfeeding mother, etc).
- Position of the American Dietetic Association on vegan diets
- World Health Organization and UN Recommend Populations Eat Plant-Based Diets
- Health Organizations Support Plant-Based Options for Children
How does one achieve a well-balanced vegan diet? (Hint: Not thru vegan junk food!)
Please do not rely on vegan junk foods for your nutritional needs. While you may be saving the animals, your health won’t be a lot better than meat-eaters. You may avoid the cholesterol, animal protein, and animal hormones that comes from animal products, but you don’t avoid much else.
Going back to our vegan food pyramid from Lesson 2, vegans who want to remain healthy should eat WHOLE plant foods. That means raw fruits and fresh veggies that are in whole forms.
Extra tips: (just things I've learned from being whole foods vegan for 4+ years)
- Fruit juices and any type of juicing is not recommended because the fiber is removed. Smoothies are fine because the fiber is still present.
- Fruit should always be eaten raw.
- Veggies can be raw or cooked. If cooking, veggies should be lightly steamed and no oils/butter/etc used on them. Spices are fine.
- Fat in the diet should remain extremely low. Only 5% fat minimum is required for a person to stay healthy, so most vegan doctors recommend 10% fat just to be on the safe side. Never go over 30% fat, especially plant oils. Oils are processed and never found in nature. Avocado and nuts are found in nature and are a better option.
- Grains like rice and wheat should be eaten as unprocessed as possible. AKA choose brown rice over white rice. Choose whole wheat pasta over any other kind. Choose fresh, frozen breads like whole wheat Ezekiel Bread, instead of the processed breads that are full of dough conditioners to make them shelf-stable for months.
- White potatoes are good for you! As long as you don’t douse them in oils or butter! Use spices and green onion on them instead! If you don’t like white potatoes, then sweet potatoes are even better.
- Frozen or fresh is best. Avoid canned foods. When you buy a bag of frozen veggies, check the ingredients list. Make sure the only thing in that bag is the vegetables. Make sure they didn’t add cheese or oils.
- Eating vegan and healthy can require a little cooking. There are hundreds of vegan cooking websites online where you can find new ideas. If you are lazy like me, then there is nothing wrong with microwaving a bunch of frozen veggies, or a baked potato, or eating a ton of raw fruit. Your diet doesn’t have to be complicated to be healthy.
- This diet is cheap! Foods like beans, rice, potatoes, bananas, etc should make up the bulk of your diet and these foods are dirt cheap! I personally don't buy organic. 99% of diseases are coming from the crappy diet people are eating, not from pesticides.
- Just eat enough that you are not hungry. A hungry vegan is someone who will gorge on the next food they see (even if its unhealthy). So if you are hungry enough for 3 baked potatoes, or 5 bananas, or an entire watermelon, eat it! There’s no reason to starve yourself!
- On the opposite extreme, don’t eat when you are NOT hungry. You should only eat when you are actually hungry. This is called “intuitive eating” and it works well for HCLF vegans.
There are three main ways vegans become “malnourished” or have problems:
- They don’t eat enough variety of foods. They try to survive on nothing but salads or only bananas, etc. Eating a variety of fruits, veggies, grains, legumes will avoid any problems. You don't have to have variety every single day, just don't go an entire week eating nothing but fruit. That's just silly and you're setting yourself up for failure.
- They don’t eat enough food. Some people have very small appetites and don’t realize how low-calorie most plant foods are. They don’t realize they need to eat a lot more than what they used to eat. This is critical. If you are feeling sluggish or tired, you are not eating enough OR you are trying to survive on salads. Eat potatoes, rice, bananas, and other high-carb foods for energy! You should never feel tired as a vegan!
- The opposite extreme is some people have large appetites and love to eat when they’re not even hungry. You should eat when you are hungry. You should STOP eating when you are not hungry. People with large appetites shouldn’t be on a mission to see how much they can stuff in. They should eat until satisfied, and then STOP. Good rule of thumb is that if your stomach is hurting or you cannot get up and go for a nice easy walk after eating, you ate way too much. There shouldn’t be any discomfort. You can always eat later if you get hungry later.
Where Do Vegans Get "____" This Nutrient?
Protein
Where do vegans get their protein? This is the most common question vegans always hear. Literally every single plant food contains some protein. If you are eating enough plants, you are getting plenty of protein without even trying.
Legumes, potatoes, grains are known for containing the most protein if you’re that worried about it.
Calcium
Ok, so we’ve proven there’s plenty of protein in a plant-based diet. But what about calcium?
The first thing to point out is most vegan doctors believe the standard recommended daily calcium levels are way too high, because a diet high in animal protein causes the body to expel calcium! So if you are a meat-eater, the standard recommended calcium amount is probably a good idea. But once you switch to a plant-based diet, your required calcium intake levels are much lower. All of the plant-based populations that have been studied had far lower calcium intake, yet the calcium levels in their bodies were perfectly fine.
The most condemning evidence against dairy products is that the countries that consume the most dairy also have the highest rates of bone fractures and osteoporosis. While countries that consume very little to zero dairy products, have almost no bone fractures or osteoporosis. Clearly, “milk builds strong bones” is utter propaganda, pushed and paid for by the dairy industry.
Just like protein, tons of plant foods contain calcium. As long as you are eating a variety of plant foods, you should be getting enough calcium automatically. Beans and green veggies are my usual sources of calcium.
But what about Omega-3s, Zinc, Iron, etc?
Omega-3 = beans, greens, melons, berries, mangos, etc.
Zinc = beans, grains, rice, etc.
Iron = beans, potatoes, and tons of other stuff.
Any time someone threatens: "you will be deficient in so-and-so nutrient if you go vegan..", take out your phone and perform a google search for "plant foods that contain this nutrient" then read out the list of all the plant foods that contain it.
Here's a complete list of every single nutrient in the human diet: Top Vegan Sources of Nutrients
You should get plenty of Vitamin D from sunlight and some foods like tofu and mushrooms also have vitamin D. Plant-milks also have vitamin D and calcium. So go outside and sunbathe! Just come in before you start burning and you will have all of the Vitamin D you need.
If you want to get iodine without using "iodized salt", there are several types of seaweed you can eat. But I personally use iodized salt, so choose whatever you want to do.
Isn’t there anything vegans might miss in their diet?
B12 is the only thing you might need eventually. It takes like six years or even longer for pure and true whole foods vegans to become deficient in B12 since the body stores it so well for a looong time. So it’s not like you’re going to drop dead of B12 deficiency the second you decide to go vegan. Some people are so efficient at storing B12 that it takes them 20+ years or an entire lifetime before they become deficient. B12 may be something you want to think about eventually, but it is not something to worry about in the beginning.
Junk-food-vegans usually get their B12 from fortified-junk-food. Plenty of meat-eaters are also deficient in B12. So this isn't a vegan problem, it's a universal problem of modern society and how we sanitize our food. B12 comes from bacteria in the soil that plants are grown in, not animals. They often have to feed the animals B12 supplements now because we've depleted the nutrients of the soil so much with industrial farming! Even the animals are having trouble getting B12 from the soil when they are grazing!
To get my B12, I like to sprinkle nutritional yeast on my vegan pizzas, air-popped popcorn, spaghetti, etc. The reason I prefer to get my B12 from something like nutritional yeast is because a lot of the B12 supplements have nasty additives like gelatin and artificial sweeteners. So if you insist on taking a B12 supplement, research and find a good high-quality version without the additives.
Other than the possibility of B12 deficiency after many, many years of being hardcore vegan, there is no other supplement you should take. Healthy vegans are supplement-free and disease-free. In contrast, meat-eaters that don’t eat enough veggies, fruits, whole grains, fruits risk being deficient in all kinds of nutrients. Why do you think most Americans are popping pills and supplements nowadays? Because they know their diet is horrible and they think they’re going to magically fix the problem and avoid disease by taking magic pills. The supplement industry is completely unregulated. Those magical pills could be doing nothing at all or flat out harming anyone who takes them. Get your nutrients from food, not from someone else’s science experiment!
Vegan Junk Food may be good as a “transitional” food
I know I speak strongly against vegan junk foods, but they can be good foods to use for transitioning away from meat. When I first went vegan, I ate vegan junk food to help wean myself off the animal products. So there can be a purpose for these types of junk foods. Just please don’t plan to eat them forever because they won’t grant you longevity. Only whole, unprocessed plant foods can do that.
Here’s a list of vegan substitutes: I still eat vegan junk food for special occasions like Thanksgiving. My mom always buys a fake vegan turkey product, and since I only eat that once a year, it’s no big deal.
Where do vegans get their protein? This is the most common question vegans always hear. Literally every single plant food contains some protein. If you are eating enough plants, you are getting plenty of protein without even trying.
Legumes, potatoes, grains are known for containing the most protein if you’re that worried about it.
Calcium
Ok, so we’ve proven there’s plenty of protein in a plant-based diet. But what about calcium?
The first thing to point out is most vegan doctors believe the standard recommended daily calcium levels are way too high, because a diet high in animal protein causes the body to expel calcium! So if you are a meat-eater, the standard recommended calcium amount is probably a good idea. But once you switch to a plant-based diet, your required calcium intake levels are much lower. All of the plant-based populations that have been studied had far lower calcium intake, yet the calcium levels in their bodies were perfectly fine.
The most condemning evidence against dairy products is that the countries that consume the most dairy also have the highest rates of bone fractures and osteoporosis. While countries that consume very little to zero dairy products, have almost no bone fractures or osteoporosis. Clearly, “milk builds strong bones” is utter propaganda, pushed and paid for by the dairy industry.
- Milk Myth: Why You Don't Need Dairy for Calcium
- Current Worldwide Milk Consumption
- Rates of Hip Fractures from different countries
- The Truth about Calcium and Osteoporosis
Just like protein, tons of plant foods contain calcium. As long as you are eating a variety of plant foods, you should be getting enough calcium automatically. Beans and green veggies are my usual sources of calcium.
But what about Omega-3s, Zinc, Iron, etc?
Omega-3 = beans, greens, melons, berries, mangos, etc.
Zinc = beans, grains, rice, etc.
Iron = beans, potatoes, and tons of other stuff.
Any time someone threatens: "you will be deficient in so-and-so nutrient if you go vegan..", take out your phone and perform a google search for "plant foods that contain this nutrient" then read out the list of all the plant foods that contain it.
Here's a complete list of every single nutrient in the human diet: Top Vegan Sources of Nutrients
You should get plenty of Vitamin D from sunlight and some foods like tofu and mushrooms also have vitamin D. Plant-milks also have vitamin D and calcium. So go outside and sunbathe! Just come in before you start burning and you will have all of the Vitamin D you need.
If you want to get iodine without using "iodized salt", there are several types of seaweed you can eat. But I personally use iodized salt, so choose whatever you want to do.
Isn’t there anything vegans might miss in their diet?
B12 is the only thing you might need eventually. It takes like six years or even longer for pure and true whole foods vegans to become deficient in B12 since the body stores it so well for a looong time. So it’s not like you’re going to drop dead of B12 deficiency the second you decide to go vegan. Some people are so efficient at storing B12 that it takes them 20+ years or an entire lifetime before they become deficient. B12 may be something you want to think about eventually, but it is not something to worry about in the beginning.
Junk-food-vegans usually get their B12 from fortified-junk-food. Plenty of meat-eaters are also deficient in B12. So this isn't a vegan problem, it's a universal problem of modern society and how we sanitize our food. B12 comes from bacteria in the soil that plants are grown in, not animals. They often have to feed the animals B12 supplements now because we've depleted the nutrients of the soil so much with industrial farming! Even the animals are having trouble getting B12 from the soil when they are grazing!
To get my B12, I like to sprinkle nutritional yeast on my vegan pizzas, air-popped popcorn, spaghetti, etc. The reason I prefer to get my B12 from something like nutritional yeast is because a lot of the B12 supplements have nasty additives like gelatin and artificial sweeteners. So if you insist on taking a B12 supplement, research and find a good high-quality version without the additives.
Other than the possibility of B12 deficiency after many, many years of being hardcore vegan, there is no other supplement you should take. Healthy vegans are supplement-free and disease-free. In contrast, meat-eaters that don’t eat enough veggies, fruits, whole grains, fruits risk being deficient in all kinds of nutrients. Why do you think most Americans are popping pills and supplements nowadays? Because they know their diet is horrible and they think they’re going to magically fix the problem and avoid disease by taking magic pills. The supplement industry is completely unregulated. Those magical pills could be doing nothing at all or flat out harming anyone who takes them. Get your nutrients from food, not from someone else’s science experiment!
- The Unregulated Truth Behind Dietary Supplements
- Unregulated supplements send thousands to hospital each year
- Supplements Can Make You Sick
Vegan Junk Food may be good as a “transitional” food
I know I speak strongly against vegan junk foods, but they can be good foods to use for transitioning away from meat. When I first went vegan, I ate vegan junk food to help wean myself off the animal products. So there can be a purpose for these types of junk foods. Just please don’t plan to eat them forever because they won’t grant you longevity. Only whole, unprocessed plant foods can do that.
Here’s a list of vegan substitutes: I still eat vegan junk food for special occasions like Thanksgiving. My mom always buys a fake vegan turkey product, and since I only eat that once a year, it’s no big deal.