Hitting Your Nutritional Requirements on a Vegan Diet

Considering becoming a vegan? Or perhaps you’re already a vegan and you’re looking to come up with a healthier diet that meets your needs and requirements better. Whatever you’re reasoning for reading this, we’ll be able to provide you with some advice, guidance and general direction for your journey. Veganism isn’t the easiest change to make at first, but in the end, most feel better for it. You do, however, need to make sure that you are still getting your recommended nutrition to ensure that your body gets what it needs to thrive. Here are a few suggestions that should help you along the way!

What is Veganism?

If you’re new here or contemplating taking your first seps into a vegan lifestyle, you may be unsure entirely of what veganism is. Unfortunately, nowadays, so many people use the term incorrectly or don’t understand it fully, which means people often mix up what is vegan and what isn’t. Veganism is a lifestyle free from animal products. This means no products that contain part of an animal’s body or goods that are produced by animals. You get dietary vegans who will still wear and use other animal products, such as leather or beauty and skincare products containing ingredients derived from animals. However, most vegans do not eat or consume any animal products in terms of food. Like vegetarians, vegans do not eat meat, fish or products from animals’ bodies, such as gelatine. However, vegans take things a step further and also don’t eat dairy products, eggs, honey and more.

Why Consider Veganism?

There are a number of reasons that someone might consider going vegan. The most common reasons tend to be as an opposition to animal cruelty, for environmental reasons or for health reasons.

  • For the animals – animal agriculture inevitably involves animal cruelty. Problems such as factory farming mean that the animals that are bred to keep up with a human demand for meat tend to lead extremely poor quality lives. Even the better treated animals on free range farms with higher standards and ethics ultimately do not lead a life of freedom and can be killed at the end. People who are against animal cruelty tend to go vegan in order to minimise demand for animal products and don’t contribute to this process.
  • For the environment – animal agriculture can also prove bad for the environment. By eliminating animal products, you eliminate an unnecessary step in the food chain between plant energy and human energy. Rather than growing crops to feed animals that will ultimately be killed to feed people, people can eat the crops directly. This reduces deforestation for feeding cattle and other animals, as well as reducing water consumption and waste production resulting from the farming of animals too.
  • For health reasons – animal products often contain high levels of saturated fats and can be bad for cholesterol levels too. Put simply, vegetables can be a whole lot healthier, as long as you’re still getting all of your nutrients from plant based sources. People following a healthy vegan diet can lead a healthier and longer life.

Switching to a Vegan Diet

Of course, very few of us are raised vegan and we tend to have grown up used to eating animal produce. If you switch to a vegan diet, you’re going to find yourself having to get into entirely new routines in a number of ways. Rather than reaching for or cooking up the dishes and snacks you’re used to, you’re going to have to find new things that you enjot that are entirely plant based, as well as making sure that you replace the nutrients you would usually find in meat, eggs and dairy with alternative plant based options. This is hard work. It’s generally recommended that you do a fair bit of research into veganism before making the leap, or that you ease into the new diet. A lot of people find it a lot easier to cut out one animal product at a time, helping them to adjust to the change, rather than experiencing the shock of cutting everything out at once. For example, you might want to start by cutting out cheese. Then, cut out eggs. Then, cut out milk. Then cut out the more discreet products that contain animal product that you might not have thought about before, such as cutting out crisps that contain milk powder or drinks that contain non vegan colourings.

Hitting Your Nutritional Requirements

As we’ve briefly touched on above, when you cut animal products out of your diet, you need to make sure that you replace the nutrients lost from them. For now, we’ll focus on some of the nutrients that most people don’t know good plant-based sources of.

Protein

Protein is commonly found in red meat, chicken and fish. You can also get protein from eggs. However, when you go vegan, you’ll need altenratives. Good plant based protein can be found in various foods. Quinoa could be a goodplace to start. This packs 8g of protein in every cupful serving. If you can tolerate gluten, seitan is a good option too. This was originally developed by Buddhist monks as a red meat substitute. It contains an impressive 28g of protein for every one-third of a cup serving. Tofu is a versatile food that can be cooked in a variety of ways and contains 8g of protein per 100g serving.

Calcium

Many people automatically associate calcium with milk, as this is what has been promoted for generations now. But you can get plenty of calcium from plants too! Good sources include bok choy, kale, mustard greens, turnip greens, watercress, broccoli, chickpeas and calcium-set tofu. Now that more people are becoming vegan, you can also find plant based milks and cereals that are fortified with plant-based calcium too!

Omega 3

Oily fish is packed with omega 3. But you can find plant based sources. As a vegan, you can find plenty of vegan omega-3 in walnuts, flaxseeds, chia seeds, hemp seeds, edamame, seaweed and algae. You can also get small amounts from green leafy vegetables and beans.

B12

B12 is important and something that is naturally found in meats. You should be aware that a very low B12 intakes can cause anemia and nervous system damage. This is much harder to source from plants, but you can find reliable vegan sources of B12 in foods that have been specially fortified with B12 (including some plant milks, some soy products and some breakfast cereals). You may also want to look into B12 supplements.

Considering Supplements

If you owrry that you may be missing occasinal elements of your diet, you may want to look into supplements to keep your levels topped up. Of course, it’s important to do your research. You should be able to get everything you need from a healthy and balanced diet, but supplements can help and can give you peace of mind. Consider options like . If you already take other supplements, such as THC, you should make sure that you’re choosing vegan options like Delta 8 Gummies. Some other vitamins and supplements contain gelatine in their capsules or their gummies.

Checking Your Health

Of course, throughout this process, you should make sure to monitor your health to ensure that you’re feeling good and that yoyr body is getting everything that it needs. If you find that you are experiencing symptoms yoy’re not used to, you may want to check in with your doctor. There are common deficiencies that many vegans experience. These tend to be B12 and iron, which are harder to source from plant based products and ingredients. A doctor will be able to carry out a simple and straightforward blood test to check your levels and ensure that everything is as it should be. If you are running low, they may recommend B12 tablets, iron tablets or even B12 injections to help.

It Doesn’t Have to Be All or Nothing

It’s also important to reduce pressure on yourself. Sure, going vegan has great benefits for you, animals and the planet. But if you are struggling, you need to remember that it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Cutting any element of animal produce out of your diet and lifestyle goes a long way, so if you find yourself saying things like “I could be vegan if it wasn’t for giving up cheese”, go vegan in every other element of your diet and just eat cheese. Any change is positive change.

Sure, this may feel like a lot of infomration to take in all at once, but hopefully, some of the suggestions and guidance outlined above should help you on your journey. Each step can help you to implement and follow a healthy vegan lifestyle that provides you and your body with everything you need – entirely from plant based sources!

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