So you've gone vegan and you managed to be an ethical human for some time - a few months, a few years? That's cool.

Here are a few little things to keep your eyes on to stay healthy. It's crucial to be a positive example to people that have not yet taken our path. I will list here the possible nutrient deficiencies (all preventable). This is a general post and I will make new posts to delve further into specific nutrients.

Calories

Proper amount of calories is an absolute necessity for health.

Too much, we get overweight and become sluggish. Also, wehave higher risk of chronic disease like diabetes and heart disease.

Too little, we become tired, loose muscle and risk starvation or nutrient deficiencies. That is, if our diet is not nutrient dense.

A slight calorie restriction is safe (up to 10%). Some studies even show greater longevity in people that restrict their calories. Ofcourse, anything more than 10% has a potential to be harmful.

Calories come in very handy as a tool for measuring the quality of a food. Generally, we want our food to have a high nutrient to calorie ratio. A nutrient-saturated plant based diet with no restrictions is the best. Atleast compared to any other diet we know. Having a diverse amount of foods to eat also raises your chances to stay on the diet.

I've talked a lot more about calories in my last post about veganism. You can see it here.

Anyways, that has a lot more to do with beginners than with experienced vegans. Long term vegans have more problems with nutrient deficiences than with calorie intake. That is, unless you're for some reason overweight or anorexic (which you are less likely to be if you're a vegan).

Below, a t-shirt design I made for all proud vegans to wear!

Macronutrients

Carbohydrate

Carb intake is not a problem for vegans. All plant foods have some form of complex or less complex sugar. Carbs are very important for the human body, the function of the brain but also the life of every cell. We spend sugar every millisecond of our lives with cell and lung breathing.

Luckily, we have many sources to choose from on a vegan diet. Be it fruit, berries, vegetables, root vegetables or grains - all wonderful for the human body.

The anti-carb propaganda is harmful. You cannot ever get weight with the right calorie amount of whole high carb foods. Carb up!

Fats

Fats are also a neccessary part of a diet, but not to the extent of carbs. We need a small amount of certain fats to sustain brain longevity. There are a few different types and we need to know the difference between them.

Saturated fat.

Saturated fat is rare in a vegan diet, as the main source are animal foods. Saturated fat is detrimental to heart and artery health. Especially when combined with cholesterol (all animal foods). It is the cause of most heart disease and thus is the #1 cause of death in the world. Stay away.

Omegas, 3 and 6.

Omega 3 intake is inevitable for brain health. There are two kinds - long chain and short chain. Our bodies can make the long chain ones, so they're not neccessary in a healthy diet. Short chain omega 3s are abundant in flax and chia seeds, so be sure to eat them every day. If you don't want to depend on your body to make the longer ones, you can take an algae omega 3 supplement. If you don't want to do that, be sure to check that your 3/6 ratio is close to 1:1, or atleast 1:4. The closer you are to 1:1, the better your body makes longer chain fatty acids.

Flax seed, chia seed, eat up.

I don't need to speak about trans fats, we all know how unhealthy they are.

Proteins

An over-rated part of almost any diet. Glorified to the point that most people eat amounts that their bodies cannot use. Proteins are the worst source of calories you can get. The body goes to great lengths to convert them back to sugar to use for energy, so why focus so much on them? You are unlikely to develop a protein deficiency if you eat enough calories. Infact, I can't imagine the situation (table sugar diet???)... Eat some legumes, some grains and you're fine.

Micronutrients

Vitamins

A whole food vegan diet is full of vitamins. Most are not a problem, but you need to keep some of them checked. Below are the most important ones. Others I will not discuss in this article, but will later on.

Vitamin B12

Keep it checked because the deficiency develops over a long time span, since the liver stores it for up to 10 years. That means we can forget about it and then, when it's completely out of our mind, our body needs it. The worst of all, symptoms are weird - weakness, pale skin, constipation, and loss of appetite. That means the deficiency hard to detect.

Get a B12 supplement and make yourself safe (no room for the naturallistic fallacy here).

Vitamin D

The D vitamin is important for the normal brain function and bone health.

Be sure to get enough sun exposure throughout the year.

10-15 minutes a day in a sunny part of the year is enough. If the winter is cloudy or the sun is low on the sky, consider taking a supplement from a vegan source like mushrooms.

I am a lot better mentally when I take it during the winter.

Minerals

Iron
Iron deficiency is one of the most common due to absorption issues. If you don't have such an issue, you still should make a blood test every now and then to make sure you are not deficient. Otherwise, be sure you're eating a varied whole food plant diet and you should be fine. Cruciferous vegetables are a wonderful source of iron.

Zinc
This is something people often bring up when they talk about the vegan diet. I beileve there must be a reason why, but the diet itself can be rich with the nutrient if done right. All legumes are full of it and spinach is high in zinc content too. Other foods contain smaller amounts, but still significant when they add up.

Phytochemicals

Uhhh, here's a non-nutritive part of the diet we should all embrace and love. A diet rich in these compounds is only one - a plant based diet! These are compounds produced by only plants. They don't provide any nutrient content, but other positive effects on the body.

Antioxidants

The most well known of all active plant compounds. Antioxidants reverse the damage of a substance we need every second to use up energy - oxygen. Some vitamins, like vitamin C, which is abundant on a plant based diet, serve the purpose but other substances are more potent, like anthocyanins, the purple color in purple kale, beets, berries, eggplant and so on... Generally, most plant pigments act like antioxidants...

So color up your plate!

I hope you enjoyed this post and if you did, be sure to follow me for more! I like gardening, permaculture, philosophy, the blockchain, off-grid living, anarchism... If we have similar interests leave a comment below so I can check out your blog!

Also, I'm currently building a small community of people here on STEEM. A society of people whose ethics is the first principle and who value ecology.

eco+

an ecological guarantee based on the wisdom of the crowd

If you haven't noticed the posts about eco+, check it out, you might like the project.

Why the STEEM blockchain is a permacultural thing and how I became interested in building upon it

eco+, an ecological guarantee based on the wisdom of the crowd

Introducing eco+, the basics, the STEEM interface, the logo and the typefaces

Proof of consent - everyone agrees???

With love, @freegardens!