Vegan for life - how to stay healthy on a vegan diet!
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!
I like your post, it's well written, but I would add something important...
You forgot to write about how vitamin C boosts Iron absorption (and hence the tips to eat uncooked vegetables with every meal or sprinkle lemon juice over a cooked dish). As for Zinc, you forgot the best source - pumpkin seeds, which are also delicious, especially if you roast them a few minutes ;)
For me these nutrients weren't an issue, when I was pregnant, my bloodwork showed great, and hemoglobin was perfect!
But what about calcium? It's important to take note of it, because if a person doesn't eat some dark leafy greens everyday, or calcium-set tofu, or fortified plant-milks, he can fall a bit short on calcium (I use vegan RDs blog for this info)
Awesome contribution! I wrote somewhere that I'll make a post for each nutrient (maybe each food too) in detail. This was just a brief look at what I learned in the last year.
My point with the Zinc was that when you eat a varied diet the sources stack up and meet your RDA. The pumpkin seeds are great alongside other foods sources of Zinc, but alone they can't meet your RDA (unless you eat 150g of them every day).
I'll write a separate post for calcium, the fuss with the dairy deserves needs to be resolved.
Thank you for your comment, I followed you, I like your articles at first look! I invite you to join team eco+, we're currently building an interface on STEEM for environmentalists and vegans. Check it out!
eco+, interactive interface for the STEEM blockchain for environmentalists and ethical vegans
eco+, category trees for VEGANISM, love for the supporters and the general direction for the next few weeks.
I love this post and you are so right that we shouldn't fear carbs. Our body needs all macronutrients, fats and carbs included, to function properly.
Thank you so much @ami-goodrich... And yea, carbs are the #1 source of energy. Everything gets converted into sugar if the body doesn't have any.
This is such a great post =) I always love to read about nutrition and health. Upvote and resteemed :) <3
Thank you so much @nicoleslife, I appreciate that!
:)
If its plant based and natural you can't go wrong with Wholegrains and beans thats about all year need! I eat so much and never get fat!
True. Very hard to be over-weight on a plant based diet unless you have a metabolism problem.
Very great post over here, thank you!!
Thank YOU for you kind feedback! I've followed you, your desserts look unbelievable.
I would like you to be a part of the eco+ project.
Stay tuned, today I will release the categories for VEGANISM so you can post under the TAGs. In the mean time, check out this post to see how it works!
I would love to be part of the eco+ project dear!! Thank you for inviting me!
What a great post, straight to the point, easily comprehensible, and with real-life examples. I also enjoy your style of writing! Loved this 😊
Wow, sweet, very glad you liked it so much! Followed you, steem on! :)
Great post @freegardens, I think that for a lot of new Vegans it is a daunting change. Posts like this make it easy for people to understand that there are certain things that they should focus on I.E. b12 and others that they really don't need to.
Following a whole food plant based diet is probably the best thing for our bodies, people who follow such diets are actually repairing their dna as opposed to people who follow a high animal or processed diet.
Keep up the great work man.😉
Yea our diet is very different from others, but everyone can make the change! The dna repairing part is a good one, cool you brought it up. It deserves a new article... Thanks @moonunit, steem on!
Oh for sure, People really don't know how damaging animal products are for every part of their body. Looking forward to the article.
Great information to share! I went plant-based for my health first, and then learned so much about the ethical side of things that I could never go back. If I care so much about animals it doesn't make sense to fill my own body with junk, even if it's vegan. :)
How you started doesn't really matter, it's only important that you understand the ethical part too. Keep up the plant work, followed! :)
And yea, it doesn't make sense to eat junk, although you can be perfectly ethical doing it... Still, spreading veganism is hard if you're clearly unhealthy.
Dreams are always best when they're green, lovely article - I will actually check my blood-work in a weeks time. Always interesting to see, especially B12 which I havent been too focused on lately.
Riiight? Finally someone understands me with the green dreams! :P
Very nice to hear you liked the article, glad if it pushed you a little to think about nutrition!
<3
I'm not taking any supplements but will buy a B12 supplement just in case. I also don't eat enough flax seeds =) Thanks for posting this! II personally need to constantly remind myself to eat a balanced diet, that's my weakness at the moment
As I mentioned, B12 is not a problem for many, many years. So supplementing is more of a preventative thing for the far future haha! Omega 3s from flax seeds aswell, you're going to see that effect only when you get really old. People who have enough omega3s in their diet tend to develop less demention and similar brain disease in old age.
So don't worry, we all can be unresponsible when it comes to our bodies sometimes. Doing that in the long run is what causes major problems.
You're very welcome! :)
walnuts will also work perfectly for Omega 3s! and chia seeds. Walnuts are the mosr delicious and easy to eat enough (but difficult to eat moderately =))
@steemitbaby
The problem with walnuts is their 3 to 6 ratio. Flax seeds have 4:1 ratio while the walnuts have a 1:4.
That's okay if you don't have any extra omega 6s in your diet. If you do, the short chain to long chain conversion will be not as eficient. You want to keep your ratios up to 1:4, ideal is 1:1.
Compared to any other omega 3 source, flax is the king in many ways.
Check out the video by Michael Greger on that: