The vegan diet and everything you need to know
The vegan diet has become increasingly popular over the past years, and for many people trying to eat healthier it is seen as one of the “go-to” diets. But do people fully understand the diet and all its requirements? Well, that is what we are going to dive into within this blog post. For a cautious disclaimer, this is not a recommendation on whether we believe you should or should not use the vegan diet, that choice is up to you as the reader, we are merely highlighting important areas of the diet to inform you and possibly help with your judgement.
What is a vegan diet?
Simply put, the vegan diet is a diet that is predominately plant-based and excludes all animal-based products or by-products within their meals. This means no red meat, poultry, fish, eggs, milk, or cheese can be consumed, as well as not using non consumable products to take it a step further, like leather, fur, silk, wool, cosmetics, and some soaps that use animal products.
With a somewhat obvious lack of protein as we see it (protein from animal products), those using the vegan diet will get their protein from certain plant-based foods like almonds, chickpeas, lentils, or Tofu, all of these are reliable sources of protein.
What is good about the diet?
Seeing as the vegan diet is plant-based, the individual will be consuming higher amounts of dietary fiber, magnesium, iron, vitamins C & E, as well as various other vitamins and minerals that are not only important for people to consume to maintain a balanced diet as well as helping internal functions in the body like improving your immune system. Often micronutrients are consumed too little in our diets as they usually come from foods that some individuals can be “picky” over (Fruits and Veg).
Other benefits to the vegan diet thanks to the nutrient content, much like other
vegetarian diets it lowers the risk of certain non-communicable disease, for instance lowering the risk of, cardiovascular disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and some cancers.
What are some shortfalls?
In contrast with all the benefits that the vegan diet provides, there are unfortunately some shortfalls that come with it, as if you do not structure this diet correctly it will be nutritionally inadequate which would have a negative reaction on your body. Although there can be alternative food sources for some of the important nutrients we need, some are not as easily replaceable with this diet. The nutrients that are missing and will need to be replaced specifically are, n-3 fatty acids (which are found in fish or eggs), vitamin D, iron, vitamin B-12, zinc, and calcium. These micronutrients are commonly found in.
Overall opinion and recommendations
Overall, in my opinion the vegan diet is a very good and healthy diet for those who have enough motivation and discipline to cut out animal products from their diet and are looking to live a healthier lifestyle. Despite the few shortfalls of this diet, it does and can provide the adequate nutritional content that we need to function, as well as additional nutrients that benefit our health.
As long as you can include these recommendations of specific nutritionally fortified foods into your diet so you aren’t malnourished in the mentioned nutrients, then this diet or in other words this lifestyle will work for you.
To avoid a vitamin B-12 deficiency, eat B-12 fortified foods like, soy or rice beverages or
certain breakfast cereals.
To avoid a calcium deficiency, eat green leafy vegetables, tofu or tahini which are fortified in calcium.
To avoid a vitamin D deficiency, eat fortified foods such as, soy milk, rice milk, orange juice
or breakfast cereals.
To gain an adequate intake of n-3 fatty acids, eat foods like walnuts, canola oil, soy products or ground flaxseeds which are rich in n-3 fatty acids.
To have enough metals like zinc, foods like whole grains, legumes or soy products are all
naturally rich with the nutrient.
We recommend as it is important, that you read the food labels on these products before you
purchase them, to make sure that you can consume enough of these nutrients in your diet. In contrast you can purchase supplements for these nutrients, and add that to your daily routine, but for those of you that do not enjoy taking supplements, or the thought of taking these additional supplements is too daunting for you, then we recommend taking the fortified food products.
Feel free to learn more about this in on your own, as gaining more knowledge on this diet, and other diets will just help you better understand what you need and what you must do to get it. We have the reference from the articles we gained our information on this blog, read it if you have the time.
And remember to stay safe and stay healthy
Reference: Winston J Craig, Health effects of vegan diets, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Volume 89, Issue 5,
May 2009, Pages 1627S–1633S, https://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.2009.26736N
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