How to maintain a healthy vegan diet
If you have just completed Veganuary and enjoyed it enough to continue, you may be asking yourself what’s the best way forward whilst ensuring that you get all the nutrients you need. A vegan diet eliminates all animal foods including meat, fish, dairy, eggs, and sometimes honey too. Cutting out large food groups can cause deficiencies in the long-term if there is a lack of planning.
The good news is that evidence shows that people can indeed thrive on a vegan diet, as long as it is done with consideration and planning, ensuring that certain nutrients that are mostly found more easily in animal products are covered.
Full disclosure, I am not vegan, although I lean towards an 85% plant-based diet.
What to eat
If you choose to eat a vegan diet, the two most important things you can do to ensure that you are covering all the nutrients you need for optimum health are take a whole-food approach to food, and to take the right supplements.
A whole-food approach means eating fruits, vegetables, grains, pulses, beans, nuts and seeds, and avoiding too many processed vegan products and white refined carbohydrate meals (such as pasta) which are usually devoid of nutrients. A vegan diet done well does take a little practice, but once you have got the hang of it, the benefits can be great.
Health benefits
Some of the health benefits that have been found are:
A reduced risk of chronic disease
Studies have shown that vegans have reduced incidence of certain cancers, lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes and lower levels of heart disease than omnivores (1). A study in the Journal of Clinical Cardiology (2018) found that patients had a significant reduction in blood pressure and cholesterol levels after excluding all animal products for just four weeks (2).
Improved gut health
Consuming a wide range of plant foods improves the diversity of healthy gut bacteria in the gastro-intestinal tract. When an individual’s microbiome is in good balance this can not only result in healthier digestive function, but research also links a healthy gut with good immune function, improved metal health and even weight control.
Maintaining a healthy weight
Studies have also shown that those following a vegan diet are more likely to have a lower body mass index (BMI)
Ensure these nutrients are covered
The below lists some of the key nutrients that can be limited in a vegan diet and which plant-based sources you can find them in. A vegan multivitamin is a good idea to make sure that all your nutrients are covered, especially vitamin B12, iodine, selenium and vitamin D which can be difficult to obtain from plant sources.
Protein*
Beans, lentils, chickpeas, seeds, tofu, nuts, quinoa, vegan protein powder, some wholegrains and vegetables.
Omega 3 fats
Chia seeds, flax seeds and walnuts
Vitamin D
Supplementation is recommended unless you are exposed to regular sunlight. It can be found in fortified products and mushrooms but not in adequate quantities.
Vitamin B12
A supplement must be taken.
Calcium
Tofu, leafy green vegetables, sesame seeds, figs, oranges, almonds and fortified milks.
Iodine
Supplementation is recommended. It can also be found in seaweed but in unreliable amounts.
Zinc
Legumes, nuts, seeds and wholegrains
Selenium
Supplementation is recommended. Brazil nuts can be a great source of selenium, however the amounts can vary considerably depending on the soil where they were grown.
*A note on protein
It’s easy enough to get sufficient protein from plant-based sources, however it’s important to be aware that not all of them are classed as complete proteins. Protein is made up of twenty individual components called amino acids. Some amino acids can be made by the body, however nine of them come solely from the food you eat. Many plant-based sources are incomplete proteins meaning that they don’t contain all of the nine essential amino acids. This doesn’t mean that they have a low protein content, it just means that one or more amino acid is lacking in that food. Therefore, it is important that you consume a variety of the above protein sources throughout the day to get all of the essential amino acids.
References