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A vegan diet often gets criticized as being extreme and restrictive. Even if you look and feel incredibly healthy, people can be critical.
It can be frustrating to hear that negativity, and it can make you question whether you really are getting enough of all the nutrients you need…
The truth is, I actually eat a wider variety of different foods now than I ever did before shifting to a vegan diet plan.
And I love eating! I never feel restricted or deprived, I get excited about every single meal.
Before worrying about the small details of planning a vegan diet plan, it’s important to get an overview of the big picture of a healthy eating plan.
If you don’t get the basics right, nothing else you do will be nearly as effective.
So what’s the big picture of a healthy balanced diet?
Eat lots of fresh veggies and fruit, stick with whole foods, and avoid junk.
You can say the same thing whether you eat meat or not, and lots of meat-eaters don’t have those basics covered.
If you need help with figuring out what exactly the healthy foods are that you should be eating, and what to look for in the grocery store, check out the grocery lists I put together for you.
Can You Get Balanced Nutrition on a Vegan/Vegetarian Diet?
The answer to this question is absolutely YES.
A few key nutrients are well-associated with animal foods, and a lack of knowledge about plant sources for them might scare some people away from improving their diets.
If you eat a variety of healthy, whole plant foods you’ll get enough of nearly all the nutrients you need – protein, vitamins and minerals like iron and calcium.
The only nutrients missing from plant foods are two vitamins – D and B12 – which you can easily get from supplements.
Meat Eaters Are Not Immune To Deficiencies!
Regardless of whether or not you eat meat, you need to be conscious of eating healthy foods in order to get balanced nutrition.
The crucial factor in getting all of the nutrients you need from your diet is to eat a wide variety of foods, and to eat a large portion of your diet as fresh vegetables and fruit.
Almost all diet plans have this in common, certainly the ones that work long term.
Even though plant foods don’t have any vitamin B12, animal foods don’t have any vitamin C and are extremely low in a lot of other essential vitamins and minerals.
Fresh vegetables and fruits are the best sources of most micronutrients, and many modern diets include very little fresh produce and quite a bit of animal foods.
Variety is Key
Getting a variety of foods is not only more fun, but healthier than just eating a few foods because you get the full nutrient values your body needs.
Everyone interested in adopting a healthier lifestyle – not just vegans – needs to eat a wide variety of high-quality plant foods to get and fully utilize all the nutrients available.
If you want to look at the details of which nutrients are important for a balanced plant-based diet, here’s a synopsis:
- Protein: It’s not nearly as hard as people think to get enough protein from plant foods. All whole plant foods have some protein in them. If you eat enough calories from a balanced diet, and include beans or legumes on a regular basis, you should get enough protein and all the essential amino acids.
- Essential Fatty Acids: There are plenty of plant sources of omega-3, and algae-based DHA supplements if you want a concentrated source.
- Carbohydrates: People often worry about getting too much carbohydrates eating plant foods. Carbs are your body’s main source of energy, and are completely healthy if you get healthy forms of them (whole grains, vegetables, fruit, and other whole foods). Most of the anti-carb information is about refined carbs, like white flour, white rice and white sugar.
- Vitamin B12: With no natural plant sources, it’s important to be aware of the deficiency symptoms and to take a high quality supplement of B12 regularly – either in your multivitamin or in addition.
- Iron: There’s lots in certain plant foods, but you need to make sure you get enough Vitamin C in order to absorb it, and avoid tea or coffee with meals because the tannins interfere with its absorption.
- Calcium: The cause of deficiency isn’t always a low intake, and plant sources are often a better choice than dairy.
- Vitamin D: There’s none in plant foods, but our bodies produce it naturally when our skin is exposed to the sun. Deficiency symptoms often come up during the winter, and supplements can be really helpful any time of year (especially if you don’t go outside very much) to maintain optimal levels.
- Iodine: The highest natural source of iodine is kelp, which you can buy in grinders with sea salt – or it comes mixed in a really tasty package of sea salt, dried vegetables and dried herbs in Herbamare.
- Vitamin A: Plant sources are very high in vitamin A as carotenoids, which are converted in your body to a usable form at various rates. You can get more than enough carotenoids for your body to convert into what it needs.
- Probiotics are bacteria, and don’t need dairy to grow into a high-quality culture. There are some excellent sources of vegan probiotics that you can take instead of dairy-based ones.