What You Need To know About Going Vegan | Food Choices For Vegans

What You Need To know About Going Vegan | Food Choices For Vegans

While vegetarians eliminate meat, fish, and poultry, vegans take it a step further, excluding all animal products—even dairy and eggs. They do not eat refried beans with lard, margarine made with whey, and anything with gelatin, which comes from animal bones and hooves, too. Staples if a vegan diet would be fruits, vegetables, leafy greens, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and legumes.

Vegans tend to eat fewer calories, weigh less, and have a lower body mass index than people who consume meat. If you’re eating lots of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains you’ll likely feel full faster and fewer calories would be consumed each day. With this reduction in calorie intake and a little physical activity, weight can be loss. Also, eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, and going light on saturated fat and salt,would keep cholesterol and blood pressure in check and heart disease at bay.

If you’ve built a healthful vegan diet around fiber-packed vegetables, fruits, and whole grains, you shouldn’t feel hungry between meals. A good food plan is essential as vegans need to be careful to get enough calcium, iron and vitamin B12.

A healthy vegan diet contains:

• plenty of fruit and vegetables
• plenty of starchy foods
• some non-dairy sources of protein, like beans and pulses
• some dairy alternatives, like fortified soya drinks
• just a small amount of fatty and sugary foods

Calcium is needed for strong and healthy bones and teeth. Non-vegans get most of their calcium from dairy foods (milk, cheese and yogurt), but vegans can get it from other foods which includes:

• fortified soya, rice and oat drinks
• calcium-set tofu
• sesame seeds and tahini
• pulses
• brown and white bread (in the UK calcium is added to white and brown flour by law)
• dried fruit such as raisins, prunes, figs and dried apricots

The body needs vitamin D to absorb calcium. Vegan sources of vitamin D are:

• exposure to sunshine – remember to cover up or protect your skin before it starts to turn red or burn
• fortified fat spreads, breakfast cereals and soya drinks (with vitamin D added)
• vitamin D supplements

Iron is essential for the production of red blood cells. A vegan diet can be high in iron, but iron from plant-based food is absorbed less readily by the body compared to iron from meat.

Good sources of iron for vegans are:

• pulses
• wholemeal bread and flour
• breakfast cereals fortified with iron
• dark-green leafy vegetables such as watercress, broccoli and spring greens
• nuts
• dried fruits such as apricots, prunes and figs

The body needs vitamin B12 to maintain a healthy blood and a healthy nervous system. Vitamin B12 is only found naturally in foods from animal sources. Sources for vegans are therefore limited and a vitamin B12 supplement may be needed.

Sources of vitamin B12 for vegans include:

• breakfast cereals fortified with B12
• soya drinks fortified with vitamin B12
• yeast extract such as Marmite

Omega-3 fatty acids, primarily found in oily fish like salmon, helps to maintain a healthy heart and reduce the risk of heart disease.

Sources of omega-3 fatty acids suitable for vegans include:

• flaxseed (linseed) oil
• rapeseed oil
• soya oil and soya-based foods, such as tofu
• walnuts

If you are intending to go vegan, it is best to consult a doctor first to see if your body is suitable to undergo this kind of diet. Going vegan also means that you would need to conscious of the amount of nutrients you are taking into your body as you are not consuming nutrients from animal based products.