I know this is a shitpost, but how do you get all your nutrients on a vegan or vegetarian diet? I’m considering reducing my meat intake but am worried about the nutrient thing
I eat about 3000 calories per day, but generally limit my meat intake to about 500 calories per day, while trying to hit at least 150g of protein per day. Generally that means I’m eating a vegetarian lunch, where the only animal product is parmesan cheese (gives a great umami kick to salads).
I eat a lot of legumes. Not just beans/lentils, but also a lot of green varieties like green beans, peas, edamame, snap peas, snow peas, and peanuts are like my go-to snack.
When paired up with grains, which you’ll generally already be eating enough of, the protein profile of most legumes complement grains so that you’re getting plenty of every essential amino acid.
And generally, I eat a lot of vegetables and mushrooms. On a per calorie basis, some vegetables are surprisingly high protein.
I eat a decent amount of yogurt or cheese, maybe 3-4 servings per day.
The meat I do eat tends to be the kind that lends a lot of flavor to a dish. 1 oz of bacon in a sandwich sometimes seems meatier than another sandwich with 8 oz of meat. Same with things like fish sauce or anchovy paste. I have a lot of soups and stews where the actual amount of meat involved is kinda low on a per serving basis, where the fresh meat is paired with a cured meat and things like mushrooms and fermented sauces to add lots of umami to a soup without actually consisting of that much meat. I also do stir fries, curries, salads, etc., where any meat is served with a lot of vegetables, as well.
So for example, it’s easy to eat a pound of meat in 2 half pound hamburgers. It’s much harder to eat a pound of meat in the form of burgers made from 3 oz smash patties. And smash burgers taste better to me anyway.
Basically I steer all my eating towards less meat, but I eat a lot and have pretty high caloric needs.
Protein: legumes (beans, lentils, peanuts, chickpeas, tofu and other solid soy products)
Calcium: fortified plant milks (convenient) or cruciferous leaves and flowers (healthy) such as collards, kale, or broccoli. Tofu is a good source too. Avoid excessive intakes of salt.
Iron: eat vitamin-C rich food with your meals, such as bell peppers, lemon/lime juice on your food, or drink orange juice.
B-12: you must supplement, either with gummies, fortified plant milk or processed vegan products (vegan sausages, vegan “turkey” slices, etc.)
A vitamin: carrots, cruciferous leaves and flowers (see calcium), squash, cantaloup. Eat with fatty food for better absorption. Eg. Minestrone soup (kale and olive oil)
Omega-3 : tofu is a good source. Flaxseed oil has enough in a teaspoon – it works well on salads. Some nuts are a good source too.
Please visit https://veganhealth.org/ for more information. This site is authored by a registered dietetician.
I just want to add that B-12 is often missing from or low in many omnivores’ diets too, not just vegans. Another good source of B-12 is nutritional yeast. It’s like an umami flavored (some people call compare it to cheese, but I don’t really think it has a cheese taste and don’t want to disappoint anyone) powder that you can add to whatever you want. Works really well incorporated in a recipe or just sprinkled on top of stuff.
Generally, people who eat animal products several time per say don’t need to supplement with B12. But I remember reading that elders absorb it not as well and can’t rely even on animal products, and may need to supplement.
Yes, fortified nutritional yeast is a source too. One should make sure their nutritional yeast is fortified berfore relying on it for B12. If it’s not fortified with B12, it doesn’t contain any.
Fortified nutritional yeast needs to be kept in a dark place, preferably refrigerated.
I use it in pesto in place of cheese and everyone, omnivores included, love it.
If you plan to reduce your meat intake, you don’t have to consider anything, really.
If you plan to eat fully vegan, you should look up B12 supplements and make sure to get some proteins (beans, lentils, tofu etc). The whole nutrition thing is not as big a problem as you think it is, though. If you’re unsure, maybe get a blood test done after a few months.
About 5-6 years ago I did the same thing. I’m still a shameless omnivore, but I managed to reduce my meat consumption significantly. Around 2024 (so several years after I started) I had to get my blood analyzed. The only thing they found was my lack of vitamin D, but I live in a country with minimal suboptimal* sun exposure, so it’s a thing here anyway.
Note that I still eat meat, but way less often than before. I started with a maximum of two meaty days per week (no cap on meat those days), but not as a fixed schedule: I just allowed myself when I really craved it, but not more than 2 days a week. Can be 1 or 0.
Fast forward to the end of 2023, when I started thinking about when I last had meat, and I couldn’t remember. It wasn’t quite hard, to be honest: there are awesome veggie meals around, and I still eat dairy and eggs whenever.
Legumes and cereals both have protein, but they both lack some amino acids, while the body needs them in a certain proportion. However, they complement each other in regard to which of the essential amino acids they have, so one should eat both.
This is a little bit of a myth, but also a little bit true. Virtually all plant-sources of protein have all essential amino acids. It’s just that legumes have a slightly lower amount of one amino acid compared to what’s in our muscles, and grains have a slightly lower amount of another. So while they do complement each other and ensure plenty of all amino acids, it’s also actually not that hard to get all necessary protein from one or the other just by eating a bit more of it.
In other words, if you go a day or even a few days only having grains or only having legumes, it’s probably not going to hurt you, so there’s no need to be overly concerned about protein combining. But in any case there are other reasons why it is better to eat a variety of foods, so getting grains and legumes is still better.
I get super firm tofu and use half the block in an orange chicken and rice dish. The tofu block is 72g in protein, so halving that gets me a solid chunk of protein to end the day.
Also, don’t forget, spy and almond milk are fortified and have higher calcium than real milk.
Lastly, if youre feeling down about not finding b12, redbull has 1200% of your daily b12 vitamins lol! Not the healthiest advise at the end, but still haha
Corn, beans, and squash is technically a viable diet and was used by a few native american groups for centuries. Its a full protein and very nutritionally dense. It is called the three sisters but they sometimes consumed sunflowers as a fourth sister for their fat content.
There are no nutrients that are exclusively available via meat/dairy. The only thing you might miss out on is B12, but that’s usually supplemented in a lot of the vegan substitutes/junk food alternatives already. Anything else you’ll get pretty easily by simply eating your regular veggies, beans, legumes etc.
If you truly care about nutrients, then get your blood tested and have them check what you are actually lacking, and then adjust or supplement your diet accordingly. Chances are that you are already low on something even when eating animal products.
Thanks for the advice, iirc I got my blood tested when I was doing some allergy tests so I’ll look at those and see what my levels were. I do know that I’m low on vitamin d cause I take a supplement for that
fuck thank you you just reminded me i needed to buy that one brand of nutritional yeast that is garlicky to try it on my popcorn. i cannot remember its name
There are no nutrients that are exclusively available via meat/dairy.
i.e. claimed that there are some nutrients that can only be sourced via meat or dairy.
An obligate carnivore must eat meat to live, like, say, if the only source of needed nutrients is meat?
Where did I lose you on this? Is it the “or dairy” escape hatch?
FFS, you could have just given an example of a nutrient you mistakenly think is only available via meat or dairy. Then I could have judged your post on its merits instead of this displeasure of a thread.
I’m not a nutritionist, but I know for a fact vitamin a, among others, is not made by plants. I think people should probably just talk to their health care professionals. strangers on the Internet need have no credentials, and often have motivated reasoning.
Humans synthesize Vitamin A from Beta Carotene in plants. Only a small minority of people who are genetically predisposed to less efficient conversion of Beta Carotene would need to supplement with the retinyl form (readily available in supplements)
The human diet contains two sources for vitamin A: preformed vitamin A (retinol and retinyl esters) and provitamin A carotenoids [1,5]. Preformed vitamin A is found in foods from animal sources, including dairy products, eggs, fish, and organ meats [1,2]. Provitamin A carotenoids are plant pigments that include beta-carotene, alpha-carotene, and beta-cryptoxanthin [1]. The body converts provitamin A carotenoids into vitamin A in the intestine via the beta-carotene monooxygenase type 1 BCMO1 enzyme [1,3,6], although conversion rates may have genetic variability
just gotta try stuff, nutrition is really personal in my opinion. you have to notice you’re fatgiued, or addled and correlate it with if your diet is lacking something or if you are just dehydrated or sleep deprived.
Vitamin B12 is the main one that’s hard to get. It’s not really natural to any foods apart from animal products.
Iodine is also a tough one. Though you’re probably deficient in this anyway depending on how much sea food and dairy milk you eat. Technically iodine isn’t natural to milk, but we feed iodine supplements to dairy cattle.
You can get enough of both of these by drinking enough fortified plant milks, but it’s like half a litre a day and idk I find that’s just a lot.
I’m personally just lazy and take supplements, the Vegan Society here in the UK do ones that are affordable and have everything you need in them. If you live far enough north or south you should be taking vitamin D supplements anyway, at least during the winter.
Nutritional Yeast is a good savory seasoning that supplements b12
Iodized salt is a good source of iodine and doesn’t really taste different from the fancy salts when it’s dissolved in a sauce or stock, so use it as your cooking salt and you’ll be fine
Its not that hard. Gorillas are vegan, they do fine. So are my goats.
i quit meat a bunch of years ago, I try to eat a varied diet, and try to mix greens and grains. I get a check up about once a year and all my blood work comes back fine.
gorillas are not vegan. they eat their butt cookies (an animal product), and they eat bugs. but besides that, veganism is an ethical stance, and there is no proof they have ever considered the ethics of animal exploitation.
Iirc just rice and beans cover all essential amino acids so nothing to worry about. Obviously, in the real world scenario the diet will be more varied than that with veggies and grains and stuff so the vitamins/fatty acids will be covered as well. If you want to get real numbers there are apps for this, for example Cronometer - pretty cool.
So overall I’d say don’t worry about it, just eat enough and different foods, supplement with B12 and check the bloodwork yearly.
Even if you eat meat, a multivitamin a day is a good idea.
As for the thing that people always bring up, protein, the lazy way is to make air-fried tofu to replace chicken in various dishes. If you airfry tofu, you don’t really need to prepress/drain if before you cook it, just cut it into pieces and put it in the air frier for 8 minutes.
If you’re anti-vitamin for some reason and you don’t mind being a little trashy, B12 is what you are likely to be short on with a vegan diet. Look at the amount of B12 in an energy drink. If you drink a 1/4 of a can a day, you have your B12 covered. But seriously, just eat a multivitamin. Even if you eat meat, there’s probably something that you’re missing.
I know this is a shitpost, but how do you get all your nutrients on a vegan or vegetarian diet? I’m considering reducing my meat intake but am worried about the nutrient thing
I eat about 3000 calories per day, but generally limit my meat intake to about 500 calories per day, while trying to hit at least 150g of protein per day. Generally that means I’m eating a vegetarian lunch, where the only animal product is parmesan cheese (gives a great umami kick to salads).
I eat a lot of legumes. Not just beans/lentils, but also a lot of green varieties like green beans, peas, edamame, snap peas, snow peas, and peanuts are like my go-to snack.
When paired up with grains, which you’ll generally already be eating enough of, the protein profile of most legumes complement grains so that you’re getting plenty of every essential amino acid.
And generally, I eat a lot of vegetables and mushrooms. On a per calorie basis, some vegetables are surprisingly high protein.
I eat a decent amount of yogurt or cheese, maybe 3-4 servings per day.
The meat I do eat tends to be the kind that lends a lot of flavor to a dish. 1 oz of bacon in a sandwich sometimes seems meatier than another sandwich with 8 oz of meat. Same with things like fish sauce or anchovy paste. I have a lot of soups and stews where the actual amount of meat involved is kinda low on a per serving basis, where the fresh meat is paired with a cured meat and things like mushrooms and fermented sauces to add lots of umami to a soup without actually consisting of that much meat. I also do stir fries, curries, salads, etc., where any meat is served with a lot of vegetables, as well.
So for example, it’s easy to eat a pound of meat in 2 half pound hamburgers. It’s much harder to eat a pound of meat in the form of burgers made from 3 oz smash patties. And smash burgers taste better to me anyway.
Basically I steer all my eating towards less meat, but I eat a lot and have pretty high caloric needs.
Protein: legumes (beans, lentils, peanuts, chickpeas, tofu and other solid soy products)
Calcium: fortified plant milks (convenient) or cruciferous leaves and flowers (healthy) such as collards, kale, or broccoli. Tofu is a good source too. Avoid excessive intakes of salt.
Iron: eat vitamin-C rich food with your meals, such as bell peppers, lemon/lime juice on your food, or drink orange juice.
B-12: you must supplement, either with gummies, fortified plant milk or processed vegan products (vegan sausages, vegan “turkey” slices, etc.)
A vitamin: carrots, cruciferous leaves and flowers (see calcium), squash, cantaloup. Eat with fatty food for better absorption. Eg. Minestrone soup (kale and olive oil)
Omega-3 : tofu is a good source. Flaxseed oil has enough in a teaspoon – it works well on salads. Some nuts are a good source too.
Please visit https://veganhealth.org/ for more information. This site is authored by a registered dietetician.
https://nutritionfacts.org/ is great too.
I just want to add that B-12 is often missing from or low in many omnivores’ diets too, not just vegans. Another good source of B-12 is nutritional yeast. It’s like an umami flavored (some people call compare it to cheese, but I don’t really think it has a cheese taste and don’t want to disappoint anyone) powder that you can add to whatever you want. Works really well incorporated in a recipe or just sprinkled on top of stuff.
Generally, people who eat animal products several time per say don’t need to supplement with B12. But I remember reading that elders absorb it not as well and can’t rely even on animal products, and may need to supplement.
Yes, fortified nutritional yeast is a source too. One should make sure their nutritional yeast is fortified berfore relying on it for B12. If it’s not fortified with B12, it doesn’t contain any.
Fortified nutritional yeast needs to be kept in a dark place, preferably refrigerated.
I use it in pesto in place of cheese and everyone, omnivores included, love it.
If you plan to reduce your meat intake, you don’t have to consider anything, really.
If you plan to eat fully vegan, you should look up B12 supplements and make sure to get some proteins (beans, lentils, tofu etc). The whole nutrition thing is not as big a problem as you think it is, though. If you’re unsure, maybe get a blood test done after a few months.
About 5-6 years ago I did the same thing. I’m still a shameless omnivore, but I managed to reduce my meat consumption significantly. Around 2024 (so several years after I started) I had to get my blood analyzed. The only thing they found was my lack of vitamin D, but I live in a country with
minimalsuboptimal* sun exposure, so it’s a thing here anyway.Note that I still eat meat, but way less often than before. I started with a maximum of two meaty days per week (no cap on meat those days), but not as a fixed schedule: I just allowed myself when I really craved it, but not more than 2 days a week. Can be 1 or 0.
Fast forward to the end of 2023, when I started thinking about when I last had meat, and I couldn’t remember. It wasn’t quite hard, to be honest: there are awesome veggie meals around, and I still eat dairy and eggs whenever.
You can pretty much survive on black beans and onions.
Iirc, beans have everything you need except for vitamin c, but I could be wrong about that.
You’re unlikely to be lacking most nutrients in a first world country, even eating tons of junk food.
That’s not me saying it’s okay to live on junk food, that’s me saying essential nutrients aren’t going to be your problem.
Edit:
I looked it up. You’ll be missing some components of a complete protein, so eat some grains too.
Legumes and cereals both have protein, but they both lack some amino acids, while the body needs them in a certain proportion. However, they complement each other in regard to which of the essential amino acids they have, so one should eat both.
This is a little bit of a myth, but also a little bit true. Virtually all plant-sources of protein have all essential amino acids. It’s just that legumes have a slightly lower amount of one amino acid compared to what’s in our muscles, and grains have a slightly lower amount of another. So while they do complement each other and ensure plenty of all amino acids, it’s also actually not that hard to get all necessary protein from one or the other just by eating a bit more of it.
In other words, if you go a day or even a few days only having grains or only having legumes, it’s probably not going to hurt you, so there’s no need to be overly concerned about protein combining. But in any case there are other reasons why it is better to eat a variety of foods, so getting grains and legumes is still better.
Don’t forget tofu! And oatmeal! Powerhouses!
I get super firm tofu and use half the block in an orange chicken and rice dish. The tofu block is 72g in protein, so halving that gets me a solid chunk of protein to end the day.
Also, don’t forget, spy and almond milk are fortified and have higher calcium than real milk.
Lastly, if youre feeling down about not finding b12, redbull has 1200% of your daily b12 vitamins lol! Not the healthiest advise at the end, but still haha
Red beans and rice is a good dish that will give you vital protein.
And a bit of lime juice for acid will make it taste great and round out a few more vitamins.
And combat scurvy!
Ooh I love red beans and rice! Epic
Corn, beans, and squash is technically a viable diet and was used by a few native american groups for centuries. Its a full protein and very nutritionally dense. It is called the three sisters but they sometimes consumed sunflowers as a fourth sister for their fat content.
milpas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milpa
Also seaweed for Taurine.
There are no nutrients that are exclusively available via meat/dairy. The only thing you might miss out on is B12, but that’s usually supplemented in a lot of the vegan substitutes/junk food alternatives already. Anything else you’ll get pretty easily by simply eating your regular veggies, beans, legumes etc.
If you truly care about nutrients, then get your blood tested and have them check what you are actually lacking, and then adjust or supplement your diet accordingly. Chances are that you are already low on something even when eating animal products.
Thanks for the advice, iirc I got my blood tested when I was doing some allergy tests so I’ll look at those and see what my levels were. I do know that I’m low on vitamin d cause I take a supplement for that
Exactly. Can get everything but b12 from plants. Can’t get fiber without plants though.
Tempeh and nutritional yeast are a good start there, but you may need supplements, yes.
fuck thank you you just reminded me i needed to buy that one brand of nutritional yeast that is garlicky to try it on my popcorn. i cannot remember its name
Could possibly buy or make garlic infused salt, then mix the two.
that’s not true
Are you sure about that? Got any examples of nutrients that make humans obligate carnivores?
I didn’t say that. you’ve constructed a straw man.
reductio ad absurdum, actually.
You claimed that this statement was not true:
i.e. claimed that there are some nutrients that can only be sourced via meat or dairy.
An obligate carnivore must eat meat to live, like, say, if the only source of needed nutrients is meat?
Where did I lose you on this? Is it the “or dairy” escape hatch?
FFS, you could have just given an example of a nutrient you mistakenly think is only available via meat or dairy. Then I could have judged your post on its merits instead of this displeasure of a thread.
Which ones are exclusive?
I’m not a nutritionist, but I know for a fact vitamin a, among others, is not made by plants. I think people should probably just talk to their health care professionals. strangers on the Internet need have no credentials, and often have motivated reasoning.
Humans synthesize Vitamin A from Beta Carotene in plants. Only a small minority of people who are genetically predisposed to less efficient conversion of Beta Carotene would need to supplement with the retinyl form (readily available in supplements)
Per the NIH:
strangers on the Internet need have no credentials, and often have motivated reasoning.
I think people should probably just talk to their health care professionals.
You can get vitamin A from carrots. That’s one of the reasons the British beat the Germans.
most people can synthesize vitamin a from precursors found in carrots. talk to your doctor
just gotta try stuff, nutrition is really personal in my opinion. you have to notice you’re fatgiued, or addled and correlate it with if your diet is lacking something or if you are just dehydrated or sleep deprived.
Vitamin B12 is the main one that’s hard to get. It’s not really natural to any foods apart from animal products.
Iodine is also a tough one. Though you’re probably deficient in this anyway depending on how much sea food and dairy milk you eat. Technically iodine isn’t natural to milk, but we feed iodine supplements to dairy cattle.
You can get enough of both of these by drinking enough fortified plant milks, but it’s like half a litre a day and idk I find that’s just a lot.
I’m personally just lazy and take supplements, the Vegan Society here in the UK do ones that are affordable and have everything you need in them. If you live far enough north or south you should be taking vitamin D supplements anyway, at least during the winter.
Nutritional Yeast is a good savory seasoning that supplements b12
Iodized salt is a good source of iodine and doesn’t really taste different from the fancy salts when it’s dissolved in a sauce or stock, so use it as your cooking salt and you’ll be fine
Sure, but the supermarkets I go to don’t stock them.
Its not that hard. Gorillas are vegan, they do fine. So are my goats.
i quit meat a bunch of years ago, I try to eat a varied diet, and try to mix greens and grains. I get a check up about once a year and all my blood work comes back fine.
gorillas are not vegan. they eat their butt cookies (an animal product), and they eat bugs. but besides that, veganism is an ethical stance, and there is no proof they have ever considered the ethics of animal exploitation.
Are you saying that eating “butt cookies” is exploiting animals? I mean, that is what you’re saying, I’m just not sure why.
they’re eating an animal product. so, by the most basic definition of “exploit” which is as a synonym of “use”, yes.
Eggs are awesome
Iirc just rice and beans cover all essential amino acids so nothing to worry about. Obviously, in the real world scenario the diet will be more varied than that with veggies and grains and stuff so the vitamins/fatty acids will be covered as well. If you want to get real numbers there are apps for this, for example Cronometer - pretty cool. So overall I’d say don’t worry about it, just eat enough and different foods, supplement with B12 and check the bloodwork yearly.
vitamins, nutritonal yeast
Eat the rainbow.
But you can ease in. Replace one of your meat dishes with a chickpea or lentil or bean dish.
And be careful with the fiber at first. If you jump straight into a high fiber diet, you’re gonna shit yourself for a few days.
or not shit yourself at all if it’s the wrong fiber. it is easy to fuck yourself up badly with fiber
Thanks for the heads up.
You just snort nutrition powder
deleted by creator
Even if you eat meat, a multivitamin a day is a good idea.
As for the thing that people always bring up, protein, the lazy way is to make air-fried tofu to replace chicken in various dishes. If you airfry tofu, you don’t really need to prepress/drain if before you cook it, just cut it into pieces and put it in the air frier for 8 minutes.
If you’re anti-vitamin for some reason and you don’t mind being a little trashy, B12 is what you are likely to be short on with a vegan diet. Look at the amount of B12 in an energy drink. If you drink a 1/4 of a can a day, you have your B12 covered. But seriously, just eat a multivitamin. Even if you eat meat, there’s probably something that you’re missing.