Revision as of 16:38, 20 January 2021

• IN PROGRESS*

When switching to a vegan diet, many people don't know where to start.
This page is meant to give people a (science-based) direction on how to approach a vegan diet.

Main things to keep in mind

Below you'll find the main things to keep in mind when switching to a vegan diet.

As a disclaimer, do not get overwhelmed by the amount of information.
It's not necessary to get everything right in the first few days, it takes most healthy vegans months to get the diet right. The important part is that you get it right for the long-term.

Whole foods VS processed foods

A mostly whole foods vegan diet is preferable over a processed-foods based one. Whole foods are usually healthier, for two main reasons:

• 1 - Whole foods are for the vast majority more nutrient dense than non-whole foods, as the steps--that foods go through in order to be processed--usually remove a considerable part of nutrients.
  

You can easily see this when looking at the nutrition table for whole-wheat pasta VS white pasta, or brown rice VS white rice. The former (whole foods) have significantly more nutrition per kcal/weight/volume than their processed counterparts.
For example, 100 kcal of white pasta has 1.1g of fibers on average, while 100 kcal of whole-wheat pasta has 2.6g of fibers on average.

While it's true that things like fiber are easy to reach in adequate amounts on a vegan diet, that is less true of things such as calcium and potassium, where optimal levels are not-easy to reach on any diet that's not supplemented with them.
When considering that white rice has 7.7 mg of calcium and 27.0 mg of potassium per 100 kcal (both less than 1% of the optimal daily levels), and soybeans (canned) have 59.2 mg of calcium (5% DV) and 142.1 mg of potassium (6% DV) per 100 kcal, it becomes clear which one would be a better bet to have as a staple to be able to have a nutritionally filling meal.

• 2 - Whole foods have significantly less unhealthy stuff to them compared to heavily processed foods. The worst offenders are usually sugars, trans fats, and high amounts of saturated fats--all present in considerable amounts in a lot of the processed food products.

Trans fats and high amounts of saturated fats cause cholesterol problems, with trans fats increasing cancer risk, causing brain damage, and particularly raising LDL cholesterol and lowering HDL cholesterol, which significantly increases cardiovascular disease risk (avoid deep-fried foods as much as possible). [1] [2] [3] [4]
For sugar, please check the sugar page.

What to eat

The foods and main caloric sources that a healthy vegan diet should be centered on are the following.

At every meal if possible:

• legumes
• vegetables
• whole grains

At least 1-2 servings per day:

• nuts and seeds
• fruits (better to not go over 2 servings per day as a general rule)

Legumes

Legumes are generally the best staple meals to have, being very nutrient dense and very filling, rich of proteins and hard-to get minerals such as calcium, potassium, and zinc. They are also very versatile in cooking, being able to use them in a very wide variety of recipes and in very different ways.
Some of the best legumes/legume-foods are peas, chickpeas, lentils, lima beans, black beans, kidney beans, soybeans, and tofu/tempeh (tofu is usually preferable to tempeh if you're on a budget).
You can even find pasta made with legume flour (i.e. pea-flour pasta), which is more nutrient-dense than regular whole-wheat pasta but a bit more expensive.

Vegetables

Vegetables should also be had regularly and possibly at every meal, having the embarrassment of choice which vegetables to choose.
Vegetables are divided in different groups, and it's good to include all of them in your diet--the main ones being leafy green vegetables, roots/tubers, marrow, cruciferous vegetables, and alliums.

Some of the best leafy green vegetables to include are kale, bok choy, and watercress.
Roots/tubers that are very useful to add are carrots, sweet potatoes, and beets.
Great choices of cruciferous vegetables are broccoli, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts, and red cabbage.
Marrows that are very nutrient-rich are pumpkins and zucchini.
Alliums include onions, shallots, and garlic--great to add at every meal for taste.

It's important to add a variety of vegetables and to eat them regularly, and not just seclude yourself to one type (i.e. only leafy green vegetables)--try to cycle through all of them, and try to include vegetables from multiple families (i.e. kale + carrots + onion) in the same meal, as they offer a different and very rich array of nutrients.

Whole grains

Whole grains, such as whole-wheat pasta and barley, can accompany legumes well in a meal.

Nuts and seeds

Nuts and seeds should also be a serving at least once a day, to make sure you get enough fats (peanut/almond butter, flax seeds, etc.).

Fruits

Fruits have quick diminishing returns in terms of what they provide, and keeping it limited to just 1-2 servings per day is probably best (prioritize berries).

You can also have processed mock meats here and there too, to help you stay vegan, but don't make it a habit for it to be your main staple (unless you need low-fiber foods at the beginning, and you're struggling to stay vegan, but as a long-term plan, legumes should definitely be prioritized over mock meats for protein sources).

Supplementation

You need to supplement B-12 (cyanocobalamin), and should supplement D3. Here you can find a page that addresses the nutrients of concern on a vegan diet: wiki/index.php/Nutrients_of_Concern (this is very useful as you begin, everything is science-based and plenty of references are given to show what the scientific consensus is)

Tips and useful links

Here you can find a vegan diet plan for a week, whole-foods and healthy, with all the nutrients and costs written - although it's based on 2000 kcal/day only, but you can always simply increase portion sizes to fit your body building needs.

Here you can find a growing list of healthy recipes: wiki/index.php/Index_of_Recipes

In this section, instead, you can find general advice on a vegan diet: wiki/index.php/Table_of_Contents#Culinary_advice

Tips when healthy food is unavailable/time is too tight

People often travel and/or are on the move, leaving them little to no time to cook healthy and nutritionally filling meals, often relying on what's available around them.

When you have a very limited amount of time, these are good things to keep in mind to make sure you get as much nutrition in very easy and quick steps.

Vitamin A, vitamin E, calcium, and potassium are usually the nutrients that people struggle the most to get when travelling and/or relying on heavily processed foods.

• 2 medium-sized carrots (or 1 very big carrot) OR 150g of frozen spinach (less than a cup) have over 100% daily value of vitamin A (retinol activity equivalent)
• 5 tbsp of sunflowers seeds OR 4 tbsp of almond butter has over 100% daily value of vitamin E
• 375g of tofu (around 1 1/2 block) has 100% daily value of calcium
• potassium is more evenly spread-out throughout different foods, but things such as tomatoes/tomato sauce, potatoes, lima/black/soy beans and lentils, and green leafy vegetables (kale, bok choy) have a lot of potassium
• 1 tbsp of flax seeds OR 1 tbsp of chia seeds OR 1/6 cup of walnuts have 100%+ daily value of omega-3 fats
• 1 tbsp or less of nutritional yeast has a lot of your B vitamins fully covered by a large margin (B1, B2, B3, B6)

NOTE: you don't have to eat all of this to make sure you get enough nutrients when travelling, as other foods will also have these nutrients. However, these foods are good to incorporate in your daily plan and/or bring with you when you know you won't be able to eat healthy.

It's often useful and convenient to make a quick stew, taking around 15 minutes to prepare and being something that is fast to eat.
Something like putting a combination of 2 cans of different legumes (lentils + chickpeas, black beans + lima beans, etc.), 1 can of tomato sauce , 1/2 cup to 1 cup of frozen green leafy vegetable of choice (spinach/kale/bok choy), and a handful of mushrooms and 1 tsp of garlic powder (both optional) for good taste, plus seasonings. This will ensure a lot of the nutrients are checked in 1 filling stew. You can experiment and add stuff like carrots or some nutritional yeast to the stew, according to your palate, so that you can find a recipe that you will like when you're in a hurry and you want to get the most nutritious fill in a short amount of time.

Other useful tips

You might want to pay attention to fiber intake at the beginning, as for some people switching from a diet with almost no fiber to a whole foods vegan diet with more than 60g of fiber a day can be problematic at first (if you have gut problems from the initial spike of fiber intake, try to slow into it with less fiber-rich foods first, such as mock meats, tofu and pasta as your main staples, until your gut bacteria adjusts and you can increase the amount of fibers you eat).