How to go vegan
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 of both examples (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 nutrients like fiber are easy to reach in adequate amounts on a vegan diet, the same cannot be said for others, 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 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, you can 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)
You can also have processed mock meats here and there to help you stay vegan and keep your meat cravings at bay, but it is not best to make a habit of it being your main, go-to 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).
Legumes
Legumes are generally the best staple meals to have, being very nutrient dense, very filling, and rich in 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 is 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 can accompany legumes and vegetables well in a meal.
Some of the best whole grain are oat bran and whole oats, whole wheat (pasta), barley, and corn.
Whole-wheat pasta and whole-wheat bread can be very convenient, but try not to rely on them too much (while whole wheat is good, legumes should be the main caloric source if possible). Oatmeal can be a very fast and easy meal to make.
Nuts and seeds
Nuts and seeds should be had everyday to make sure you get enough fats.
For nuts, peanut butter, almond butter, and walnuts are cheap and a healthy choice to go with, with nut butters being very convenient. For seeds, flax seeds, chia seeds, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds are some of the best--you can easily sprinkle them on salads and toasts, or add them to smoothies.
It is important to include both omega-6 fats (i.e. peanut butter, sunflower seeds) and omega-3 fats (i.e. flax seeds, chia seeds, walnuts) everyday.
Fruits
Fruits are very tasty and convenient to eat, but they have diminishing returns in terms of what they provide, and keeping it limited to not over 2 servings per day is probably best.
The best fruits are usually berries, that can easily be adding to smoothies, oatmeal, soy yogurt, or just on their own. They're usually easily found mixed and frozen.
Other good fruits to eat include prickly pears, guava, pomegranates, oranges, grapefruits, apples, peaches, and avocados.
If you're curious to know which fruits are the best, you can check our Best fruits to eat compendium.
Other things to consider adding
Mushrooms are a flavorful ingredient to add, with all types being healthy--usually trying to find the cheapest mushrooms is simply the best way to go.
Nutritional yeast is one of the most nutritious foods on the planet, and has a uniquely cheese-like flavor that makes many recipes possible. However, it is inadvisable to go over 3-4 tbsp a day, as too much nutritional yeast can cause gout problems.
Plant-based yogurt (such as soy yogurt) is useful for quick snacks and salad dressings, and offers good amounts of probiotics.
Plant-based milks (such as soy milk, almond milk, or oat milk) are a good filling for smoothies and useful for making sauces--or, of course, to just have a drink.
Spices and condiments, such as cayenne, cumin, paprika, and turmeric, are a great addition to food wherever they're palatable.
Supplementation
Vitamin B-12
You need to supplement B-12 when you go vegan--while all diets should supplement B-12, it is a must on a vegan diet.
You can visit our B-12 page to know more about B-12.
Cyanocobalamin is the preferred form of B-12 because the body can synthetize it in the two active forms (methylcobalamin and adenosylcobalamin) on its own.
B-12 is often found in the methylcobalamin form, which doesn't include the adenosylcobalamin form.
Adenosylcobalamin is just as essential as methylcobalamin, and the deficiency of it results in an interference with the formation of myelin (nerve health). [5] [6]
Recommended B-12 supplementation is 1000 mcg of cyanocobalamin twice a week OR 25-100 mcg of cyanocobalamin everyday.
If you're looking for cheap, vegan, GMP certified, cyanocobalamin B-12, you can get Solgar's Vitamin B12 1000 mcg (this is an affiliate link, and it helps this site to buy from it).
Vitamin D3
You should also supplement D3. Vegan D3 is obtained from lichen, so check where the vitamin D3 is sourced from when possible.
The recommended supplement dose of vitamin D3 is 2000 UI everyday, which is a safe amount, as lower doses seem to be insufficient for keeping optimal levels long-term. [7]
If you're wondering why getting enough sunlight to produce sufficient amounts of D3 is not reliable, you can check our vitamin D3 section.
DHA/EPA
Supplementing DHA/EPA is a good idea if you do not include flax seeds/chia seeds/walnuts/seaweed in your everyday diet, 250 mg of DHA everyday is ideal.
To read more about this, you can check our breakdown on it.
Others
Supplement iodine if you do not use iodized salt, 150 mcg of iodine everyday is ideal. However, iodized salt is very common.
You can also check our breakdown on iodine.
If you live in areas of the world where the soil is depleted of selenium--namely Finland, New Zealand and the Keshan region in China [8]--you might want to consider supplementing it. Or you could simply eat 2-3 Brazil nuts a day, which are extremely rich in selenium (careful not to go over said amount of Brazil nuts per day, as you risk selenium poisoning).
If you're curious about selenium, you can check our selenium article.
Here you can find a page that addresses the nutrients of concern on a vegan diet (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 useful vegan diet plan for a week so you can get an idea, whole-foods and healthy, with all the nutrients and costs written--it's based on 2000 kcal per day, but you can simply increase portion sizes to fit your needs.
Here you can find a growing list of healthy recipes, that should help you in your journey.
Here you can find all the recipes on the website sorted by nutrients per 100 kcal, to help you figure out how to reach 100% DV of all the nutrients using the recipes you like, without having to count the nutrients of each ingredient. They're standardized by 100 kcal so you can compare which recipes/foods your calories are best spent, and so you can be able to see which recipe is most efficient to give you X nutrient that you want more of in your diet.
In this section, instead, you can find general advice on a vegan diet--from a cooking guide, to ideas on how to make vegan foods that are similar to animal-based ones, to the best staples to have sorted by nutrient density.
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, zucchini, broccoli, 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--e.g. 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.
If you're worried about reaching your nutritional needs on a fiber-poor diet while you adjust (fiber-poor usually means less nutrient-dense), you can easily find a multivitamin to add temporarily.
Obsessing over small amounts of animal products that have low-impact when struggling to find vegan foods can be counterproductive (i.e. if the only food you can find when travelling that is closest to vegan has a little bit of honey, don't feel bad eating it). Remember that being vegan means excluding--as far as is possible and practicable--all forms of harm to animals, and it is not about being perfect.
