A vegan diet is a healthy way of eating when your meals are full of vegetables, fruit, legumes and whole grains. To avoid missing essential nutrients — or living on processed vegan foods alone — you need a well-planned vegan diet. Here are 7 simple tips for an easy, healthy vegan diet. Even if you're simply trying to eat more plant-based for better health, these tips are a great place to start.
1. Make Vegetables the Star of Your Meals
People often get stuck on what they can't eat on a plant-based diet, instead of what they can. But a great meal doesn't have to revolve around meat. Vegetable-packed meals are a winning choice on every front: vegetables are loaded with vitamins (like A and K) and minerals (like potassium), they keep your calories in check, and because they're high in fibre, they help you feel satisfied.
2. Eat a Variety of Foods
To make sure you get all the nutrients you need on a vegan diet, it's important to eat balanced meals built from a variety of healthy foods. Beans give you protein and fibre, for example; leafy greens are great sources of vitamins A, C and K.
Choose produce from every colour of the rainbow to capture all the benefits. Red tomatoes contain heart-friendly lycopene, blueberries contain brain-boosting anthocyanins, and orange sweet potatoes are packed with vitamin A, which helps keep your eyes healthy.
Looking for meal ideas? Try a simple, well-balanced grain bowl: brown rice or quinoa, topped with beans and a mix of sautéed or roasted vegetables.
3. Eat More Whole Grains
Swapping refined grains like white pasta and white bread for whole grains like brown rice and quinoa adds iron and B vitamins to a vegan diet — nutrients that are stripped away when grains are refined. And the extra fibre from whole grains helps keep you full, and may even help you lose weight.
4. Discover New Plant-Based Proteins
If you're vegan this may sound obvious, but eating more plant-based protein is something everyone can do for better health. Animal protein sources like meat and cheese tend to be high in unhealthy saturated fat. (There are plenty of good environmental reasons to cut back on animal foods, too.)
Vegan protein sources are genuinely plentiful: tofu, tempeh, edamame (soybeans), lentils, chickpeas and beans. Nuts like almonds and walnuts, and seeds like sunflower and pumpkin, also provide protein.
Although many people assume it's hard for vegans to eat enough protein, that's generally not a problem for anyone eating a varied diet that deliberately includes plant-based protein sources. The Institute of Medicine recommends 46 grams of protein a day for women and 56 grams for men — quite an easy target to hit.
Women can fill their daily quota with: ½ cup of dry oats (5 g protein), 2 tablespoons of peanut butter (8 g), ½ cup of chickpeas (5 g), 1 cup of cooked quinoa (8 g), 24 almonds (6 g), 1 cup of cooked whole-wheat spaghetti (7 g) and ½ cup of tofu (10 g). Men can meet their daily protein requirement by simply adding ½ cup of cooked lentils (9 g).
5. Focus on Fish-Free Omega-3s
Even when you eat a variety of healthy vegan foods, some nutrients are harder to come by. DHA and EPA, two types of omega-3 fatty acids, matter for heart health as well as eye and brain development.
Omega-3 fatty acids are found mainly in oily fish like salmon, but the body can produce small amounts from ALA — another type of omega-3 found in plants such as flaxseed, walnuts, canola oil and soy. A variety of foods, including soy milk and breakfast bars, are now fortified with DHA. Algae-based DHA/EPA supplements are also available.
6. Don't Forget Vitamin D
Most people get vitamin D from canned fish like salmon and sardines, and from fortified dairy products like milk and yoghurt. But vitamin D is also found in some fortified non-dairy milks — soy or almond milk, for instance — and in orange juice. Certain mushrooms exposed to UV light are good sources too. In summer, when the sun is stronger, our skin can synthesise vitamin D itself.
The daily value for vitamin D is 600 IU, though some experts say it should be closer to 1,500 IU. Many people — vegans included — may need a supplement to reach those numbers.
7. Be Aware of B12
Vitamin B12 — the vitamin that helps convert food into energy in our bodies and supports brain function — is found mainly in animal foods: meat, fish, poultry, eggs and dairy.
People following a vegan diet can get some B12 from fortified cereals or energy bars, but should talk to their doctor about taking a supplement. For most adults, the daily value for vitamin B12 is 2.4 micrograms.