Nutrients, how to get them all.

Hi everyone,

As I promised I’ll upload once a week and this week I want to talk about Nutrients. I think its very important that if you start any diet you read about the nutrients and how you’ll get them all. In this post I’ll be telling you what you need in a day and how to get, based on what I learned. Please keep in mind that the number may vary if you are vegetarian, overweight or pregnant. These are general numbers for a healthy adult and may differ depending on your personal situation.

Okay on to the nutrients, I’ll start with the one I think people worry about most: protein. I’ll sum every nutrient up, I’ll tell you how much you need a day and how to get it.

•  Carbohydrates: For a healthy balanced diet you’ll need around 40% carbohydrates, this is to keep the body from using the protein in your muscles for making glucose. (If you add more protein to your diet this can be lowered but make sure to still get a good amount of carbohydrates.) Important sources are (sweet) potatoes, quinoa, pasta, and bread.
• Fat: Most people would think it’s best to avoid these, but in the contrary, we actually need fat for a lot of proceses in the body. If you are a healthy adult you’ll need around 20-40% fat. One of the most important fats is omega-3 since it can’t be made by the body. These can be added to your diet trough foods like nuts and seeds, as well as oils like flaxseed or soy oil, but also be found in papaya, leafy greens and legumes. If you buy oils please remember to buy organic oils.
• Protein: The amount of protein you need depends on how much you weigh. You’ll need to take your weight in kilograms and then multiply it by 1,04 to get the amount of protein you need a day in grams. The amount is 1,3 times higher in a vegan diet because there are more essential amino acids in animal-based food. For getting your protein you can think of spinach (2,9g/100g), lentils (9g/100g), tofu (17g/100g) and pumpkin seeds (33g/100g). You can also think of nuts, seeds beans and oats.

• Calcium: A normal health adult needs about 1 gram of calcium a day. It can be found in tahini, broccoli, almonds, kale, soybeans and other nuts and vegetables.
• Iron: Iron is needed the transport of oxygen in the blood, an adult man will need 9 milligrams a day while a woman will need around 15 milligrams a day. One cup of soybeans contains 8,8 milligrams of Iron. Other sources of iron are lentils, kidney beans chickpeas and other legumes. To increase the absorption of iron make sure you get enough vitamin C from leafy greens and citrus fruit.
• Vitamin B12: Of this vitamin you need 2,8 micrograms a day. It is really hard to get from a vegan diet and most people recommend to take supplements in addition to your diet. Foods you can get vitamin B12 from are vegemite and soy milk, both products have added vitamin B12. Some sorts of vegetarian meat also contain added vitamin B12. Important is to keep track of how much you’ll get since you won’t notice a deficiency untill after a few moths till a year later. Deficiency may lead to anemia but also neurotic effects as memory loss, incoordination and more.
• Vitamin D: The amount of vitamin D you need a day is 10 micrograms. It is needed for absorption of calcium. The biggest source of vitamin D is the sun, other sources are non-dairy milk and fortified orange juice.
• Zinc: Zinc is required for growth as well as the structuring of protein. You need 7-9 miligrams a day. Important sources are nuts and grains.

Besides getting enough nutrients its important to have physical activity at least 30 minutes a day and to drink enough water.

What do you think? Are you vegan and did you find the tips useful? Or did you aready know? And if you want to become vegan, did this make it easier for you?

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