With so many chronic illnesses like diabetes, obesity, heart disease and many others today, people are thinking about changing their way of eating to a plant-based diet to improve their health. This is not always an easy choice and there are questions that everyone will ask. The main questions usually concern getting enough vitamins and nutrients. This article will answer your questions about getting all of the vitamins and nutrients you need in a whole food plant-based diet
| Can you get all of the vitamins you need with a plant-based diet? Yes, On a plant-based diet you can get all the vitamins you need except for vitamin B12. You should take a B12 supplement. |
You might have recently read that eating a whole food plant-based diet has been scientifically proven to reverse chronic illnesses such as high blood pressure, blocked arteries, diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. You’re ready to give it a try, but you still have questions.
Some questions include if I don’t eat meat, where will I get protein, if I don’t drink milk, where will I get calcium, if I don’t eat fish, where will I get omega-3. Those are just a few of the more common questions you might ask. The following article will answer your questions about vitamins and nutrients eating a plant-based diet.
Getting Enough Protein in a Whole Food Plant-Based Diet
One of the biggest plant-based myths about protein is that you have to eat meat in order to get protein, and that is not true. Animals do not make protein. They get their protein from the grass and plant foods they eat.
Most of us actually get too much protein each day. It is recommended that we need 0.36 grams of protein per pound of body weight (0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight), not to mention too much protein is harmful to the kidneys and our blood vessels. According to this calculation, a 150-pound person needs 54 grams of protein per day. This amount of protein is easy to get just eating plant foods.
- Quinoa, a gluten-free seed contains all essential amino acids and has 9 grams of protein per cup.
- Just one cup of pinto, kidney or black beans has about 13 to 15 grams of protein.
- Lentils are a great source of protein with 18 grams of protein in just one cup of cooked lentils. And there are so many different ways to enjoy lentils.
- Bread that include seeds and grains like Dave’s Killer Breads have about 3 grams of protein or more per slice.
- Add just two tablespoons of peanut or almond butter to those slices of bread for another 8 grams of protein.
- Brown rice has 5 grams per cup.
- Tempeh has a whopping 30 grams of protein per cup.
- A bowl of oatmeal will give you 6 grams of protein per cup.
- Vegetables also have a good amount of protein with few calories and no fat. A baked potato with skin has 5 grams of protein. Green peas have 9 grams of protein per cup, broccoli has 4 grams per stalk, and corn has 5 grams per 1 ear.
As you can see, everything you will be eating has a good amount of healthy protein. This adds up during the day to give you all the protein and amino acids you need.
If you still believe you will waste away to nothing eating a plant-based diet, just take a look at some of the plant-based bodybuilders and plant-based athletes like Robert Cheeke and others [1].
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| Plant-based bodybuilder / Flickr |
Calcium in a Whole Food Plant-Based Diet
Another concern for those considering this way of eating is how can there be calcium without dairy products. The Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) in the United States for calcium is between 1,000 and 1,200 mg and is one of the highest recommended amounts in the world.
In the United Kingdom, the RDA for calcium is 700 mg, and the World Health Organization recommends 500 mg of calcium per day. In the U.S., the recommendation for calcium was 800 mg until a very small study raised it to the current 1,200 mg.
Getting between 500 and 700 mg of calcium per day is more of an accurate RDA. Getting calcium from milk and other dairy products is not overly healthy since milk contains a great deal of protein. Too much protein is acidic and this acidity can actually leach calcium out of the bones, causing bone density loss. So in a way, milk can lead to osteoporosis.
More than a dozen studies have found that high calcium intake does not reduce the risk of hip fractures. In fact, the countries where milk and dairy foods are a high percentage of the diet, hip fractures and osteoporosis were more prevalent than in countries with a more plant-based diet.
Another problem with dairy and milk products is that they contain the growth hormone IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor 1), which can cause certain cancers like breast and prostate cancer. And milk and milk products increase the IGF-1 in our bodies [2].
It has also been found that milk and dairy products are a leading cause of acne. So if you want to get rid of acne and have clear skin, stop drinking milk, and eating cheese, ice cream, yogurt, and other dairy products [3].
Too much calcium can also cause kidney stones, and nobody wants to ever have to go through having kidney stones. Calcium supplements have their own health dangers, such as increasing the risk of having a heart attack.
Eating a whole food plant-based diet will give you all of the calcium you need, and as you can see, it is healthier to get calcium from plant food than from dairy cows. Here are some plant foods and their calcium amount:
- Collard greens (1 cup frozen): 360 mg of calcium
- Blackstrap molasses (2 Tbsp): 400 mg. This is great in oatmeal, overnight oats and used in baking desserts.
- Broccoli (1 cup): 95 mg
- Hemp milk (1 cup): 263 mg
- Oat milk (1 cup): 121 mg
- Navy beans (1 cup): 125 mg
- Great northern beans (1 cup): 120 mg
- Amaranth (1 cup): 275 mg
- 1 orange has 55 mg of calcium
- Tofu (1/2 cup): 434 mg
By eating a variety of plant foods throughout the day, you will get plenty of calcium, vitamin K, and magnesium for strong healthy bones.
Iron in a Whole Food Plant-Based Diet
Iron is important for a strong immune system and so we don’t get anemia. It is key we get enough iron, but equally important that we do not get too much iron.
There are two types of iron, heme iron, and non-heme iron. Non-heme iron is found in plant foods like beans, legumes, nuts, seeds, grains, and vegetables, and is also found in dairy and eggs. Both heme and non-heme iron are found in meat, especially red meat. About 40% of the iron in red meat is heme iron.
Heme iron is more readily absorbed by our bodies, but that does not mean that the non-heme iron from plant foods is not absorbed by us. Our bodies can regulate how much non-heme iron we absorb based on how much we need, which is a good thing.
Combining certain foods also helps increase the absorption of iron by as much as five times. Many of these food combinations are already familiar and have been staples throughout the world. Beans and rice with salsa is a familiar combination. Falafel (chickpeas) with tomatoes and hummus with lemon is another traditional food combination.
Combining vitamin C with plant foods with iron increases the absorption of iron. For example, add some orange slices or tomatoes to your salads, or lemon juice in salad dressings. Tomatoes and tomato sauces have a lot of vitamin C and having them with other foods increases the iron absorption.
- Soybeans: 8.8 mg per cup
- Blackstrap molasses (2 tablespoons): 7.2 mg
- Lentils (cooked 1 cup): 6.6 mg
- Tofu (4 ounces): 6.4 mg
- Cooked chickpeas (garbanzo beans): 4.7 mg per cup
- Pumpkin seeds (1 ounce or 28 grams): 4.2 mg
- Quinoa (1 cup cooked): 2.8 mg
Spinach is a great example of iron with vitamin C in one vegetable. Just 3.5 ounces of cooked spinach contains 3.6 mg of iron and the vitamin C enhances the absorption. But spinach must be cooked in order to get the healthy iron.
With a well rounded plant based diet, you should have no problems getting the recommended daily amount of iron each day.
There are certain foods that impair iron absorption you should avoid with meals that include coffee and black and green tea.
Essential Fatty Acids in a Plant-Based Diet
Essential fatty acids can be confusing and anyone eating a plant based diet should learn how to get enough in their diet. Omega-3 fatty acids are considered an essential fatty acid (along with omega-6) since the body doesn’t make its own.
A healthy omega-6 to omega-3 ratio is 4:1 or less, and ideally closer to 2:1. Today, those eating the standard American diet have a ratio of 15:1 to as high as 25:1, and that is very unhealthy. Even though omega-6 is an important nutrient for good health, too much omega-6 can cause inflammation related illnesses like type II diabetes, heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s, and more.
One reason the standard American diet is so high in omega-6 is because of all of the oils, especially soybean oil, cottonseed oil, sunflower oil, and corn oil. You can hardly find anything on the grocery store shelf that doesn’t contain these oils in their ingredients.
These oils are used in cooking, baked goods, salad dressings, chips, fast foods, processed foods, junk foods, cured meats and most other foods.
Getting Enough Omega-3 in a Plant-Based Diet
The three main types of omega-3 fatty acids are EPA, DHA and ALA (alpha-linolenic acid). EPA and DHA are found in fish and algae. ALA comes from plant foods like flax seeds, chia seeds, hemp seeds, walnuts, sea vegetables, and leafy green vegetables.
Fish do not make omega-3; it comes from the plant foods they eat. Fish eat microscopic algae that contain DHA. DHA and EPA can be used directly by our body, but ALA is converted in our body to both EPA and DHA. It is the DHA that is most important for our brain and eyes.
Having a teaspoon or two of flaxseed per day in oatmeal, cereals or smoothies can give you plenty of the ALA form of omega-3. Eating a few walnuts per day and leafy green vegetables is another way to get omega-3.
It is important to remember that you do not need as much omega-3 eating a whole food plant-based diet as those that eat the standard American diet. By avoiding all oils used in cooking, baking and packaged foods, you will automatically lower your omega-6 intake, which automatically raises the healthy omega-3 available in your body.
If you feel you need to supplement to get enough omega-3 fatty acid, taking an algae based omega-3 supplement or algae based DHA supplement is a great way to ensure you’re getting enough omega-3 fatty acid each day.
Getting Enough Vitamin D in a Plant-Based Diet
By definition, vitamin D is not a vitamin, it is actually a hormone. It is casually referred to as a vitamin, so we will use that term here as well.
There are two types of vitamin D, vitamin D2 and D3, with vitamin D3 being the more natural for us. The only plant source of vitamin D2 is found in mushrooms, but only if the mushrooms have been exposed to sunlight.
The best way to get vitamin D is being in sunlight. When sunlight hits our exposed skin, our body synthesizes vitamin D3. Being in the sun between 10 am and 3 pm for just 10 to 15 minutes, exposing our arms, face and legs is the equivalent of taking 10,000 to 25,000 IU (international units) of vitamin D3.
During the winter months, the sun’s angle is too low to get much if any vitamin D in most places of the northern hemisphere. You can take a vitamin D3 supplement during the winter (October through March). A vitamin D3 supplement of between 1,000 IU to 2,500 IU per day should be fine.
Vitamin B12 Supplements
It is recommended we get more vitamin B12 as we get older due to our ability to absorb vitamin B12. The RDA for vitamin B12 is 2.4 mcg (micrograms) for everyone 18 years and older. Some plant based doctors recommend we take as much as 2,500 mcg per week. You can take it once per week, or smaller doses several times per week. I prefer to take a smaller dose several times per week.
It can be hard to find a B12 supplement in low doses; the lowest is usually 500 mcg, which is fine taken five days a week. The most absorbable form of vitamin B12 supplement is in liquid or sublingual form.
Iodine and Zinc in a Plant-Based Diet
Iodine is essential for the thyroid and one of those nutrients that you want to make sure to get enough, but not too much. The amount of iodine in food is hard to know because it varies depending on the soil it was grown in.
The best way to get iodine is by using iodized salt, just not too much because too much salt is not healthy. Some types of seaweed is a good source of iodine. Wakame and dulse is a good choice and can be used in soups like vegetable soups and miso.
Using just a ½ teaspoon of dulse will give you the daily recommended iodine. You can sprinkle it on all types of food. Other seaweeds can contain far too much iodine. The RDA for iodine is 150 mcg per day.
Phytic Acid and Nutrient Absorption
Another reason not to worry about phytic acid is that this compound also has health benefits. For more information, please read Is Phytic Acid Healthy or a Hidden Danger.
Tracking Your Vitamins and Nutrients
Plant-Based Nutrients Conclusion
Eating a well rounded whole food plant-based diet should include a huge variety of whole grains, pastas, beans, legumes, potatoes, fruits and vegetables, and they all contain the protein, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, phytochemicals and phytonutrients we all need to thrive.
If you are determined to regain your health, get to an optimal weight, reverse disease and feel great, then a whole food plant based-diet is perfect to help you reach your health goals. And the choice of foods and meals is more than you can imagine.
Sam Montana is a certified Food Over Medicine instructor from the Wellness Forum Health Center and certified in optimal nutrition from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Copyright © 2018-2022 Sam Montana
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