I initially created this document because I couldn't find anything similar. Feel free to use it if you find it helpful but also remember I'm not a nutritionist or doctor but if there are any inaccuracies I will change them.
Hello, I study nutrition and would love to share some light on recommendations for a healthy diet.
First as a disclaimer, I do not encourage people to look for specific micronutrients in their foods unless they find joy in doing so. Food and diet anxiety are huge issues and have created a dangerous diet culture which can cause people to quit diets or splurge on expensive supplements.
A Balanced Diet (easy mode)
My general recommendation for people looking to go vegan is to consume 5+ servings of fruits and vegetables every day, several (1-4) servings of whole grains and legumes, some omega-3 rich oil or seed (1-3 tbsp), and if you want more calories, throw in a fatty nut or nut butter like peanuts/peanut bytter. Here's an example:
Serving of legumes: ~1/5 block of tofu, 1/2 cup side of green peas, 1/2 cup of navy beans in a stew/chili
Serving of whole grains: 1 slice of 100% whole grain bread, ~60g of whole wheat pasta, 1/2 cup of rolled/steal cut oats
Serving of fruit: 1 orange/apple/banana, 1/2 cup of berries, 3-5 strawberries,
Serving of vegetables: 1 carrot (5-6 baby carrots), 1/2 cup of broccoli, 1/2 cup of spinach or other leafy greens (e.g., 1-2 outer leaves of a green lettuce head)
Serving of seed/oil: 1/4 cup of sunflower seeds, 2 tbsp of flax meal, 2 tbsp of hemp seeds, 1-2 tbsp of canola oil
If you do that every day with the addition of daily fortified foods like 1.5 - 2.5 cups of soy, almond, or milk, you'll be perfectly suited to a sustainable healthy diet.
However, I know many people have trouble completing these goals every day since we are suited to processed diets, so just shoot to hit most of these goals and then throw a multivitamin in which might target
Targets
Generally, I see vegans miss out on a few nutrients as a whole such as Vit. D, B12, Omega 3s, and Zinc. However, nutritional deficiencies are usually found to be specific to the person. For example, if you eat beans regularly as a part of your diet, zinc is probably not an issue. If you cook with canola oil and eat flax meal with food every day, omega 3s are not a concern.
For that, this resource is very helpful! For those that worry about inadequacies, these individuals can find options from your list and add them to their diet as they try them out in recipes.
Resources
This post: sources of various vitamins, minerals, lipids, etc
This is great information thank you! I started tracking my nutrients with Cronometer about a year ago and found there were certain things I was missing semi-regularly so I created this just for those bits but then eventually decided to expand it so I could easily look things up when and if I needed a little bump towards the end of the day.
I definitely started to feel some of the food anxiety that you mentioned so I'm a lot less strict in tracking nutrients now but I keep an eye on them just to make sure I'm not going a few days without enough of certain things.
I almost stopped using cronometer after a few months. Found out I was just using the CRDB labels that only required the testing for a few specific nutrients thus making me think I wasn't doing enough. After switching to the whole foods with 70-80 nutrients listed from the NCCDB, I felt so much better. I wish cronometer advertised that as something to remember.
It would be great to cite your sources in this. There's really no indication that the information you provided is accurate or trustworthy. That's what citations are for.
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