What is needed for a vegan diet? ie calcium?

[EleanorReally]

my dd talks about going vegan, she is 19,
so is this nuts all the way?
nut milk, nut cheese?
any good recipes ?
she obviously needs all the vitamins and mineras

Presumably she’s done some research?

Vitamins and minerals can be got through food apart from B12 which she needs to supplement.
There are thousands of vegan bloggers and youtubers she can follow for recipes and tips.

good idea, i will suggest she research recipes instead of turning her nose up at my lentil offerings

My ds ate a plant based diet for a year - he did it for health reasons so wasnt vegan as he still wore leather and wool. He hot lots of advice from.the Vegan Society. I was worried as, although was 18, he was still growing but he did a lot of research.

Theres lots of information on the internet so I would suggest she looks at specialist websites for guidance

Vegans get their calcium and iron from green leafy vegetables.

She needs to understand nutrition quite well to make this move, and really love veg and fruit, otherwise she’ll do what I did at 19, live on beans on toast and become anaemic!
The calcium thing is less understood than you’d think. The Japanese don’t eat dairy, but have fewer problems wit osteoporosis than we do. They eat seaweed which has calcium in it, in a form that is more “ available “ for the body to use.

iodine: most of the iodine in the non vegan diet is in milk and fish.

I'd say she needs to research combination of foods/vitamins etc to ensure she actually gets as much from her food as possible. Some vitamins and nutrients, albeit are in vegan foods, can be much more difficult to ingest, which is where a lot of people on restrictive diets go wrong

Tell her to look at Bosh and Forks Over Knives for recipes, although I would use critical thinking skills about the health info shared by followers of FOK.

If using plant milks, many are fortified with calcium, as long as she has them daily. Sesame seeds and Tahini are fairly calcium rich too (and can be added to smoothies or cooking).

You also need to eat a lot of quantity of plants in order to get the right nutrition. Probably better than a junk food diet though.

It's possible to be healthy and vegan but you need to know what you are doing and crucially you can't be cutting out other food groups as well. Nuts yes but plenty of leafy greens, foods high in vitamin c to help absorb the iron in the greens. A supplement makes sense as it's hard to get certain vitamins, b12 being impossible unless the food is fortified

if she is having plant based milk try look for iodine fortified one as many arent

She also needs to check she is getting a full range of amino acids with her protein (if she has been an egg-eschewing vegetarian in the run up to going completely plant based, this will be second nature already)

The b12 is very important.....

isnt B12 found in marmite?
and she is keeping with eggs, so far

No, marmite doesn't have B12
There is no reliable vegan source of B12

She's not going vegan then

black current?

fortified cereals?

in the meantime she will eat eggs

What about blackcurrant?

There is no reliable vegan source of B12. I'm not sure what else you want me to say? She needs a supplement, if she's vegan.

Marmite does contain B12

Here is a yseful article:

www.plantbasednews.org/post/vegans-cant-get-enough-b12-or-can-they

(There are numerous others about B12, I linked this one simply because it's from a Egan site, nit general news but it has been reported also from time to time in broadsheets like the Telegraph)

thanks rose

Marmite contains B12 but you'd need to eat a heck of a lot of it every day to meet needs. Many breakfast cereals and sliced breads have added B12 too. You can also buy yeast extract (used like a seasoning) to add to vegan food.

It's important to get protein from a variety of sources - nuts, beans, pulses, tofu, etc. because not many vegan foods contain complete proteins.

Your DD is old enough to do the research and decide whether she still wants to go ahead. Maybe she could try being vegetarian first as it's much easier to get everything you need?

B12 and iodine are difficult to get from a vegan diet, so she should supplement these. Also D3, many vegan VitD supplements use mushrooms and contain D2 not 3. I have a small amount of seaweed everyday to boost iodine but you can buy sea kelp pills from H&B.

Plenty dark greens, plenty vitamin should cover calcium needs. Protein from beans, pulses, cereals etc. as well as from the veg and fruit she eats. She should only eat a small handful of nuts and seeds daily. Seeds are important for EFA intake.