Help with vegan diet

[Sleepdeprivedmumma]

Hello all - I'm after some advice.

I have recently become vegan and thought I was having a balanced diet. But to be honest I'm starting to feel run down and I'm overloading on carbs.

Does anyone have any advice about how to manage a well balanced vegan diet?

Any recipe ideas would also be fab.

Thank in advance xxx

www.vegansociety.com/resources/lifestyle/shopping/vegan-meal-plan

this link may be helpful x

I make a smoothie for breakfast ; seasonal fruits with a whole lemon, grated skin, pith and juice (full of vitamin C ) organic juice, plus ground almonds and inseeds. I make enough for 2 days, it keeps well in the fridge.

Lunch, usually pnut butter, and or yeast spread, rye toast with salad, olive oil instead of marg. (no wheat it' not a good carb).

supper; whole rice, veg. curry and tofu/cucumber yoghurt Etc.

What kind of things are you eating?
For vegan eating to be healthy you need to really be thinking about a wholefood plant based diet.
Look at Deliciously Ella and the Happy Pear, all their recipes are healthy and simple

I'd second Deliciously Ella. I'm not vegan, but her recipes are delicious.

If you feel run down you need to work out what you’re not getting.

Protein- you should be aiming for 0.8g per kilo of body weight, for me that’s 50g per day. It’s easy to get but you do need to think about it sometimes. I buy coco crunch nakd bars which have 5g, bread has about 8g per slice, peanut butter about 3g per 12g serving, kidney beans about 8g per 100g (about half a tin) etc try and have at least one serving of pulses (kidney beans, butter beans, chick peas, lentils etc) every day.

Iron, calcium- again pulses and green leafy veg, nuts, seeds for iron also dried fruit and whole grains like oat, quinoa and brown rice also most bread is fortified with it. Have a source of vit c with it like tomatoes to improve absorption and not with black tea as it reduces absorption.

Zinc- nuts seeds pulses and whole grains

Selenium- Brazil nuts, seeds, pulses, green leafy veg, whole grains.

Vit D- sunshine or fortified foods or a vitamin tablet/ spray.

Vit b12- fortified foods or vitamin tablet/ spray.

Omega 3- flaxseed, chia seed, coconut oil, rapeseed oil, walnuts, hemp seeds, Brussels sprouts or algal oil supplement.

I’m not a dietician but long story short it seems a diet high in a variety of nuts, seeds, legumes, green leafy veg, whole grains and with some fresh and dried fruit should cover you for most things, if you’re already eating that then speak to a dietician.

You are likely short of iron and vitamin b12.
Can you take a supplement for these for a month or two and see if you feel better?
Iron deficiency can make you feel dreadful and b12 deficiency can be really unpleasant.
If things don’t improve in a few weeks then you can go for a blood test. The Gp will have seen this many times before and will be able to help.

It is difficult to absorb non heam iron from plant sources so even if you are eating lots of chick peas and green leafy veg you may still be short.

There is a lot of protein B12 etc. in brewers and bakers yeast, I add the yeast flakes as an instant stock to my soups, it's delicious too.