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Vegan

Join Mumsnet's vegan community and discuss everything related to the vegan diet.

Where can I start to find out more about nutrition for a vegan family?

15 replies

Thatwentbadly · 17/12/2020 21:02

We consist of DH who needs a high calorie low ish fibre diet, 4 year old, me breast feeding Mum who needs to lose weight and a toddler. Toddler and I are soya and dairy free due to her allergies.

I have no idea where to start but our diet is increasingly moving to vegan so I need to.

OP posts:
Ginfordinner · 17/12/2020 21:08

If you are on Facebook I suggest you follow Bosh. They have a few cookery books out and have created some really innovative dishes.

Your family diet requiremets sound quite complicated, especially the lowish fibre diet as they do use a lot of pulses. Some of their recipes contain tofu, but most don't. I have found that a lot of vegan foods are carb heavy so dieting and trying to eat more protein will take more thought.

The other protein food you might like to try is seitan. It is very easy to make, and ca be flavoured with anything you like. It is made from gluten, so isn't recommended as a food to eat every day.

WorriedMutha · 17/12/2020 21:10

Why don't you sign up to Veganuary. I have signed up to it before and I will sign up again this year. You get regular recipes and nutritional advice to your inbox. It's a good starting point.
veganuary.com/try-vegan/

Missmonkeypenny · 17/12/2020 21:10

No advice really OP but similar situation! I am DF and SF due to Ds11months allergies as he is EBF. We don't have cows milk or dairy products like cheese/butter in the house at all and only eat meat once a week due to environmental reasons. The meat we do eat is never beef!

DH makes his own seitan which is great in fajitas/as meatballs/ roast meat replacement.

Thatwentbadly · 18/12/2020 15:53

@Missmonkeypenny DD1 has CMPA and DD2 has CMPA and is also allergic (none iGE) to soya, coconut, probably eggs and possible iGE to blueberries.

OP posts:
LeGrandBleu · 18/12/2020 19:03

If you need info about vegan nutrition, you start with a nutrition book and the best is without a doubt this one Becoming Vegan: Comprehensive Edition: The Complete Reference on Plant-based Nutrition

www.amazon.co.uk/Becoming-Vegan-Comprehensive-Reference-Plant-based/dp/1570672970?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

Givent the complexity of each of your needs, I am not sure how you can make this work in a healthy way.
Low fibre - high calories is quite in contradiction with a VEGan diet, unless you abandon whole food and go for crappy vegan junk food, such as vegan cheeses, vegan Frankenstein meat substitute and so on. Plants have fibre, animals have bones. Unless you use processed grains (white flour, white rice, ...) you will have fibre. Plants are low calories Animal products (cheese, butter, cream, ....) are high calories. Of course, you have avocado, seeds and nuts, but they are not low fibre.

Losing weight is quite easy if you stick to the VEG part of vegan, but the soya allergy makes it quite complicated as tofu is a very versatile part for feeding children.

IN addition to educating yourself on vegan nutrition and which supplement you MUST take , use cronometer.com to see if your nutritional needs are covered. It will give you the numbers for all macro and micronutrients for free.

You need to understand that the vitamin and mineral in a food isn't the amount your body will be able to use, or absorb. In the case of plant based omega 3, the conversion rate is around 5% so it is very very hard to get your omega 3 from planets . You then have the oxalate in plants that block calcium, and so on.

Malnutrition is rampant amongst vegan. Many have a 50-shades-of-beige diet.

Any reason you are considering a vegan diet with low fibre - soya allergy?

Thatwentbadly · 18/12/2020 21:06

@LeGrandBleu I’m not so much considering it as we are kind of living it. DH is veggie and he does he pulse and lentils but struggles with whole meal, the girls and I can’t have dairy due to allergies and I struggle to get the girls to eat meat, the oldest says she is veggie for preference but will eat some ham. Older child eats eggs but the youngest and I can’t at the moment.

OP posts:
Ginfordinner · 18/12/2020 22:02

I eat a lot of veggie food, and can't eat wholemal bread (IBS), but I'm fine with all the pulses. If I want bread I tend to eat bread with oats in or seeded bread, and white bread as well.

Some vegans need B12 supplements as it is the only nutrient not .naturally available in vegan foods that aren't fortified with this vitamin

LeGrandBleu · 18/12/2020 22:06

What about fish and seafood? Ham isn't exactly the best nutritional choice.
Calcium and protein are two fundamental nutrients usually provided by tofu which of course you can't have.
So this leaves you with quinoa, chickpea flour, nutritional yeast, hemp seeds, seitan as already suggested by a PP, chia seeds for breakfast in the form of chia pudding ...

How do you eat right now, each has their own or do you have a common core to which each adds their preferences.

Do you supplement already?

Thatwentbadly · 19/12/2020 09:55

@LeGrandBleu we do eat seafood and fish. The girls are not fans of seafood but are happy with fish. I normally eat fish 3 times a week but I’m thinking we should up it. I was worried if I mentioned fish I would be told we are vegan and to look somewhere else for advice.

We need to eat the same core of meals with slight differences but on the whole we tend to eat the same food. I have to say your menu is very repetitive.

We all take appropriate multivitamins which contain iron. DH does have dairy, DD1 4 gets enough calcium, vitamin D and iodine from Oatley oat milk, DD2 gets enough from breast milk and I also take a combined calcium, vitamin D and magnesium supplements.

OP posts:
CorianderQueen · 19/12/2020 09:59

Buy a cookbook. That's what we did.

CorianderQueen · 19/12/2020 10:02

@Ginfordinner

If you are on Facebook I suggest you follow Bosh. They have a few cookery books out and have created some really innovative dishes.

Your family diet requiremets sound quite complicated, especially the lowish fibre diet as they do use a lot of pulses. Some of their recipes contain tofu, but most don't. I have found that a lot of vegan foods are carb heavy so dieting and trying to eat more protein will take more thought.

The other protein food you might like to try is seitan. It is very easy to make, and ca be flavoured with anything you like. It is made from gluten, so isn't recommended as a food to eat every day.

Tofu is made of soya so that's out.
Ginfordinner · 19/12/2020 10:28

Tofu is made of soya so that's out.

Yes, I know which is why I said some of their recipes contain tofu but most don't.

LeGrandBleu · 19/12/2020 19:07

@Thatwentbadly I follow a plant diet mainly to reduce a very high cancer risk, DH and the kids eat anything. We usually have a couple of raw and cooked vegetables as our core, and I would have tofu/lentils/ and they would have a peace of meat/fish...
We do have some common meals, with a favourite being chickpeas salads, or polenta with a veggie base sauce, risotto, without the butter/cheese, a lot of soups.

Do you have a number for the low fibre (how much is low, a limit to stay under) because it is actually your DH making it tricky.
You can make vegan patties with chickpeas/mushrooms or falafel with chickpeas, socca flatbread with a ratatouille type of sauce.

There is of course hummus and all the dips in the world, you can have mexiacan fajitas with a selection of small bowls with shredded salad, tomatoes, beans, ...

Liquid smoke is a great ingredient to add to give the deep flavour one would get from soya sauce (or use a soys sauce substitute www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/soy-sauce-substitutes#TOC_TITLE_HDR_1 ) .

You should explore other countries' classics.
Dumplings, sushi, rice rolls, the last two are easy to make at home which each one have a specific filling .
You can make samosas and spanakopita and play around with the ingredients.

Do you have a Chinese or Asian supermarket? They have so many options you might want to explore.

If your family eats fish it helps, you can look up French recipes for mussels and clams, and Italian ones for fish meatballs, or even fish-based pasta sauces. Your DDs will get so much more calcium from anchovies than from supplements added to a oat milk.

Yes it is a vegan board, but within the "feed the world" section not the ethical living, so we don't bite .

LeGrandBleu · 19/12/2020 19:18

Meant to clarify : just add the word "vegan" in front of any dish you like, and you will get a hit for most of them form a google search (within reason, a cheese fondue will be hard) .
And about the liquid smoke, maximum use 1 teaspoon per sauce, not in the same quantity you would use soya sauce.

ILoveBeans · 14/03/2021 16:30

There are many vegan blogs with recipes, also you can find many recipes on Pinterest.
As for nutrition blogs, nutritionfacts.org/ is probably the most famous one. You can also check out happyvegan.life they have an extensive guide for switching to veganism for beginners.

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