Heather: Hey guys!
This is Heather from healthyeatingstartshere.com.
So a lot of you know that I eat a vegan diet and a lot of you send in questions about how
to get balanced nutrition on a vegan diet, because you get a lot of questions from other
people asking you how you get certain nutrients; calcium, protein, whatever you want to put
in there.
It can get really frustrating because people are often critical of the vegan diet plan
for being too extreme, for being restrictive.
Even if you look really healthy and you have a lot of energy, and you are happy all the
time, people will still ask you and it can actually make you question whether you are
actually getting enough of certain nutrients.
Now the thing I find funny is that I actually eat way better now than I ever used to before.
I get a wider variety of foods.
I eat a ton of vegetables whereas I used to, just kind of, force myself through salad.
The other thing is that I just love food now I used to hate cooking and I wouldn't be too
excited for meals but now I love every single meal.
I really enjoy cooking and things have gotten so much more fun for me.
Okay.
So for getting balanced nutrition, there are a few little things that you do need to be
aware of but before you are going to get into those, you got to make sure you have the basics
covered and let at the big picture of healthy eating in general.
So what I like people to focus on first is getting lots of veggies, fresh vegetables
and lots of fresh fruit as well.
Eating whole foods.
Getting a variety of them and cutting out the junk.
So focus on those things first and even meat eaters, a lot of them don't have that covered.
So it's a really good place to start.
Then once you have got those basics down, there are a few nutrients to look at in more
detail.
I've put together a bunch of articles for you guys that you can go through and you will
find them over at healthyeatingstartshere.com.
Very quickly; protein, not as difficult as most people think it is to get on a vegan
diet.
You can get plenty of protein from plant sources if you are eating a variety of foods and you
are getting enough calories, you are probably getting enough protein.
Essential fatty acids you can get plant sources.
Iron you can get from plant sources but there are a few tricks to make sure that you are
absorbing it properly.
Calcium and magnesium; there are lots of plant sources.
You just need to make sure that you are eating the right ones and eating enough of them.
And then the two that may need to be supplemented.
While B12 definitely needs to be supplement for vegans because there are no plant sources.
Even the ones that say they have B12, like algae, your body doesn't use it the same way.
So you do need to take a supplement for that and then vitamin D, your body can produce
it when you are out in the sun but a lot of us don't get enough sun and you don't want
to get burned.
So taking supplement for vitamin D might be the way to go especially in the winter for
those of us in the Northern hemisphere.
Now what you need to do is get in the kitchen, have some fun and find some really tasty and
fun with recipes to share with people and to get yourself excited about eating healthy
vegan diet.
If you find yourself needing help through the transition, I've put together in my Best
Tips.
You can sign up for them for free.
You just have to go to our website and put in your email address and I will send them
out to you.
So that's it from me today guys.
I hope you have a great day and I will see you next time.