Vegetarian Nutrition Made Easy

Often people worry that eating a vegetarian diet will mean that they will miss out on some vital nutritional necessities.

But in fact, vegetarians are often much healthier than meat-eaters and some research even suggests that vegetarian diets may reduce the risk of heart-disease and obesity. This might be partly to do with vegetarians eating fewer calories and less saturated fat than meat-eaters, simply because they’ve cut meat or animal products out of their diet. But it also probably has a lot to do with the fact that the people who have chosen to go vegetarian are usually particularly interested food and health.

Not all veggies have a healthy diet though, and just swapping a sausage-roll for a bag of chips, is obviously not going to benefit you. If you just follow a few very simple guidelines however, you can get everything you need from a vegetarian diet.

Variety

Some people would have you believe that understanding vegetarian nutrition is incredibly complicated: it doesn’t have to be. If you do nothing but follow the Vegetarian Society’s ‘Eatwell Plate’ (see below) and try to eat a wide variety of foods you’ll be eating a perfectly healthy diet: you don’t even need to read the rest of this article. The truth is that very few people in the western world have nutritional deficiencies and as a vegetarian you’re no more likely to be deficient in something than your average meat-eater.

If you’re vegan you will have to give your diet a little bit more thought, but you certainly shouldn’t have to spend your life weighing and measuring.

'Eatwell Plate' image reproduced with permission from the UK Vegetarian Society

Building blocks

For good health, the UK Vegetarian Society recommends that you eat the following every day:

• 4-5 servings of cereal/grains or potatoes – choose wholegrains [complex carbohydrates]
• 5 servings of fruit or vegetables – include a variety of colours
• 2-3 servings of pulses (beans/peas/lentils), nuts and seeds [protein]
• 2 servings of milk, cheese, free-range eggs or soya [calcium]
• Small amounts of vegetable oil, margarine or butter [fat]
• Some yeast extract such as Marmite, fortified with B12
• 6-8 glasses of water

Deciding what to eat today

1. Carbohydrates. Start with your starchy foods - will it be fortified cereal for breakfast, a wholemeal-bread sandwich for lunch, and rice for dinner?

2. Protein. Decide what you will have with your carbs – will you have a generous sprinkling of nuts and seeds on your cereal, a boiled egg or houmous on your sandwich, and a veggie bean chilli with your rice?

3. Fruit & Veg. Add in at least five a day – how about some dried fruit or berries on your cereal and a glass of fruit juice? Fancy a banana for elevenses, lettuce and cucumber on your sandwich, and an apple in the afternoon? Add plenty of tomatoes, onions, peppers and mushrooms to your chilli.

4. Calcium. Add a few portions of the white stuff – are you going to have milk or fortified soya, oat or rice milk on your cereal, or a yoghurt with lunch?

5. Fat. Include just a little bit of fat – a scraping of low-fat margarine on your sandwich perhaps, or a spray of cooking oil when making your chilli?

Vitamins & minerals

Vitamin A – For healthy vision, skin and resistance to infection. Sources include orange vegetables, sweet potato, dark leafy vegetables, cheese and eggs. Vitamin A is also added to most margarines.

Vitamin B – A group of vitamins for a healthy nervous system, body maintenance and metabolism. Sources include yeast extract, whole cereals, nuts and seeds, bananas, mushrooms and potatoes.

Vitamin B12 – For the formation of blood cells. This vitamin is not found in vegetables. Sources include eggs, cheese and seaweed. Soya milk and some breakfast cereals are fortified with B12. If you are vegan the only reliable sources of B12 are fortified foods or a supplement.

Vitamin C – For a healthy immune system. Vitamin C also assists with the absorption of iron. Sources include fruit and vegetables, especially peppers and strawberries, leafy green vegetables and potatoes.

Vitamin D – For healthy bones and teeth. Humans make their own vitamin D from the sunlight on our skin however it is also often added to margarine and can be found in dairy foods.

Vitamin E – Acts as an antioxidant. There are also claims that it may help to protect against heart-disease and cancer. Sources include vegetable oils, seeds and nuts, and potatoes.

Vitamin K – For healthy bones and for helping wounds to heal. Sources include leafy green vegetables. Vitamin K can also be synthesised in the intestines.

Calcium – For healthy bones and teeth. Sources include sesame seeds (or tahini), milk, cheese, figs, leafy green vegetables, tofu, soya beans and chickpeas. Too much salt or caffeine makes your body lose calcium. Exercise, even just a daily walk, helps maintain dense bones.

Iron – For the formation of blood cells. Sources include some breakfast cereals, lentils, sesame seeds, soya beans, red kidney beans, wholemeal bread, dried fruit, couscous and eggs. Including vitamin C can aid iron absorption e.g. a glass of orange juice with your meal. Drinking a lot of tea can impair the body’s ability to absorb iron.

Even meat-eaters get most of their iron from vegetarian sources and iron-deficiency is no more common in veg*ns than in the rest of the population!

Zinc – For making new cells, healthy skin and the healing of wounds. Sources include pumpkin and sesame seeds, pine nuts, cashews and pecan nuts, and some breakfast cereals.

Iodine – For hormone production. Sources include leafy green vegetables, cereals and grains, seaweed and cow’s milk.

Selenium – Helps to keep our immune system healthy. Also important for fertility. Sources include brazil nuts, lentils, wholemeal flour, eggs, sunflower seeds and cashew nuts.

The question every vegetarian gets asked: Where do you get your protein from?

The average person needs to eat just 10-15% of their calories from protein, and most of us in the UK eat more protein than we really need. In fact, if you are eating sufficient calories each day then it’s very unlikely that you aren’t getting enough protein.

Vegetarian sources of protein include:

• Pulses – beans, lentils, peas, soya beans and soya products (including textured vegetable protein e.g. Quorn, soya milk, tofu)
• Nuts – peanuts, cashews, brazil nuts, hazelnuts, almonds
• Seeds – sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds
• Grains and cereals – wholemeal bread, pasta, couscous, barley, oats, maize, rice
• Dairy – milk, cheese, eggs, yoghurt

Should you be taking supplements?

Vegetarians are no more prone to deficiencies than anyone else, so if you are eating a balanced, healthy diet, with a variety of fruit and veg, there is probably no reason why you should need to take vitamin supplements.

Vegans who do not eat fortified foods should include B12 supplements. Bear in mind however that recommended daily amounts are tiny – varying from just 1 to 3 micrograms per day, so avoid supplements which provide huge amounts of B12. Some B12 supplements on the market contain 100 micrograms or more and direct you to take them up to five times a day – and whilst there is no evidence that excessive amounts of B12 will harm your health, it may well harm your wallet unnecessarily!

If you still want to take supplements as an added insurance policy, there are a number of vegetarian and vegan supplements on the market, including Seven Seas Multivitamins Plus for Vegetarian and Vegans. But don’t let supplements lull you into a false sense of security: they are no substitute for a healthy varied diet!

Important note: This article is intended as a guide only. Please consult your doctor if you have any dietary concerns.

For more information on vegetarian and vegan nutrition visit www.vegsoc.org or www.vegansociety.com