Essential Nutrients on a Vegan Diet: Navigating Vitamin D, B12, and Omega-3s – Brenda Davis, R.D.

Vitamin D in Vegan Diets

looking very briefly at vitamin D vitamin D needeing the RDA is an issue for everyone but many studies suggest the risk is higher among vegans because we have fewer dietary sources most people don’t make enough vitamin D from Sunshine exposure and people that live in the North like I do I live in Canada we don’t make Vitamin D from Sunshine between about October to March or April so it’s a long time to go without making Vitamin D from Sun and our ability to produce vitamin D from Sunshine depends on the latitude that we’re at the time of year the time of day the cloud cover our age our body weight our skin color our skin exposure all of those things can make a big difference uh the RDA for vitamin D is 4 00 I use for for infants 0 to 12 months and 600 for everyone else from 1 to 70 years of age and 800 for those over 70 uh uh years of age so food sources for for everyone um you know food sources are mushrooms that are growing in uvite eggs fish liver fortified foods like non-dairy and dairy milks and cereals so you can see for for people that are eating Whole Food plant-based diets they’re not eating um many if any fortified Foods there’s not a lot of sources if they need to rely on sunlight if they don’t get enough sunlight then they need a supplement uh so supplements 400 iuse is

Vitamin B12 in Plant-Based Diets

recommended for all infants to Age Two 600 is often suggested for children a th000 to 2,000 is often suggested for adults with higher intakes possibly needed for seniors vitamin D3 raises serum levels to a little bit greater step than D2 and maintains higher levels longer than D2 plant-based D3 however from lyen is widely available so it’s not an issue moving on to vitamin B12 vitamin B12 the RDA is close to one microgram for uh young children it’s close to uh uh two for old older children and for for um every 114 years of age and older it’s actually 2.4 and it’s getting closer to three micrograms for during pregnancy and lactation 2.6 and 2.8 plant Foods uh actually come up short on B12 so B12 is an issue for plant eaters uh plant foods are just not reliable sources unless they’re fortified even foods that are commonly thought to be reliable sources like organic veget V seaweed fermented foods and mushrooms should not at this point be relied on as sole sources of vitamin B12 U and just you know to to to give you a you know a little bit of the reason why um you know seaweed for example um the the B12 and seaweed when the seaweed is dried is often the active B12 is converted to inactive forms of B12 so it’s not um as usable in that in that uh respect fermented foods well it depends on how dirty the containers are how much bacteria are in the containers when the foods are being fermented um mushrooms again are they growing on human manure or what are they grown on you know it that will make a difference for their B12 content and so at this point these just are not consistent reliable sources uh vitamin B12 stored May last two to three years or more in adults

Vitamin B12 Deficiency and Its Implications

however breastfed babies born to B12 deficient mothers can develop B12 deficiency within month months or even weeks of birth in some cases causing irreversible brain damage uh this is something that just simply should never happen uh pregnant and lactating women need to make sure they have a reliable source and we need need to make sure we have reliable sources throughout life uh deficiency symptoms include megaloblastic anemia which is um you know all of the symptoms like weakness and fatigue and all of that it can cause eventually nerve and brain damage gastrointestinal disturbances and elevated homosysteine which can increase risk of cardiovascular disease there is a higher risk for seniors in developed countries 6% of people 60 plus are B12 deficient uh and this is you know very signific ific this isn’t just vegans or vegetarians this is everyone B12 deficiency increases the risk of dementia and Alzheimers 10 to 30% of individuals over 30 have a diminished ability to cleave the B12 off the protein is bound to an animal products due to lower gastric acid and reduced enzyme production The Institute of medicine actually recommends that everyone who’s over 50 relies on supplements or fortified food s for their B12 and not on animal products in their later years 50 plus years we don’t want to mess with B12 vegans vegetarians and everyone 50 plus needs to ensure reliable sources daily to monitor B12 stat and to monitor B12 status um so what are reliable sources well certainly supplements are reliable sources B12 four toi foods like non-dairy mils and animal products for those under 50 who are eating animal products who are eating a sort of a predominantly plant-based diet so how much should we be getting from supplements well you can see the RDA here at you know a couple micrograms a day the recommended doses are 5 to 10 micrograms for toddlers about 25 micrograms this is a daily dose uh for 4 to eighty olds and then possibly 25 to 50 for for 9 to 13 year olds and and around the 50 for adults possibly 100 micrograms for those 65 plus many people are recommending 500 to 1,000 micrograms a day during pregnancy and lactation 50 to 100 micrograms uh is is uh adequate as well if we’re just dosing two or three times a week we’re looking at you know about a thousand micrograms a day um and and it’s this is not recommended for seniors actually um it’s recommended that they do daily 12 so what form is best cyano versus methyl uh and a denil calaman uh and this is the great debate among many practitioners in the sort of plant-based world with some of our um you know very respected voices saying we need to rely on sayano uh and and others saying it should be methyl and cyan was the synthe form of B12 it contains a molecule of cyanide however the amounts are less than what would be consumed in common foods like flax F uh fresh apple juice apricots those kinds of things um this is the most stable and least expensive form so if we’re looking at providing it uh you know in Foods or to the global population that’s not as well off cyano cobalamin makes a lot of sense it’s safe safe for most people but there’s a caution for people with inherited disorders of B12 metabolism smokers and those with kidney disease for those people it’s probably better to rely on on methyl and a denal these are the natural forms of B12 they are a little bit less stable but they’re better retained once they’re absorbed some experts suggest because they’re less stable that we aim for a thousand micrograms a day um and some experts suggest taste take both methyl and ad denil for best results and and so I think that makes sense because they have you know can be used slightly differently in the body and and that sort of would help to cover all your bases I think you can do either I’m you know lean towards the natural forms

Forms of Vitamin B12: Cyano Vs. Methyl

myself uh generally uh but I I think that um either can be can be quite suitable omega-3 fatty acids is fish necessary in the diet and the answer is

Omega-3 Fatty Acids: Necessity of Fish

no omega-3 fatty acids are present in plenty of other Foods they’re present in land plants like Chia flax and hemp seeds and walnuts and the AI flour and the AUM seed uh oils which you know aren’t very common foods so not going to be relied on they’re also present in Greens although greens are very low in fat so you’d have to eat a lot to get enough they’re also present in sea plants microalgae in the form of supplements and macro algae which only provides EPA uh they’re Pro they’re present in eggs which is only DHA not EPA so do vegetarians and vegans get enough Omega-3s well our intakes are of ala are generally similar to or higher than omnivores of EPA and DHA um they we generally have NE neg negligible intakes in vegans unless we take micro supplements it’s low in vegetarians with eggs providing you know moderate amounts what about our status well plasma levels of ala are similar to that of omnivores DHA and EPA about 30% lower in lacto OVO and about 40 to 70% lower in vegans so what about conversion of ala to EPA because technically ala can be converted to EPA and DHA but since vegans essentially um and since vegans essentially consume no no EPA or DHA from the diet they rely on endogenous conversion unless they’re taking the supplements in most humans conversion is fairly inefficient averaging about 5 to 8% it is higher in young women there was a study showing conversion to EPA um and to DPA and DHA uh being about 30% in young women because their bodies are prepared for pregnancy of course and but for men it was it was a lot lower than that uh so there are four I have four tips for optimizing omega-3 fatty acid status number one be aware of factors that depress conversion of ala to EPA and DHA and the non-diet factors are genetics uh you know we can genetically have less capacity to convert gender men tend to be less efficient than women age uh infants especially pre-term infants have less capacity to convert and seniors have less capacity uh smoking and chronic diseases like diabetes metabolic syndrome and hypertension can impair conversion as well and then we have a number of diet factors the first being um High intakes of omega-6 fatty acids so for eating a lot lot of omega-6 relative to omega-3 this can depress conversion up to probably 40 to 60% um and and this you know we’ll talk about the solution to that but it’s pretty simple inadequate nutrition insufficient protein lack of vitamin and mineral co-actors like zinc magnesium niin perod oxine vitamin C uh trans fatty acids and alcohol um and very high fat diets actually can depress conversion as well uh number two is to ensure sufficient alphal linolenic acid and for you know if you look at the the recommended intakes uh they you know range from 7 for toddlers to you know 1.6 for for adult males and and7 in females to 1.1 in adults um what I recommend is for people who are consuming no EPA and DHA that we double those intakes to uh 1.4 uh uh to 3.2 uh grams uh per per day uh and so 1.4 during during the uh the toddler years and 3.2 for adults and for teens and for women it would be um uh 2.2 grams uh during adulthood per day and a little higher during pregnancy and lactation uh plant soures of omega3 well we get about 2.6 uh in um an ounce of walnuts we get about one in a tablespoon of Chia seeds one in a tablespoon of ground flax seeds I’m sorry 2.5 in a tablespoon of Chia seeds 1.6 in a tablespoon of ground flax one in a tablespoon of hemp seeds and less than 0.1 in a cup of greens so if we’re aiming for you know 2.2 to 3.2 we’d have to eat 20 or 30 cups of greens at least least to get enough U we’d need to eat two or three tablespoons of of hemp seeds and you know just over a tablespoon of of ground flax or a tablespoon of Chia seeds or an ounce of walnuts we want to moderate our intake of omega-6 is if they’re excessive so increasing omega-3 fatty acids is the most important way to balance the seual fatty acids so we want to focus more on increasing the Omega-3s than decreasing Omega sixes but in some cases it can be helpful to moderate omega-6 intakes especially when intakes are very high and we can do that just by you know if we’re using oils in cooking for example not choosing omega-6 Rich oils like safflower and grape seed and sunflower and corn and soy and cotton seed and sesame oil instead we would choose you know an avocado or an olive oil for example um and and then or we might use an omega-3 ripped oil for salad like flax or hemp um and we might you know just moderate our intake slightly of of omega-6 Rich Whole Foods but I that’s something that you would definitely worry a lot less about like pumpkin and sunflower and sesame seeds and then you want to consider direct sources of longchain omega-3 fatty acids uh who might benefit uh from supplementation well certainly those

Omega-3 Fatty Acids: Supplementation

with increased needs like pregnant and breastfeeding women those who may not convert efficiently like people with diabetes metabolic syndrome hypertension people that have traditionally consumed a lot of fish possibly seniors possibly everyone we don’t know uh and that’s the reality is we’re not sure if if everyone would benefit from it or if by providing it for children they would convert less I generally recommend that I think at this stage based on what we know it’s a good idea to supplement with EPA and DHA probably you know two or 300 milligrams per day for adults a little less uh for children so and typical suggested intakes as I mentioned one 70 to 120 milligrams for children 2 to 300 uh for adults 3 to 500 for pregnant and lactating women people with a diagnosed efficiency may need more like 800 to 1,000 milligrams per day