How Plant Based Eaters Get The Right Amount Of Protein And Nutrients

how many people do you know who ate a whole food plant-based diet and ended up with a protein deficiency how often have you heard of this happening well i you know when it comes to protein one of the things that a lot of people in the plant-based world say is you know if you’re looking at protein deficiencies the hospital wards would be empty there aren’t any and i think that’s an overstatement to be honest so so we don’t see overt protein deficiency like we see in starving children in africa where they would have kwashiorkor with the distended you know stomachs and and very emaciated limbs we are a nation where we generally have an abundance of food but it doesn’t mean that people can’t get enough protein so we do see that and and let me just give you an example uh so generally people get enough protein from plant foods under a couple of conditions one is that they’re eating enough calories so if you’re eating enough calories chances are you’ll get enough protein if you’re eating mostly whole foods now what happens sometimes and i’ve seen this on a number of occasions is you’ll see a teenager who gets excited about the environment animal rights and they don’t have the knowledge about nutrition and they shift from eating a kind of a you know a fast food teenager diet with lots of soda pop and they were eating burgers and fries and chips and all of that and all they do is remove the meat and remove the milk so they’re not eating ice cream and they’re not drinking milk anymore and they’re not consuming burgers so instead of the burger they do a double order of fries and a pop and they’re having their granola bars and they’re eating all their junk foods and in fact they may not get enough protein and they need a fair bit of protein as they’re still growing

and then the other people we see sometimes not getting enough protein are are people that are eating very high fruit diets and not putting them together very well because fruit tends to have fairly low amounts of protein they may not get enough either now we also see sometimes in seniors seniors don’t digest and absorb amino acids as well as younger adults and in fact in some countries for example in australia people actually have a separate recommendation for people over 70 they need about 25 percent more protein than a younger adult to meet their needs and and the reason is just because of the lower ability to break down and absorb the amino acids and so it gets tricky because you’ve got an older say an older gentleman who may have needed 60 grams as an adult male now all of a sudden he needs 80 grams but he’s not eating 2 800 calories anymore because he doesn’t move as quickly he doesn’t need as many calories all of a sudden he’s only eating 2 000 calories but he needs 20 grams more protein and in these cases we can actually see what we call sarcopenia or muscle wasting in older people that aren’t getting enough protein

we also i have also seen a number of people who are into raw food diets but they’re eating you know a diet that is fairly high in fat lots of coconut products and so forth where they may not be getting enough protein and they start to um they lose hair and and and their their skin becomes so almost uh thin looking uh they they just their bones start to to get weaker there are a number of things that happen because protein is a building block for the tissues that we build everything with including our bones and so they may not get enough protein and and so in in all of these cases the trick is not to all of a sudden start taking protein powders but to recognize that in a whole food plant-based diet you do want to be including legumes you want to be including some of the higher protein choices in the various groups so for example things like hemp seeds or pumpkin seeds are very valuable and so the point is most people eating a whole food plant-based diet do absolutely fine but there are cases and young children as well where they need more protein per pound of body weight and so we need because they consume smaller amounts of calories we need to be a little more conscious of where their protein is coming from and so really including the legumes and the seeds and some nuts and so forth in the diet so not that it’s difficult to do but it’s not impossible to not get enough protein

how do we get enough vitamins minerals and trace minerals how do we prevent shortages of specific vitamins minerals healthy fats and other essential nutrients so you know the the question of how do we get enough vitamins and minerals and essential fatty acids and all of these things you know i can remember 30 years ago when i started in this field and my my my goal was at that time to help people get this right because a failed vegan especially a child they don’t get enough b12 they don’t get enough iodine they don’t get enough calcium whatever it is sets us back 20 years because i’ll tell you it hits the headlines vegan child dies of b12 deficiency or has irreversible brain damage or whatever and and i’ve received calls from you know from lawyers who are representing vegan parents who are you know going to go to jail because their child died of malnutrition and my goal in life one of my my major goals especially early on in my career was to create resources that would make this almost impossible for this to happen i wanted to create guidelines that were pretty much foolproof you couldn’t blow it if you follow this guide and that’s why i’ve written so many books like becoming vegan you know we started with becoming vegetarian and then becoming vegan and then the new becoming vegetarian and then becoming vegan comprehensive and express editions the you know completely rewritten uh 10 years later and so on and so on and and and i think it’s just so critical we get this right because when we get it wrong we become exhibit number one for why people are justified in eating meat

so we really need to take the time most of our nutrition education materials are geared towards omnivores so as vegans or as plant-based eaters even if you’re not vegan you need to take it upon yourself to get educated about how to do this correctly especially if you’re raising small children and speaking of that that’s my next book i i just teamed with a with a pediatrician from san francisco her name is rashma shaw and she is balanced she is science based and she’s a brilliant writer and i’m really quite honored to be working with her but to provide a resource for families and so it this is um you know one of the things that my writing partner visanto molina who i i’ve done most of my books with and i have done is to create these food guides like we have national food guides so we’ve created vegan or plant-based food guides where we tell you how many servings of fruits and vegetables and and legumes and nuts and seeds and greens and and and then what are within each of these groups are your best calcium choices how do you get enough calcium and then there are some nutrients even if you do all that you may not get enough of and that those are vitamin d um iodine uh essential fatty acids and and so how do and vitamin b12 and so how do we make sure that those are covered as well

and and so just to you know summarize eating the range of of a variety of plant foods in the in the reasonable amounts um getting a source of b12 which the most reliable are supplements or b12 fortified foods so like like red star nutritional yeast or or you know fortified non-dairy beverages would be a reliable source and and then for you know for iodine people can use seaweed in in varying amounts they can use some iodized salt and i know people will cringe with that but but certainly it’s a reliable source and you can get iodized salts that don’t contain the you know all of the things that people are trying to avoid you need to read the label and and you want to keep sodium low so for me i would prefer to rely on a little sprinkle of kelp all you need is about a sixteenth of a teaspoon or you know a tenth of a teaspoon depending so it’s a very small amount you don’t even taste it you can sprinkle that for people that love seaweeds things like nori and dolls and and wakami those can be very reasonable choices as well now with iodine the amounts we get vary depending on the on on this soil the amount in the soil in many places in europe like italy and and the uk and and finland the amounts in the soil are very low and so those people need to be really really ultra vigilant because they’re not going to be able to rely on fruits and vegetables and and other plant foods much for their iodine we can a little bit more in north america but still the numbers it they’re not concentrated sources and then vitamin d well of course sunshine is the ultimate source but um but you know the sunshine is i think provides us with so much more than vitamin d it’s just so critical to our our health but many of us live in places where we don’t have access to warm sunshine in the winter months and we don’t all have the money to be going to hawaii every second month so we need to rely on some supplements or fortified foods in that case as well and then with essential fatty acids again we have some you know some plant foods that really uh offer more concentrated sources and and in you know the omega-3 family it’s it’s seeds like chia and hemp and flax and and and then nuts like walnuts and so just you know learning specifically how to do this you can put it together fairly easily