A varied and balanced vegan diet can really be healthy, but it needs careful consideration. Because a vegan diet is very is restrictive, it is imperative to provide all vital nutrients.
A vegan diet should include an adequate intake of vitamins, carbohydrates, fiber and proteins, and should include different recipes and combinations of foods to ensure that diet does not become nutrient deficient and boring. So if you choose to be a vegan, these are the best tips for vegan beginners:
1. Ensure enough proteins in food
Proteins must be provided in the vegan diet by eating legumes (lentils, beans), soy products (tofu, tempeh), of seeds (sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds) and nuts (almonds, walnuts). Usually, there is no need to add protein supplements if one eats one to two good sources of protein with each meal.
2. Eat the food that contains friendly acids
A vegan diet is generally low in saturated fats and cholesterol, but a healthy vegan diet must ensure heart friendly acids, like monounsaturated fatty acid and omega-3 fatty acids. Avoid processed and refined foods, coconut oil, margarine, and seed butter helps to maintain the required level of fat in the body.
3. Satisfy your vitamin needs
To ensure the optimum intake of calcium, a vegan diet should include fortified fruit juices and cereals, soy products, and green leafy vegetables. Because vitamin D is usually deficient in a vegan diet, you should expose to sunlight for 15 to 20 minutes a day. Also, a good source of iron must be included in a healthy vegan diet, and you can find it in dried beans, sprouts, kale, broccoli, and turnip.
4. Substitute usual recipe ingredients with vegan food
Another diet tip for vegans would be to substitute popular recipe ingredients with vegan ingredients. Cheese can be replaced by tofu and a cup of milk by rice milk or soy milk. If your favorite food is cheese, then eat cheese, but just make sure that cheese falls in line with your values. Luckily all vegan food is amazing. There are vegan versions for just about everything nowadays.
5. Know what you eat
Start with the whole foods as many you can, like the whole bunch of kale instead of buying only washed and chopped salads, and prep them yourself. Or even better go to a farmer’s market and get organic food. You don’t need to buy organic food all the time, but as often as you can, because that is the food in its purest form.
6. Don’t go vegan overnight
‘Going vegan’ can seem overwhelming for the average dieters, but most adult vegans grew up eating meat. Going vegan should be a slow process, and it can take even years to become a real vegan. There are people who became vegans “overnight” but that was not the case for most. Most people go vegan, slide back, try again, and slide back again until they find their ideal way of eating and optimize their health and happiness from the inside out.