Food Eng. Oguz Yildirim

Vitamin and Mineral Intake for Vegan Nutrition

Despite their healthy diet, vegan people often face mineral and vitamin deficiencies. This situation, which can be overcome as long as adequate and conscious nutrition is provided, often causes anxiety and stress in vegan individuals. Therefore, if you are on a vegan diet, you need to know well which minerals and vitamins you should take. If you think that you cannot consume enough of the vitamin and mineral sources for the vegan diet, which we will talk about shortly, beware! If these foods are not on your vegan diet list, you can buy vitamin tablets or additional minerals as supplements. Now let's examine the most valuable vitamin and mineral sources of vegans together.

Vegan Nutrition Vitamin Intake

Vitamin D

Vitamin D is very important for people who follow a vegan diet. Vitamin D is needed for the absorption of calcium. Non-vegans are also often deficient in vitamin D. The best source of vitamin D is sunlight. If you prefer a vegan diet and cannot see enough sun during the year, you can use vitamin D supplements under the control of your doctor.

Vitamin B12

B12 is found in many foods of animal origin, including eggs and dairy products. For this reason, B12 deficiency is a big problem for vegetarians and especially vegans. If B12 values ​​are low, we recommend that you consume vitamin B12 spray or vitamin B12 tablet form without wasting any time.

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Vegan Nutrition Mineral Intake

Calcium

Calcium is a mineral that helps keep our bones and teeth strong, but also acts on other functions such as muscle contraction and blood clotting. It will increase the absorption of calcium Calcium-rich foods suitable for a vegan diet It is as follows:

Green leafy vegetables

  • Broccoli
  • Cabbage
  • Okra
  • tahini
  • Raisins
  • Dried plum
  • FIG
  • Dried apricots

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Iron

Iron deficiency is perhaps the most common mineral deficiency in the world. Especially vegan woman ve vegan pregnant It's something people should pay attention to. Iron is essential for healthy blood, muscle and energy. With a vegan diet, you can meet all the iron you need. because foods containing iron It is generally of vegetable origin. If we give an example of plant sources rich in iron; legumes, chickpeas, lentils, kidney beans, tofu, nuts, cabbage, broccoli.

Zinc

Our immune system, which allows us to easily overcome infectious diseases, is very important for us. When it comes to the immune system, it is impossible not to mention zinc, one of the first minerals that comes to mind. Zinc, immune systemIt is a mineral that strengthens the body and ensures the rapid elimination of infection from the body. Zinc, which also plays a role in cell growth vegan food sources and beans, chickpeas, peas, chia seeds, walnuts and wholemeal and whole wheat bread.

Iodine

Iodine, which plays an important role for thyroid hormones, controls heart and digestive functions. However, there is not enough variety of plant-derived iodine. Since it is found in limited foods, people who do not like the foods it contains may have difficulty in providing iodine to the body. Plant foods containing iodine include: seaweed, iodized salt, peanuts. Excessive consumption of salt to provide iodine to the body can cause high blood pressure. For this reason, we need to be careful with the use of salt. The amount of salt that an individual should consume daily is about 6 grams.

photo of author
Stating that his eating and drinking habits started from childhood, Oğuz Yıldırım completed his higher education in Food Engineering. He is currently serving his clients as a nutritionist in his own office.

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