Pragmatic Vegan

Buying Vegan Groceries Is Not "Too Expensive"

2020-03-19T19:22:00.000-04:00

For anyone who still believes eating vegan or plant-based is too expensive, here's a meal plan for a full day of hearty vegan eating. This is no barebones menu, it's a fully-packed and nutritious example of typical vegan meals. I could go on and on about how eating vegan is not more expensive than other diets, but I think you'd be best served by an example. Of course you could eat even cheaper than this, but I wanted to provide something that looked realistic and well-rounded. I hope you find this helpful!

Typical Vegans, Eating Their Vegan Food

Chia Raisin Oatmeal and Fruit	Protein	Fat	Carbs	kcal
1 cup oats (regular or quick, dry measure)	10.7	5.3	46.7	307
1 tbsp chia seeds	1.7	3.1	0.8	49
2 tbsp raisins	0.6	0	13.6	54
0.5 cup unsweetened, unfortified soymilk	4.5	2.3	0.5	50
0.5 banana	0.6	0.2	11.9	53
1 orange	1.2	0.2	12.3	62

Baked Sweet Potato with Lentil Salad	Protein	Fat	Carbs	kcal
2 medium sweet potatoes (about 300g)	6	0.5	52.2	270
0.5 cup green lentils (cooked measure)	10	1	20	150
0.5 medium avocado	1.3	10.5	1.3	114
1 tbsp sunflower seeds	1.8	4.5	1	51
1 oz arugula, raw	0.7	0.2	0.6	7

Beans & Rice with Steamed Kale	Protein	Fat	Carbs	kcal
2 cups rice (cooked measure)	8.5	0.9	87.9	411
1 can black beans, rinsed	22.6	1.7	42.8	385
0.5 cup kale, cooked	1.7	0.7	0.8	21
1 rounded tbsp nutritional yeast	3.5	0.5	1.5	30
1 tbsp sesame seeds	1.9	5.7	0	59
tamari, to taste	0	0	0	0

Peanut Butter Sandwich	Protein	Fat	Carbs	kcal
2 slices wholewheat bread	8.6	1.9	39.7	218
3 tbsp peanut butter	10.7	24.8	8.4	289
0.5 banana	0.6	0.2	11.9	53

Total	Protein	Fat	Carbs	kcal
	97.5	64	354*	2632

*Value for net carbs. Total carbs are 436g including 82g of fiber.

Looks pretty tasty (especially while procrastinating on dinner while I write this!). Now I'll save you the trouble crunching the numbers on the grocery bill. Let's imagine you eat roughly the same amount of food each day and you're able to get some but not all bulk prices while shopping. I'll break the totals down into organic and conventionally grown produce, since eating organic is a separate choice from eating plant-based. I tend to observe conventional groceries being about 40% cheaper than organic, so I'll write down the cost of organic in the table and then estimate a comparable price for conventional.

Don't Mind Me, Just Heading out on My Yearly Grocery Trip...

Groceries	Annual cost
Soymilk	$90.55
Bread	$182.04
Oats	$108.77
Rice	$217.78
Beans	$317.55
Lentils	$70.00
Sweet Potatoes	$229.04
Bananas	$69.35
Oranges	$288.35
Kale	$363.78
Peanut Butter	$144.70
Avocados	$182.5
Arugula	$363.78
Raisins	$47.45
Chia Seeds	$32.36
Sesame Seeds	$35.71
Sunflower Seeds	$33.12
Nutritional Yeast	$73.20

Grown	Total
Organic	$2,850.03
Conventional (~)	$1,800

Really not too bad! Would you say you spend more, or less on groceries? How were your grocery hauls affected after switching to vegan meals? As always, let me know what you think in the comments below.

Low-Volume, High-Density Vegan Meal Plan, With Easy Recipes

2019-05-20T13:59:00.000-04:00

I can't be the only one who gets tired of eating massive plates of food and feeling stuffed all the time. I love salads and roasted veggies as much as the next guy, but sometimes I need a break from all the big meals. At times like these, it's handy to know what to eat to keep meal sizes down without dropping your calories too significantly. To that end, here's a 2500 kcal meal plan for a full day of vegan eats. Jump straight to the vegan recipes or the meal plan.

The meals consist largely of wholesome, homemade snacks that greatly reduce time spent cooking each week. I'll be sharing my spin on the classic peanut-buttery energy ball, I call them "power bites." These little morsels have been a lifesaver for me; I whip up a single batch and I've got snacks for a week. Not to mention they're healthier and cheaper than buying boxes of Clif bars – they're not filled with brown rice syrup, for one thing (arsenic begone!).

Mmmm ... Tasty, Delicious Fats

One thing to keep in mind is that this is a high fat meal plan, that's the nature of calorically-dense foods, but the fats are entirely from whole food sources, no oils. Some people may not desire such a high fat intake on a daily basis. It's still a plenty controversial topic, so I'll let you decide whether or not it's a healthy choice for you. Either way, the point is that it gives you a great break from all the high-volume cooking and eating. This basically feels like eating two meals and some snacks throughout the day.

Typical vegan diets are anywhere from 1.5 to 2X the volume for the same amount of calories. For those of you who have to eat four big, veggie-filled meals on top of heaping beds of rice to meet your nutritional needs, it can't hurt to give yourself a break every once in a while. You could love those giant, low calorie meals – I'm not complaining – but a little variety never hurt anybody.

Your Well-Being Hangs in the Balance(d Diet)

I've done my best to put together a decently balanced meal plan, so what supplements still need to be considered? As always, some nutrients are not feasibly obtained from your food. Namely B12 is not found in sufficiently reliable amounts in vegan food sources – I don't recommend relying on nutritional yeast to meet your B12 needs, especially because it's an inexpensive supplement. I take 1000mcg of B12 from cyanocobalamin 2X per week [link to Jack Norris, RD, B12 recommendation].

The RDA for zinc is met but plant sources may not be absorbed quite as well, so vegans could consider shooting for 50% more than the recommendation. Zinc is ridiculously cheap, just break the standard 50mg tablets into quarters (the full 50mg is not intended for long-term use), and make sure the zinc is derived from gluconate to avoid cadmium contamination. The word on the street is that keeping your zinc levels up could reduce your risk of catching colds, so it's well worth the $6 to grab a bottle that'll last you over a year.

One area where the meal plan falls short is calcium. The RDA in the US is 1000mg, though there's anything but a consensus on this value; the RDA in the UK is 700mg – this meal plan reaches just over 650mg. There is some thought that having a somewhat lower calcium intake can reasonably maintain a healthy bone density when combined with adequate sunlight and weight-bearing exercise or impact sports (e.g. running). If you live up north, it's probably a good idea to take a vegan vitamin D3 supplement in the winter to make up for the lack of sunshine.

I remain skeptical of calcium supplementation due to potentially increased risk of stone formation. I think the 1000mg recommendation is unnecessarily high. If I were a conspiracy theorist, I'd be suspicious the dairy industry had a hand in that number. As always, check with your physician if you're unsure, especially for those over 50. If you want to increase your calcium intake, you can always eat more kale, collard greens and chia seeds, all of which are potent plant sources of calcium (blackstrap molasses, too, if you don't mind a little sugar).

One last item to note is water intake. Obviously the higher-density of the food means lower water content, so drink more water to make up for it, perhaps 10 cups.

Easy Peasy Lemon-Tahini Squeezy

Along with the power bites, I'm including a super simple hummus recipe. Both recipes require a food processor, and it helps to have a separate $10 coffee grinder for grinding up the flax seeds for the power bites – it's a handy appliance to have when you don't want to muck up your regular coffee grinder with seeds, spices, or when you want to make some fancy flours out of grains and nuts you have lying around.

The beauty of this meal plan is that it's super easy to meal prep. The power bites should last you a week, and, depending on the capacity of your food processor, the hummus can be doubled or tripled to store in the fridge for later. If you're feeling impish, the processor should be clean enough after scooping out the last of the power bite mixture to go straight into whipping up the hummus without having to clean everything twice. All right already, here are the recipes:

Makes 18 power bites.

Chop together in the food processor until you have a chunky flour:

2/3 cup desiccated coconut*
1 cup rolled oats
3 tbsp ground chia seeds
3 tbsp ground sesame seeds
2 tbsp ground flax seeds (you can grind the seeds together in the spare coffee grinder)
1/4 cup your choice of nuts
1/4 cup whole sunflower seeds
1/4 cup dried cranberries or raisins
Add the wet ingredients to the chunky flour and process until thoroughly combined:

10 tbsp peanut butter (a bit more than a third of a 16oz jar)
1/4 cup agave nectar
Scoop out with a spoon and compress into balls/ovals. Store in the fridge to set.

*If you can't find desiccated coconut, shaved/chipped coconut will do. Just chop up the coconut chips in the food processor until they're in fine pieces, then continue to add the rest of the dry ingredients.

Makes a single batch of hummus.

Process until smooth:

1 15oz can garbanzo beans, rinsed thoroughly
2 tbsp tahini
1/4 cup lite coconut milk
1 clove garlic
1 lemon, juiced
1 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp salt, or to taste

The Low-Volume, High-Density Vegan Meal Plan

Breakfast - On the Go	Protein	Fat	Carbs	kcal
3 power bites	13	32	31	470
1 banana	1	0	23	100
1 cup unsweetened, unfortified soymilk	9	4.5	1	100

Lunch - Hummus Bowl	Protein	Fat	Carbs	kcal
1 batch hummus	27.5	29	57.5	655
1 large pita bread, cut into triangles	8	1.5	42	220
1 medium avocado	2.5	19	2	205
1 medium tomato, diced	1	0	3	20
6 green olives, chopped	0	3	0	30
2 tsp sesame seeds	1	4	0	40
2 tsp nutritional yeast	4	0	2	30
fresh parsley for garnish				#

Dinner - Steamed Veggies	Protein	Fat	Carbs	kcal
2 medium (about 300g) sweet potato, steamed	4	0.5	46	230
1/2 cup kale, steamed	1	0	2.5	20
balsamic vinegar to taste				#

Snacks	Protein	Fat	Carbs	kcal
2 bananas	2	0.5	46	200
1/4 cup cashews	6	14	9	180

Total	Protein	Fat	Carbs	kcal
	78	108	264*	2500

*Value for net carbs. Total carbs is 336g including 72g of fiber.

If you want to throw in more calories, it's super easy. Substitute the lite coconut milk in the hummus with full-fat coconut milk, add a couple tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. Have another power bite, another banana, another glass of soymilk. Eat some more handfuls of nuts, peanuts would be the cheapest option, or crackers with peanut butter. Bon appetit!

How Weightlifters Are Bulking Up on a Vegan Diet

2018-08-04T22:52:00.002-04:00

Putting on weight can be a common complaint among vegan athletes and weightlifters aiming to increase their muscle mass. Weightlifters and powerlifters in particular can require huge daily caloric intakes, upwards of 4000 calories, and at times packing in enough food can feel more grueling than the weight training itself. This level of food consumption can be especially challenging on a plant-based diet, where the staple ingredients are far from calorically dense, containing a large volume of water and fiber.

Despite this challenge, there are several vegan weightlifters and strongman/woman competitors that are able to consume enough energy to support their sport. Let's take a look at some strategies for increasing calories, while maintaining a reasonably healthy diet that can aid in recovery time.

Eat Larger Meals

This one may seem obvious, but it can be somewhat daunting to smaller individuals who want to pack on some muscle. For someone who is used to eating smaller meals, it can be quite challenging to start increasing portions, and sometimes a little uncomfortable. The trick here is to take it slowly, increasing portion sizes by a small amount over time. This gives your stomach time to adjust, allowing you to feel more comfortable consuming a larger amount of food at one meal.

Another strategy is to eat with larger plates, bowls and silverware – the opposite of the common recommendation for those trying to lose weight.

Add an Extra Meal With a Smoothie

One of the easiest ways by far to increase your daily calorie intake is to consume them in liquid form. It's modestly popular among non-vegan weightlifters to follow a GOMAD (Gallon of Milk a Day) diet to meet their calorie goals, drinking down a gallon of milk throughout the day along with everything else they're eating. Perhaps that sounds more than a little gross, but let's think about why this is effective.

When you're eating four or five meals a day, it can become time consuming to prepare and eat everything in between the rest of your busy schedule. Drinking some of your calories with a smoothie can be a big time saver both with preparation and eating – forget about all that chewing for one of your meals. And to top it off, the lack of chewing actually causes the meal to be less satiating, which is a big plus when trying to keep your appetite going throughout the day.

The trick here is to load up your blender to pack in as many calories as possible: oats, nut butters, seeds, fruits and berries, plant milks or juice, and anything else that you'll enjoy. I've even heard of people rinsing a can of beans and throwing that in for extra calories and protein – white beans being the best choice for a neutral flavor. This can end up being 30-40 ounces, but your stomach will eventually adjust to the point where you can comfortably drink the whole thing in a couple minutes.

You can easily add 1000+ calories in 15 minutes of prep, eating and cleaning. For those of you who have a less powerful blender, it can help to soak tougher ingredients like oats or seeds for a few minutes before blending.

Time Your Meals (and Prep Them, Too)

Some people struggle with making a habit of eating throughout the day, sometimes forgetting an entire meal while the day slips by. The key here is to create a routine for your meals, eating each one at a similar time from day to day. Figure out what works best for you – whether it's eating lots of small meals, eating a few large meals, or snacking, etc. – and try your best to stick with that. Some people will set timers on their phone as a reminder to take a break and eat their next meal.

One way to make it easier to stick with your schedule is to prep some of your meals. This way your meal is ready to go as soon as you're ready to eat it, taking potential laziness out of the equation. Prepping your meals can also be a time saver, as you can cook larger batches of food to prep several meals in almost the same amount of time it would take to prepare a single meal.

Focus on Calorically Dense Foods

This can be the hardest part for athletes who are transitioning to a plant-based diet – and often for non-athletes going through the same transition. When people think of a plant-based diet, they think about a lot of vegetables and fruits. While fruits & veggies are an excellent part of any diet, and are necessary for a strong recovery from grueling workouts, they are not the most efficient foods in terms of consuming enough calories before feeling too full.

So don't ditch all that leafy, juicy goodness, but do start increasing your focus on calorically dense foods. This includes foods higher in fat – nuts, seeds, avocados, and oils – because they're much denser in calories. This also includes grains – oats, rice, quinoa, and whole wheat – because they're less satiating, allowing you to eat larger quantities before feeling full. Of course you should continue eating a reasonably balanced diet, but for weightlifters and other athletes it's necessary to increase the priority of calorie-dense foods.

If you're wondering where protein fits into this equation, let me put it this way: when you're eating 3000-5000 calories, made up primarily of whole grains, nuts & seeds and legumes, you're easily consuming between 120 and 200+ grams of protein from whole foods. My understanding is that the upper protein recommendation for athletes is 1.6-2 grams of protein per kg of body weight. This translates to a 200 pound athlete needing between 145 and 180 grams of protein per day at most.

If you're not getting there with whole foods, you can think about adding some vegan protein powder to your smoothie. Don't take any flack for relying on protein powder to add convenience to your diet; protein supplements are very popular among non-vegans – if they weren't whey protein would have gone out of business.

Give Yourself Some Wiggle Room

Finally, I want to remind anyone who is struggling to consume enough calories on a vegan diet: cut yourself a little slack with the health foods. Veganism could be synonymous with health. This causes some vegans to go a little overboard, becoming hyper-focused on what they're putting into their bodies, making sure every meal is made up of healthy, whole ingredients. If you're feeling amazing eating vegetable and fruit dishes, cutting out all those unhealthy sugars, oils and salt, that's great.

It's good to develop a healthy relationship with food, and to make sure the food you're eating is leaving you feeling good long after you've finished eating, but if you're struggling to meet your energy needs to support your activity levels, you need to think about finding a balance between eating healthfully and eating enough.

Most competitive weightlifters and especially powerlifters are more concerned with bulking up than they are with eating a healthy diet. They will eat whatever they can to bulk up and recover so that they can continue adding as much weight to the barbell as possible – that's their sport, so that's their priority. This may be a little extreme, and it's not totally necessary for most people. As long as you have a solid meal plan (emphasis on plan), you should be able to consume at least 70% of your calories from healthy, whole foods, making sure you're still getting your fruits and vegetables.

When your whole foods are falling short of your daily calorie needs, that's where it helps to give yourself a little wiggle room. It's okay to have some extra snacks and sides to your meals even if they don't fit the category of "health foods." It's all about balancing your priorities.

Vegan Fitness Meal Plan and Grocery List

2018-03-17T21:51:00.002-04:00

When you are starting out with a plant-based diet, it can be hard to figure out what to eat. Harder still, is knowing what to pick up at the grocery store. I'm going to create an example meal plan (similar to things I eat from day to day), and I'm going to develop this plan so that it's specifically geared toward physically active individuals. I shall call it: my Vegan Fitness Meal Plan and Grocery List. There, that wasn't so hard, was it? Feel free to jump ahead to the meal plan or the grocery list.

Many athletes and partakers in recreational fitness are interested in incorporating large quantities of protein in their diet, so I will address this goal as well; in the interest of showing that it can easily be done, this vegan meal plan meets a 20% / 28% / 52% macronutrient breakdown for protein, fat, and carbohydrates respectively.

Most people don't believe this much protein is necessary, and in fact the maximum recommended amount of protein is 1.6 grams per kilogram (or 0.73 grams per pound) of lean body mass – anything more than this has been shown not to provide any further benefit. Keep in mind, this is the recommendation for serious strength and fitness athletes, so 1.6g / kg could still be a bit high for most people's purposes.

All of that being said, this meal plan is based around sustaining strength and fitness levels for a lean, moderately active 200 lb human that works 40 hours a week. And again, just to show that it can be done, let's say this human desires to eat 20% protein throughout the day – this will come out to roughly 3500 calories and 185 grams of protein, rather than 145 grams of protein, as per the 1.6g / kg guideline. If you are less worried about protein, and wish to have a higher carbohydrate intake, you can simply replace some or all of the tofu with more fruits and vegetables.

And if you are not a lean 200 lb human (most of us aren't), then you can adjust the portions for each meal accordingly. If you are 150 lbs in lean body mass, then not only is your basal metabolic rate lower than someone who's 200 lbs in lean body mass, but the calories you burn during work or physical activity will also be fewer. In this example, you can't quite say "I weigh three quarters as much, so I'll eat three quarters of the portions," but that will get you close (you can do these calculations yourself with the magic of the internet, but in this case you'd probably want to cut the portions to about seven eighths as much). This does not have to be a strict meal plan – it can simply be used for inspiration, as an idea for planning out your own meals.

You may be wondering: if most of us aren't a lean 200 lbs, then why did you make a meal plan for that person? That's not very useful, is it? The answer is: I wanted to create a meal plan that could sustain a very fit individual, perhaps someone that has been hitting the gym for years and is now considering a vegan diet. Someone in this scenario is likely very interested in the vegan lifestyle, but is also concerned about maintaining the muscle mass that they worked so hard to build. This does not make this meal plan useless for everyone else, it just takes a little effort (as described above) to adapt to your own situation (just like any generic meal plan).

Eating while physically active is always a little more expensive, especially when maintaining 200lbs, but I've designed this meal plan so that it shouldn't break the bank. It comes out to about $19 a day while living in the Northeast of the U.S. – produce would likely be cheaper further West in warmer climates. This estimate also assumes organic grocery shopping, and could be much cheaper when eating conventionally grown food (more like $11.40 per day for someone 200lbs, and $9 for someone 150 lbs). Costs can be further reduced by buying some items in bulk (e.g. nutritional yeast, vital wheat gluten).

This meal plan is carefully designed to meet and exceed the RDA for all essential micronutrients (with a little extra zinc thrown in to account for lower absorption rates from plant sources of zinc). To supplement this meal plan, I recommend a small daily zinc supplement (you can cut a 50 mg tablet into quarters), 1000 mcg of B-12 taken twice a week, and vegan D3 during the winter. If you don't include iodized table salt with your meals, you may wish to take a kelp tablet twice a week for thyroid health. Vegan DHA/EPA from algae can be included if desired, though it is the most expensive of the supplements. DHA from algae can be especially useful for joint recovery, but is also beneficial for brain, eye, and heart health – it's essentially the vegan alternative for fish oil.

Other than that, the diet is primarily whole, plant-based foods, with a few processed items included (i.e. soy milk, tofu, seitan). This is because most whole plants are made up of less than 20% protein. Many legumes contain 20% protein, or slightly higher, but this is not sufficient to balance out the other food groups that are lower in protein (given the protein goal of this plan). To maintain 20% protein for the entire meal plan, some processed foods had to be included. If you feel strongly about sticking with whole foods, you may substitute tofu and seitan with tempeh, which is made from whole, fermented soybeans.

If you have a gluten or soy allergy, you can replace the seitan or tofu with more lentils or beans (for a slightly lower protein percentage). Sprouted whole wheat wraps could be replaced with corn tortillas, and sourdough toast could be substituted with a gluten free variety, or simply omitted and replaced by rice or more fruit. The soy milk can easily be replaced with a protein+ variety of almond milk, or any other variety of plant milk if you're not too concerned about your protein percentage. If you have a peanut allergy, the peanut butter could be replaced by a nut or seed butter of your choice.

There are five meals (including the smoothie), plus baked tofu strips for snacking. The oatmeal, burritos, and smoothie take very little time to make. The lentil soup, baked tofu strips, seitan, gravy, sweet potatoes, and broccoli can all be meal prepped. If you cook your own beans, those can be meal prepped, too, and perhaps sprouted for easier digestion. Just be careful about storing large quantities of beans, because they spoil after about three days in the fridge. Either store them in the freezer, or can them yourself if you're feeling industrious.

Depending on your schedule and eating habits, you may want to eat your meals in a different order. That's totally fine. Oatmeal could be eaten before work, one or two of your prepped meals could be brought to work, and the rest could be prepared and eaten after getting home. Do what works best for you, just try not to eat too much right before going to bed. Water intake is something else to consider; while the food itself contains a decent amount of water, you should try to drink at least an additional eight cups of water to aid in digestion and stave off dehydration.

The Meal Plan

Oatmeal:	Protein	Fat	Carbs	kcal
1 cup rolled oats	11	5	47	307
2 cups water

Berry Smoothie:	Protein	Fat	Carbs	kcal
2 cups unsweetened, unfortified soy milk	18	9	2	200
2 medium bananas	2	1	48	210
150g frozen blueberries	1	1	14	76
150g frozen strawberries	1	0	11	52
2 tbsp peanut butter	8	17	6	200

*This smoothie could be drunk very closely to another meal because the lack of chewing reduces the effect of satiety registered in the brain.

Seitan, Sweet Potato, and Broccoli with Gravy:	Protein	Fat	Carbs	kcal
100g seitan	21	1	4	106
250g sweet potato	4	0	43	215
300g broccoli	8	1	12	103
0.5 cup chickpea gravy	3	14	5	164

Lentil Soup with Sourdough Toast:	Protein	Fat	Carbs	kcal
2 cups lentil soup	20	9	35	345
2 slices sourdough toast	7	2	32	174

Veggie Bean Burritos:	Protein	Fat	Carbs	kcal
2 sprouted whole wheat wraps	8	7	52	320
300g pinto beans, rinsed	21	3	44	342
50g onion	0	0	4	20
75g bell pepper	1	0	3	23
75g crimini mushrooms	2	0	3	16
1 rounded tbsp nutritional yeast	3	0	1	30
2 tsp chia seeds	1	2	0	32
20g arugula (optional)	0	0	0	5
hot sauce (to taste)

*Saute onion, bell pepper, and mushrooms in a little bit of water. Add pintos (along with any spices, as desired) and heat until warm, then mash ingredients together. Add half of the refried beans to each wrap, then add the rest of toppings before wrapping up.

Baked Tofu Strips for Snacking:	Protein	Fat	Carbs	kcal
16oz extra firm tofu	46	24	6	445
1 tbsp olive oil	0	14	0	120
tamari (to taste)

*Cut tofu into 3/8 inch slices, lay slices onto oiled baking sheet and drizzle with tamari to taste. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes, flip the strips, and bake for another 20 minutes or until desired crispiness.

Total	Protein	Fat	Carbs	kcal
	186	110	382	3505

*Carb values were based on net carbs, which are the total carbohydrates minus the fiber (in this case, 95 grams).

The Grocery List

I'm going to break the grocery list into two categories: pantry items, and weekly items. Pantry items are ingredients that you can either easily buy in bulk, or that are used slowly enough that you have no reason to buy them every week. Weekly items are foods that you need to stock up on every week, either because they're best eaten fresh, or just because they're eaten in larger quantities.

Weekly Shopping				Price $ (estimate)
1.5 lbs rolled oats				1.94
2 x 8 count whole wheat wraps				7.98
7 x 15oz cans pintos				6.09
4 large onions				3.49
6 large bell peppers				9.00
1.2 lbs crimini mushrooms				11.50
3oz arugula				2.99
1 head garlic				Can't stand the stuff
1 lb carrots				1.00
1.5 lbs potatoes				1.20
1 bunch green kale				2.99
2 small lemons				1.50
1 loaf sourdough bread				4.99
7 x 16oz packages extra firm tofu				15.4
7 medium sweet potatoes				4.99
4 medium bunches broccoli				9.99
2 x half gallon unfortified soy milk				7.98
2 bunches bananas				2.60
40oz frozen strawberries				10.40
40oz frozen blueberries				10.40
1 jar peanut butter				3.70
Total:				$120.13

Admittedly, this does come out to be pretty expensive, especially for one person (though a 200 lb person). If you can afford it, buying the right food should be a pretty high priority in your budget – health is everything, after all. If you buy conventional food, you can likely save about 40% of the cost. You could also save money by buying smaller quantities of the more expensive items that don't provide a lot of calories (e.g. bell pepper, mushrooms, berries).

Even if you don't follow a meal plan close to this one, it's at least a handy list to see what nutritional powerhouses you could be adding to your diet (if you're not eating sweet potatoes, you better start!). Finally, don't just stick to one grocery store. Shop around a little to find which grocery stores have the best deals on your weekly staples.

Pantry Items				Price $ (estimate)
1 lbs nutritional yeast				5.00
2 lbs chia seeds				6.99
750ml extra virgin olive oil				9.99
7.5 lbs vital wheat gluten				30.00
25 lbs green lentils				45.00
1 lb chickpea flour				6.20
half gallon tamari				24.93
hot sauce				varies
herbs and spices				varies

That's all! I know this is a long post (I sure put a lot of work into it), so thank you so much for reading. I hope this can be useful to a few people in some way – please let me know if there's a way I could make this information even more useful. As always, please leave a comment if you have something to add, or just something to ask.

Vegan in College: How to Get Enough Food

2018-01-21T14:47:00.000-05:00

Being an occasional visitor of /r/vegan, this is a common question I see: How do I get enough food on a vegan diet while I'm in college? Having been vegan my whole life, eating a plant-based diet while getting the nutrition I need isn’t much of a puzzle. For those vegans just starting out, figuring out what to eat when you have access to your parent’s pantry is hard enough, let alone rummaging up food while away at college.

To that end, this post is geared toward fairly new vegans who have to split cooking time with hitting the books – having been a vegan through a few years of college, I hope I can share a helpful hint or two. The limited appliances can pose a unique challenge (i.e., a mini fridge you share with your roommate and a stovetop with a permanent, odoriferous patina two floors down), but let's give it the ol' college try.

Where can you get your food? Different colleges have different options, so I’ll use a conservative example. Your dining hall may have some vegan options, but if they do it’s usually only one or two main dishes to choose from. If they have rice, some sort of vegan dish with tofu or beans and whatever veggies you can find, you’ve got yourself a meal. You may find you have even fewer options depending on the time of day – breakfast can sometimes be a tricky time to get a nutritious plate of food together, and you may find yourself stuck with the same rice, beans and veggies option, if anything.

For someone who prefers a lighter breakfast, this is a good time to consider what foods you can and would like to store in your dorm room. Fruits are a good choice to stock up on, because they don’t require refrigeration, and they can be eaten with peanut butter (or your favorite nut butter) for some added energy. If you have a microwave, you could cook yourself a bowl of oatmeal, or you could prep some overnight oats to keep in your minifridge the night before.

If you aren’t in walking distance to a grocery store, stocking up on food gets a little trickier. Many campuses have their own small grocery stores, but these are often very limited. Alternatively, you could see about receiving medium-large packages in your dorm’s mailroom. Online food shopping can be a little more expensive, but you can often find some good prices when buying in bulk.

If you find you can’t pack in enough calories from your dining hall’s offerings, pasta can be a handy purchase because it doesn’t take a lot of time away from your studying, and you only need a pot to boil water (if you’re careful, you can use the lid to strain the pasta). You can even experiment with brown rice, red lentil, and black bean pastas if you’re looking for a healthier option.

In the interest of good health, dining halls usually have options for fruits and vegetables regardless of their vegan catering. So it’s usually not an issue of packing in micronutrients, but rather an issue of having enough access to foods that meet your caloric and macro needs. In fact, most often when I see people pondering how to get enough food while at college, it’s in the context of packing on a few pounds while taking advantage of their free gym access – not an impossible task as a vegan.

When balancing your academic life with getting in shape, one of the biggest concerns is time. This precious resource can make it difficult to consume enough calories every day to meet your goals. My suggestion? Look into adding a high-speed blender to your culinary arsenal – just be sure not to wake up your roommates while baking up your smoothie masterpieces. Not only do you save time preparing your blender meal, but you also save time eating it. Say goodbye to chewing, at least for one of your meals.

Another perk of adding a liquid meal to your day is that you can consume a lot more calories while not feeling like you’ll burst at the seams – liquid calories just don’t register in your brain the same as a big plate of food, and you’ll find that you can eat again much sooner after downing a shake. The high-speed blender gives you a lot more options when compared to cheaper blenders; you can achieve a lot more variety in your recipes, blending up fibrous foods like carrots, ginger or kale to a silky-smooth consistency in seconds.

However, I wouldn’t recommend blending up everything you can lay your hands on, simply because that can get a little boring. If you’re looking for a snack that gives a little more filling satisfaction, try stocking up on some vegan trail mix or munch on some fresh fruits and veggies.

As another option, both quick and versatile, I’d like to introduce you to one of my personal favorites: the can of beans. Canned beans are easy to store for long periods of time, and they require very little preparation – just rinse them thoroughly. By centering one of your meals around a can of beans, you can easily add in some extra minerals and other nutrients. Most canned beans provide nutrition facts per 1/2 cup servings, less than a third of the can. For your convenience, here's what you can expect from your typical can of beans:

Nutrient	Amount per 15oz can	Recommended Daily Amount
Calories	380
Total Fat	1 g
Sodium	320 mg	14% (less when rinsed)
Total Carb.	70 g
Dietary Fiber	17.5 g	63%
Protein	24.5 g
Calcium	147 mg	15%
Iron	8 mg	40%
Magnesium	147 mg	36%
Zinc	2 mg	20% (12% for vegans)
Potassium	1298 mg	32%

The simplicity with which you can prepare this can of beans really comes down to what you feel comfortable eating. Some people go all out and make a big pot of chili or baked beans to eat for the next few days. Others toss some barbecue sauce on a can of garbanzos and dig in. A well-kept vegan secret is to add a can of cannellini or white kidney beans to your shake – these varieties do little to alter the flavor and they provide one of the quickest methods for ramping up your food intake.

As you can see, you have a lot of options when it comes to saving time while eating to your heart’s desire. It’s not really a mystery: Just make sure you have easily prepared snacks and meals on hand. If you have any questions or concerns, please leave a comment below. I’d be happy to offer more advice on eating vegan while at college or just when you’re strapped for time.

Here's the Skinny on Why Vegans Are Weak

2018-01-13T19:48:00.000-05:00

There is a misconception that, on average, vegans are interminably underweight or weak. This misconception exists for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that the vegan diet is both fairly new to most people (though the term “vegan” was coined in the 40s) and is quickly gaining in popularity. This means that there's a widely popular trend toward the vegan diet, while at the same time basic knowledge on the subject is not so widely available.

The dietary restrictions for vegans have become common knowledge – no animal products – so most people can follow along in that area, but knowledge on balanced nutrition is less accessible. This all-or-nothing attitude for many new vegans leads to sudden and drastic restrictions in their diet before they’ve had time to figure out what they can eat and what meals they can prepare – as you might imagine, this approach often falls short in the nutrition department.

Newbies Doing Newbie Things

There are new vegans so hyper-focused on not consuming any animal products that they lose sight of consuming enough calories each day, let alone meeting their macronutrient needs. You can hardly blame them – completely changing your diet overnight gives you a lot to juggle all at once. Keeping that in mind, the vegan diet and poor nutrition are two separate issues. It is my view (after decades of being vegan) that the vegan diet is sufficient to sustain a long and healthy life. Of course, that is making the assumption you pay attention to eating a balanced diet – something which should be of some concern across all dietary choices, not just veganism.

Right now, people who have transitioned to veganism in the last few months and years far outnumber those that have been vegan for several years or more. It’s no surprise there's a misconception that the vegan diet is nutritionally inadequate, given the majority of vegans today have the least experience in eating a healthy, balanced vegan diet. I've said it before, and I'll say it a hundred times: take your B12.

This is why I would suggest a slower transition to plant-based eating, so that you have enough breathing room to develop strategies and vegan meals to meet your caloric and nutritional needs. This is without even mentioning that a slower approach makes it more likely for someone to stick with their new diet in the long term. By ensuring that you continue to eat enough food to feel healthy and energized, the transition will feel much less discouraging and much more worthwhile.

What's the second reason vegans are believed to be skinny and weak? Vegans still make up a minute slice of the population. Think of it this way: You see people who consume an omnivorous diet every day. Some of them slimmer, some heavier, and some in phenomenally good shape. Within a large population of people eating an omnivorous diet, you’d expect to see a diversity of body compositions. You don’t give it a second thought, and you certainly don't judge the omnivorous diet to be nutritionally inadequate based off seeing skinny, weak omnivores. It's understood that, while the dietary restrictions are relatively the same among omnivores, the eating habits and nutrition can vary considerably from one person to the next

Omnivores Aren't as Big and Strong as They Think They Are

So why is it different when you meet a vegan? This diet is often somewhat foreign to people, so the intuitive idea of variation within a population is liable to slip their mind; upon first impression of meeting a vegan, an instant subconscious judgement is made about the vegan diet in general. They have a very narrow reference from which to draw, so they judge whether the vegan diet is nutritionally adequate based on the vegan standing in front of them – do they look strong and healthy?

Since very few vegans are likely to be introduced to this hypothetical omnivorous fellow (due to such a small population), the first impression is not so likely to be revised by examples of meeting vegans in the future. And so the misconception of skinny, weak vegans remains. The truth is, most people are not in impressively good shape, vegan or not. If you only meet one or two vegans, the odds of them being in great shape are not good. Similarly, if you were to randomly pick out two omnivores, the odds are equally bad.

People who consume an omnivorous diet make up the majority of the population, and even though most of them are not in impressively good shape, the vastness of their population ensures that you will meet a few omnivores who look great – this simple distinction shifts the mind from judging the diet itself as the deciding factor for good health, to considering the lifestyle and eating habits of unique individuals.

There is enough evidence, through occasional sightings of very fit people, that the omnivorous diet can be “adequate.” Now consider, scarce in the population as they are, the rarity of meeting a vegan that is in impressively good shape. There is so little evidence of these very fit vegans, not because the vegan diet is inadequate, but because the vegan population is such a small fraction of the whole. The rareness of spotting a fit vegan is amplified by the fact that it's less common to be in great shape, vegan or not. And so, with such rare evidence, the perception stands. It's math, folks.

What Can Be Done?

The first of these two issues (poor nutrition) can be addressed on an individual level. It’s up to anyone who is completely changing their diet to make sure they are still meeting their nutritional needs. Talk to your physician if you have to, or a nutritionist if you have the resources to do so. Heck, you could find oodles of free, comprehensive information on the internet – Shout-out to Jack Norris and Ginny Messina.

The second issue can only be resolved with time. As more and more vegans spring up, the likelihood of spotting vegans that are maintaining a long, healthy lifestyle will increase. If you are vegan and you want to get in shape, the equation remains the same: Eat enough nutritious food, exercise, drink plenty of water, and get sufficient sleep. Vegans do not face some insurmountable challenge when trying to bulk up or slim down – as I’ve mentioned in depth, that’s just the perception. Protein is protein.

You can get all of the essential amino acids that you need as long as you make sure you’re eating legumes, whole grains, nuts and seeds. Just like any other diet, you need to pay attention to getting the nutrition you need to meet your goals. Omnivorous or vegan, getting in shape is the same goal. You do not need to approach your exercise or nutrition differently just because you’ve chosen one diet or another; you are more-or-less physiologically the same, and so your body will respond the same given that you’re meeting your nutritional needs and exercising properly.

The vegan diet may receive greater scrutiny due to its novelty, but it is just as sufficient in terms of consuming proteins, fats, carbohydrates and micronutrients. The building blocks of food are relatively similar from one diet to the next, but the perception is vastly different. That’s society for you: resistant to change to the point of delusion. Or, to put it nicely, ignorance.

Please keep in mind that this is an opinion piece based on personal experience and acquired knowledge. If you have your own opinion to share, please do in the comments below. If you’re concerned for one of your skinny vegan friends, feel free to share this with them.

Should We Condemn Hampton Creek and Impossible Foods for Animal Testing?

2017-09-30T18:38:00.000-04:00

PETA is at it again. It recently emerged that both Hampton Creek and Impossible Foods had tests done on rats to ensure the safety of new food ingredients. As PETA reports it, these tests were completely optional, and they can’t wrap their minds around why they'd have to be done in the first place.

They go into grisly detail as to how these rats are typically treated, and common practices for disposing of them after the tests are concluded. Obviously, this is a problem, and no one who supports the end of animal suffering wants these tests taking place.

Not Technically a Legal Requirement

As it turns out, PETA was not sharing the whole story. It’s true that Hampton Creek and Impossible Foods were not legally required to test their new ingredients on animals. However, these tests appear to at least be an unofficial tacit requirement in order to attain Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) approval from the FDA. In other words, while it’s not technically a legal requirement, the FDA has a practice of not granting GRAS approval unless animal tests have been done.

If a food company doesn't get GRAS approval for their product, they won't be able to market it to major food distributors at best, and the FDA can have the product completely removed from shelves for not having this approval at worst. Every “novel” ingredient found in most vegan alternatives – cheeses, mayos, dressings, ice creams, etc. – have been tested on animals before being approved as a safe ingredient in food production. These include most protein isolates, as well as the increasingly ubiquitous xantham gum.

In support of their condemnation of Hampton Creek and Impossible Foods, PETA lists several popular vegan companies (at least popular among vegans and vegetarians) that never have, and state that they never will perform animal tests. There is an important note here: This simply means that these food companies are not developing any new ingredients in the production of their food.

This does not mean that these vegan companies are refraining from using any ingredients that had to be tested on animals before getting GRAS approval; they are just using ingredients that have already gotten this approval in the past – a process which invariably included animal testing.

Beyond Meat, one of the companies listed by PETA as never having animal tests done, uses pea protein as the main ingredient in their revolutionary Beyond Burger. The developers of pea protein, of course, were essentially required by the FDA to perform tests on animals when they were seeking GRAS approval. While PETA paints animal testing as a completely optional practice, it's something that simply cannot be avoided in the food industry. This practice does not speak to the ethics of food companies nearly so much as it speaks to the requirements of the FDA.

Why Continue to Develop New Food Ingredients?

You could argue that the alternative is simply to stick with the ingredients that we already have. Unfortunately, this has not yet been sufficient in the effort to provide a real meat replacement that can be marketed not just to vegans and vegetarians, but to meat-eaters. In the case of Impossible Foods, they discovered a way to synthesize what is essentially heme (that iron-rich stuff in your blood) using only plant sources.

This new ingredient was the key to making their Impossible Burger look, smell, and taste like the real thing. At the same time, their burgers do not require meat or animal products in their production. This new ingredient is the essential next step in creating a meat alternative that meat-eaters can see as a real alternative. Impossible Foods reported that “with heme, we can create meats that hard-core meat lovers can’t recognize as anything other than meat; half of the meat-lovers who taste it in blind tastings not only believe it’s meat from an cow [sic], but actually prefer it to meat from a cow.”

In a statement from Impossible Food’s CEO and Founder, Pat Brown, he provides the full story leading up to the animal testing of their new heme ingredient, and provides context for making the decision. Even though you’d think this guy was the devil incarnate, reading PETA’s account, Impossible Foods made every effort they could to avoid animal testing.

Pat himself is a strong opponent of animal testing across all industries, stating “in my 3-decade career in biomedical research, I always avoided using animals in experiments and developed new experimental methods to eliminate the incentive for using them.” He made the same effort in avoiding animal tests when testing the safety of heme. While seeking GRAS approval, Impossible Foods developed more rigorous tests than was standard or even necessary, and still the FDA refused to send the GRAS letter they needed.

At this point, Impossible Foods was stuck between a rock and a hard place. They could either have the animal tests done, or they could hang up their lab coats and close down shop. Pat and the rest of Impossible Foods “chose the least objectionable of the two choices available.” Understanding the reality of the positive impact the Impossible Burger is likely to have in reducing animal suffering, Impossible Foods had to decide that “choosing the option that advances the greater good is more important to us than ideological purity.”

Helping Farm Animals or Helping Existing Vegans

PETA states that “people are vegan because they don't want to pay for animals to suffer – so an animal-free burger that's been tested on animals completely defeats the purpose.” In my mind, this is a very narrow view of the situation. PETA has a history of condemning industry practices, laying down blanket claims that hold everyone equally responsible – statements that are so one-sided, and so severe, sometime gruesome in their reproach as to turn away not only the general audience, but their supporters, too.

The message becomes so hyperbolic, and so far from reasonable expectations in today’s society that it ends up falling on deaf ears, being pushed to the side as mere propaganda. In the end, these messages do very little to aid the efforts in increasing animal welfare.

Think of it this way: When someone is beginning their transition into veganism for the first time, you don’t tell them that they should look up the source for every ingredient in every food product they buy: Make sure that calcium isn’t from an animal source! Make sure you’re not buying foods containing sugars processed with bone char! You might as well give up now, if you can’t commit to being 100% vegan!

That’s simply not a reasonable expectation for a new vegan. Changing everything you eat is complicated enough, so to be fussy about every single ingredient is not only a waste of time, but it actually does more harm than good. If the transition becomes immediately exhausting because of the “all or nothing” mentality, then it becomes hard to stick with the vegan diet.

That’s why, when reading PETA’s statements regarding these (hopefully) one-time animal tests completely defeating the purpose, I have to think: who are you really protecting right now? Are you helping to end animal suffering as quickly as is reasonably possible? Again, this comes back to all or nothing.

PETA Needs to Step Out of Their Bubble

By condemning Hampton Creek and Impossible Foods as not being a vegan option, PETA is not protecting the animals, they're protecting existing vegans. Impossible Foods has a mission to end all animal use in food production by 2035. Hampton Creek is developing egg-free mayo and dressing alternatives that are not only popular and widely available, but are sold at reasonable prices anyone can afford. These companies are not just marketing their food products to vegans and vegetarians, they're marketing their foods to everyone.

That is the big difference. That's how these two companies have a chance to create a lasting impact, and reduce more animal suffering than any over-priced, trendy “cheeze” ever could. The purpose of Impossible Foods is not to provide vegans with more options; vegans already have more than enough options for delicious and nutritious cuisine, thanks to the vegetable kingdom.

The purpose is to create an alternative meat that will actually make meat-eaters consider it as a tasty option. In fact, Impossible Foods is not trying to expand on any food market, vegan or otherwise, they are trying to replace meat in the consumer market altogether. This is a bold mission, and they’re one of the first companies that show any promise in realizing this endeavor.

What do you think, will you continue to buy products from Hampton Creek, and will you support the Impossible Burger when it becomes available? Whose responsibility, if anyone's, do you think it is to support these companies? Get the discussion started in the comments below.

The Only Supplements You Need as a Vegan

2017-09-27T20:54:00.001-04:00

There will always be those who believe any diet that requires supplementation is inadequate. The truth is, vegans aren't the only ones I see taking multivitamins, and they're definitely not the driving consumers of the supplement market – that would be hard to achieve, being such a small fraction of the population.

No matter your diet, very few supplements are essential for your health and wellbeing, but they can be very convenient. It's no easy task to plan out your meals to meet your RDA for every micronutrient under the sun; it's something that most people simply don't do. Even so, there are a few key nutrients to consider for optimal health on a vegan diet, or any diet for that matter.

The best place to start is considering what you normally eat in a day. If you don't plan your meals, or your meals tend to be vastly different from one day to the next, this can be hard to do. The easiest strategy is to first make sure you're eating several servings of vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, and a few nuts and seeds every day.

Even when making sure to eat a variety of nutrient-dense foods every day, you'll often find one or two micronutrients being left out. This is where a vegan supplement can come in handy. In most cases, you could simply make some changes to your eating habits to make sure you're including the one or two nutrients you were missing – calcium or iron, for example – but this can be a huge hassle, especially when you've gotten used to cooking certain foods, and preparing certain meals. It's much easier, and it's usually not too expensive to add a supplement to your diet.

The purpose of this post is not to tell you which vegan supplements you should be taking; everyone's eating habits are different, and there's no way for me to know which nutrients you may be lacking. So instead I will go through the supplements that I take every week, and explain why I'm deciding to take each supplement rather than alter my diet.

Personally, I eat very similar food groups from day to day, so my macros and micros always break down fairly similarly. Knowing this, I created a spreadsheet of what I normally eat (this could also be done with Cronometer, or a similar service), and took note of which nutrients were still lacking. Whenever considering a nutritional supplement, I always do my research to make sure I can trust that the brand will supply the advertised potency in their ingredients, and I suggest you do the same.

Vitamin B12

This one is a no-brainer. B12 is just about the only vitamin that can't be found naturally in the vegan diet – that is, unless you make a habit of eating tasty, nutritious soil ... only kidding. Thankfully, there are a huge variety of vegan B12 supplements available, mainly because people over 65 are often recommended to supplement regardless of diet. Some vegans will tell you that you can get B12 in your diet naturally by including a healthy helping of nutritional yeast – and this is almost true.

B12 found in nutritional yeast comes from a bacteria introduced during production, and not all brands of nutritional yeast have this bacteria introduced. This means nutritional yeast is not a natural source of vitamin B12, and so it would be just as well to take a supplement. Furthermore, it's unclear what form of B12 may be in the yeast when you buy it, which could lead to unreliable absorption rates if effectively absorbed at all.

B12 is essential to your health, there's no way around it. I chose a bottle of Nature's Bounty Vitamin B12, because I trust them more than other supplement companies and they provided it in the dosage I wanted. Some people claim they absorb the methylcobalamin form of B12 better than cyanocobalamin, but, except for rare cases, cyanocobalamin is absorbed just as well (if not better) and is often far cheaper. I'm sticking with 1000 mcg of cyanocobalamin taken twice a week.

Zinc

Zinc is a mineral that can be found fairly easily in the vegan diet, but it is not so common as other minerals. I found that I would normally get 10 mg or less of zinc from my food every day. This would be pretty close to what I need, but there is evidence that zinc is not absorbed quite as well from plant foods, and so the RDA for an adult vegan could be as high as 16.5 mg a day. This can be achieved through careful meal planning, but it's simply not convenient.

That's why I've opted for a daily zinc supplement from Now Foods, another company I've looked into and trust. Their supplement is in the form of gluconate, which is one of the few forms of zinc in which you don't have to worry about cadmium contamination. This just makes my day easier because I don't have to think about which foods I should be eating more to meet my zinc needs – supposedly it helps prevent catching colds.

One thing to note: the tolerable upper intake for adults is 40 mg a day, including supplemental zinc. Many zinc supplements are intended for short-term use to increase zinc levels, and thus it can be harder to find supplements with smaller doses of zinc. I just buy 50 mg tablets and cut them in half, taking one of the halves a day.

Iodine

Iodine is essential for thyroid health, but is one of those trickier nutrients because getting too much can be just as bad as getting too little. Some people can get iodine from sea foods, and many vegans choose dulse flakes as a natural and tasty source, but the amount of iodine contained in these foods can be so variable that it makes it difficult to control your iodine levels.

It's generally perfectly safe to eat seaweeds two to three times a week, but if that's not a usual part of your diet, then it's not a bad idea to consider a supplement. I chose Kelp Tablets from Now Foods as a cheap option and a natural source of iodine – much the same as I would with seaweed, I take one 150 mcg tablet every three to four days. Another way to get iodine is through iodized sea salt, but if you don't already add salt to your food, then there's no sense starting now just to meet your iodine needs.

Vitamin D3

It used to be that you could only get vitamin D2 as a vegan source. While this was adequate for raising vitamin D levels in the bloodstream, it just didn't have as high of an absorption rate as vitamin D3. Recently, sources of vegan vitamin D3 have been popping up, derived from lichen of all things. Of course it's always best to go outside and get some sunshine, but if you live up north there's no avoiding a long, cold winter.

Whenever the sun don't shine, I make sure to take a vitamin D3 supplement to keep my mood on the up and up. This isn't as important in the summer, even if there are a few days of clouds and rain, because vitamin D can be stored in the body for a decent amount of time depending on the length of your sun exposure.

In the winter, the angle of the sun's rays are not sufficient to supply UV radiation for several months in a row – depending on where you live. This means no sunburns, but it also means no vitamin D. That's why it's a good idea to grab a bottle of what I can only assume is pure, condensed sunshine and happiness. Avoid those winter blues!

These are just the supplements that I take to, well, supplement the foods that I eat. What one person needs may be completely different from the next. Some people may find themselves lacking in other minerals, such as calcium, iron, or magnesium – I happen to eat several servings of beans, soy foods and oats throughout the day, so these aren't things I worry about – in which case it may be time to consider planning your diet accordingly, or buying the appropriate vegan supplements.

UPDATE (05/23/2019):
Check the comments below for a note on Omega-3 supplementation.