If you are a vegan or hope to be a vegan, there are some specific things to consider. You can’t adapt to the vegan diet over one night. It’s challenging to change and get into new the type immediately. If you are going into vegan without proper knowledge, there may be some mistakes you make when going vegan. And those mistakes will cause problems for your health as well as lifestyle. But if you study thoroughly about veganism, you can find remedies for all mistakes. Here are some mistakes people commonly done when going vegan.
1. Not eating enough calories.
You may think that you are getting enough calories since you have healthy vegetable and fruits. But it’s not true. Your body digest all calories you are getting from vegetable and fruits easily. Because the body doesn’t have any hard work to digest calories in meat. And also you have cut down whole food from your diet, and you make substitutes from vegetables. So you have to be more considerate on calorie intake. You have to eat more than your regular diet with meat, to get enough calorie amount to the body.
2. Eat more proteins.
People think they can get more protein only from meat and fish. So they believe vegans may suffer from protein deficiency. But vegans eat more vegetables, and they can get enough protein from vegetables. Vegetables are rich in protein, and most of the plant-based foods are high in macronutrients. Most of the legumes, beans, soybeans, grams can consider as good protein sources for vegans. If you eat healthy food with a proper plan, it won’t be a problem. Studies have shown that a vegan diet can get more than 70% of protein as their requirement.
3. Having not enough fat
If we talk about fats, most people think fat is a bad thing for our body. But it’s a wrong concept. Fat is an essential macronutrient for our body. There are specific fat-soluble vitamins and fat is necessary to absorb those vitamins to our body. And also fat helps to maintain our body temperature. We need to have healthy fats for our body. Vegan miss to take fats since they do not have meat, and also they avoid some fruits with a high content of healthy fat. But make sure to eat avocadoes, olive oil, almonds which are high in healthy fats.
4. Not eating the whole food.
Whole food contains all nutrients which are essential to our body. Vegetables, fruits, lentils, grams also vibrant with all essential vitamins, minerals, fibre and other nutrient and can consider as a healthy diet. But most vegans are having processes vegan foods and meat substitutes from the groceries instead of eating fresh, natural vegetables and other vegan foods. Even though they are vegan processed food, those are rich with unhealthy ingredients and food additives.
If you eat whole, nutritious, non-processed food instead of those fake foods, you can have enough nutrients as same as non-vegan food. You can have mushroom, jackfruit, potatoes, and cauliflowers as meat substitutes rather than buying artificial meat substitutes from the market.
5. Consider all Vegan Foods are Healthy.
Most vegan people think that they are having healthiest food without since they do not have any meat products. This is the main mistake most vegans do when going vegan. But they also in danger of having unhealthy, junk foods. There are a variety of food in the market with the label of vegan. But all meals under the Vegan label are not healthy. There are processed vegan foods full of additives and flavors. And foods which consider as meat replacements like veggie burgers, meatless chicken also included with unfamiliar, unhealthy ingredients. Don’t think all the processed vegan diets are healthy, even though they have named as a vegan.
Better to check the label before you buy any food from the market. If there are any artificial ingredients which may not be suitable for health, reject it. Better to have fresh vegetables, fruits and grains food always as well as home-made food.
6. Not drinking too much water.
Water is an essential component of our body. But vegans have to consider daily water intake rather than others. Because they are having a high content of fibre from a vegan diet. Studies have shown that a person who eats meat and plant diet gets around 27g of fibre per day. But, a person who is having a vegan diet gets about 41g grams of fibre per day. So you may think what the relationship between fibre and water is? Water is essential to transport fibre through the digestive tract, and also it prevents bloating and constipation. Avoid this mistake when you are going vegan. Drink plenty of water every day to make easy the digestion.
7. Overeating of refined carbohydrate
Most vegans eat more refined carbohydrates to replace meat. Beneficial fiber which finds in the whole grains has removed when processing the refined fiber. So if someone thinks that pasta, bread, cakes and crackers are healthy, it’s not true. Fiber helps to protect from chronic diseases, and it slows down the absorption of sugar to maintain constant sugar level in the body. If you take high refined carbs by intentionally or mistakenly, it will cause a higher risk of diabetes.
Better to eat oats, brown rice, buckwheat instead of refined carbs and make your vegan diet more healthy. You can add whole grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes to make your diet healthier.
8. Not getting enough Vitamin B12, Iron, Calcium and Omega-3 Fatty acids.
All these nutrients are mainly in animal food, and most dairy foods provide calcium intake of the body. So vegetarians may have those deficiencies if they don’t consider their nutrition level of the diet. You should monitor the intake of those nutrients carefully and better to have food supplements to fulfil the requirement. And also make sure to eat those nutrient-rich vegan foods more.
You have to pair iron-rich foods with foods citrus fruits which high in vitamin C. because Vitamin C increase the absorption of the iron to our body.
There are several mistakes you make when going vegan. But if you plan your meal well, you can avoid those mistakes easily.