The Livewire Guide to Going, Being and Staying Veggie

Juliet Gellatley

Chapter 17 – Nutrition in a Nutshell

When it comes to giving vegetarians advice on nutrition, most meat-eaters seem to think they’re experts. They’re usually not. In fact, few people are experts on the subject. Here, however, is nutrition made simple!

Protein is what people seem to worry about most when they go veggie. Concerned mums and dads say things like ‘But what about your protein?’ as though it was the most difficult substance in the world to find after diamonds. You do not need to worry about lack of protein, okay! In fact, you’re more likely to be run down by stampeding hippopotami in your local high street than to meet a vegetarian suffering from a lack of protein.

Protein is important because it helps you grow. It repairs damage to your body and it also fights infection. The good news is, it’s in nearly all foods, including fruit and veg. The best source of is in what are known as pulses. These include chickpeas and lentils as well as all members of the bean family such as kidney beans, broad beans and even baked beans. The star bean when it comes to protein is the soya bean, which is used to make a whole range of veggies products including tofu, veggie burgers and sausages, soya milk and even something called TVP – textured vegetable protein – which is really not as bad as it sounds! Protein is also found in free-range eggs, cheese, nuts, seeds, and even rice and pasta.

Protein is made up of different animo acids and some foods, such as soya products, milk, cheese and meat, contain all the amino acids. Other foods contain just some of them. Simply by eating different types of food together in a vegetarian or vegan diet you can ensure that different amino acids are combined and – bingo – perfect protein. This is something which every major nutritional organisation in the world agrees about. We don’t even have to eat all these different foods in the same meal because our body can store amino acids until it needs them.

In its dietary guidelines published in 1995, the USA government made a special point of saying that vegetarians get all the protein they need. The British Medical Association, one of the most respected medical bodies in the world, said exactly the same thing several years before, and quite right too because there has not been a single case of protein deficiency caused by going vegetarian or vegan in the Western world! And that’s why I say you don’t need to worry.

Iron is another thing that parents sometimes get in a twist about – and with good reason. It’s responsible for maintaining healthy red blood cells which carry oxygen to all parts of the body. A lack of iron, known as anaemia, means that your body and brain aren’t getting enough oxygen, with the result that you feel constantly tired and run-down. It’s one of the biggest dietary problems in Britain today, particularly amongst women who menstruate (have periods).

There is iron in meat but it is also found in a whole range of vegetarian foods including pulses, wholemeal bread, leafy green vegetables like spinach, dried fruits – particularly apricots and figs – and cocoa, which is a good excuse to pig out on plain chocolate! There’s also iron in pasta, pumpkin and sesame seeds, pistachio and cashew nuts, fortified breakfast cereals and jacket potatoes.
Again, the British Medical Association insists that ‘iron deficiency is no more common’ in vegetarians and vegans that it is in meat-eaters. Scientists at the University of Surrey have also studied the health of British vegans. They state in the British Journal of Nutrition that iron levels ‘were normal in all the vegans’ and that children reared on vegan diets were perfectly healthy. In fact, anaemia may often result because the body has a problem absorbing iron rather than because a person isn’t eating enough. Vitamin C helps you absorb iron and fortunately vegetarians and vegans tend to get a lot of this as it’s in most green veg, potatoes, tomatoes and citrus fruits. It’s even added to cartons of orange juice and instant potatoes.

New veggies often worry about lack of calcium – they needn’t. Going veggie – giving up meat and fish but still eating milk, cheese, butter and other dairy products – will make no difference because there’s hardly any calcium in meat. Calcium gives healthy teeth and bones and helps the muscles work. As well as dairy products, calcium'’ found in nuts and seeds, pulses, leafy green veg and fortified soya milk. So, vegans also manage absolutely fine.

A varied vegetarian or vegan diet contains every vitamin and mineral you need, so don’t let anyone tell you that by giving up meat you’ll go short of them. Each vitamin and mineral performs a different task and most can be stored in the body so they don’t have to be eaten every day, the main exception being vitamin C.

It was the lack of this vitamin which caused sailors on long sea voyages to die of
Scurvy in the old sailing-ship days when they ran out of fresh fruit and vegetables. Because they didn’t have refrigerators, sailors in those days would eat the mould which grew on bread just to get some fresh greens! However, because it’s in almost all fresh produce, vitamin C is almost certain to be a daily part of your diet without going to such lengths! Officially, you need very little vitamin C every day to remain healthy but the more that’s found out about, the important vitamin C seems to be in fighting disease. So the advice has got to be, eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables.

One vitamin that veggies and vegans are often asked about is B12, which produced by bugs in soil. Our ancestors used to obtain this vitamin by eating vegetables with bits of soil left on them. These days vegetarians get all they need of this vitamin by eating dairy products while vegans are amply supplied by fortified foods such as soya milk, TVP and most breakfast cereals. Yeast extract such as Marmite, Vecon and Vegemite is also a good source. Our liver can store B12 for years and only minute traces are needed – the equivalent to one-millionth of a gram a day. So you can pig out one day and eat none for days after.

What else might be lacking if you give up meat? Nothing! For a start meat has no vitamin C and it has little or no vitamins D, K and E. Meat also has no beta-carotene which our bodies process into vitamin A and which protects us from disease. In fact meat is very short of most vitamins. By eating a good variety of fruit, veg and pulses it’s easy to get all the vitamins you need – just don’t live on crisps and sweets!

On the other hand, complex carbohydrates are the one thing that almost no one talks about, as if they don’t matter. Believe me they do. Complex carbohydrates are found in grains – including bread, pasta, rice, barley and rye – as well as root vegetables such as potatoes and yams. These carbohydrates are of numero uno importance because they supply the vital energy that your body needs to keep working properly.

Many people still think that eating complex carbohydrates make you fat and they try to cut down on them. A big mistake! Every health authority in every country, including the World Health Organisation, tells us to eat more of them. These are the things that should form the bulk of our diet. And do you know what? There’s none in meat, which is why the average meat-eater doesn’t get enough!

Fats and oils are also important. They help to repair damaged tissues, produce some hormones and act as carriers for vitamins. Everyone needs a small amount of fats and oils and they occur naturally in most seeds and nuts and in some vegetables such as avocado -–they don't just come in a bottle or packet. What your body doesn’t need are the saturated fats that come from animals nor the cholesterol that accompanies them.

And now we come to the biggest question of all – what exactly is a balanced diet? The simple answer is to eat as wide a range of foods as possible. Include lots of carbohydrates and as many different vegetables and fruits as you can. Try the different pulses, dried fruits, mushrooms and specialist vegetarian products. You don’t need to cram these all together in one meal or even every day – just be adventurous in what you eat.

It’s fine to eat fast foods some of the time and to pig out occasionally on the things you like best. But the golden rule is this: the wider the range of foods you eat, the better your diet – that’s also the case for meat-eaters. It’s also true that the less processed food is, the better the range of nutrients it contains. So, wholemeal bread and brown rice, for example, have more vitamins, minerals and fibre than the white versions. You can also get wholemeal pasta and noodles but personally I would rather eat shredded cardboard!

It’s taken a long time but at last the message is getting through that a vegetarian or vegan diet is healthier than a meat-based one. And as long as you’re sensible about what you eat, your parents can rest happy that you’re eating one of the best diets in the world!