CHAPTER 5 - Vegetarian Nutrition - Getting Everything Your Body Needs

At this point you’re probably starting to get worried about how you’re going to make sure you get the right balance of nutrients that your body needs, and thinking that you’ll need a spreadsheet to keep track of everything you eat. But it’s not as difficult as it may seem from the outset – you just need to bone up on a few nutritional basics to keep in mind when you plan your meals.

Some people spend their entire lives studying the science of nutrition, but you don’t have to make it your life’s work. The truth is, despite what the meat industry repeatedly tells you, vegetarian diets aren’t nutritionally inferior to meat-based diets. There’s no need to worry that you’ll be lacking the vitamins, minerals and protein that your body needs. Which isn’t to say that it’s not possible to eat badly as a vegetarian – many people have lousy diets, even vegetarians. But if you eat smart, your vegetarian diet can be the healthiest way you’ve ever eaten.

Protein – Am I Getting Enough?

Your first concern on starting a vegetarian way of life is that, without meat foods in your diet, you’ll lack protein. So you’ll be happy to discover that it’s almost impossible to eat too little protein on a vegetarian diet.

Protein is, of course, of the utmost importance to a healthful diet. Your bones, muscles and hormones all contain protein, and eating enough of it helps keep your body strong on the most fundamental level. Unfortunately, the importance of eating animal protein has long been made unrealistically important. Man once believed that eating the flesh of other animals would make him stronger and healthier – but now that we know what we do about cholesterol and the dangers of eating saturated fats, it’s obvious that limiting animal proteins is the healthy choice.
Vegetarians can, of course, be protein deficient – but that comes from undereating, or relying too heavily on junk foods. In most case, any diet adequate in calories from a variety of healthful sources provides enough protein. Grains, vegetables, beans, seeds and nuts are all protein-rich foods, easily providing what the body needs.

Contrary to what many vegetarians believed in the last couple of decades, they don’t need to weigh and balance arcane combinations of foods to get adequate protein. This myth goes back to Frances Moore Lappe’s 1971 book “Diet for a Small Planet,” in which she wrote that vegetarians needed to balance foods based on which amino acids they were lacking, creating “complementing proteins.” For some time, there were even nutritionists who created complex charts to help vegetarians pick foods that went together, and concerned meat-free eaters made sure to combine beans and rice, or rice and corn, or grains and cheese … and it was an awful lot to remember!

But we now know that combining types of protein isn’t nearly as important as simply eating enough calories to maintain a healthy weight – Lappe even revised later editions of her book, admitting that she was wrong about the importance of food combining. No, if you eat enough food from different sources, you’ll probably be getting plenty of protein.

If you want to get technical about it, health professionals recommend that you eat 0.8 grams of protein each day for every kilogram of body weight. A kilogram is about 2.2 pounds – so to find your recommended amount of daily protein, multiply your ideal weight by 0.8, then divide that number by 2.2. If you prefer a quicker method, just divide your ideal weight by 3. But even then, you don’t need to eat that much protein to stay healthy – keep in mind that recommendations like these always err on the side of safety, so the number you get will actually be higher than what you realistically need.

But you, as a vegetarian, should strive to meet the recommended daily requirement of protein – because plant proteins are, unfortunately, less efficient foods for providing nutrients. For one thing, they’re somewhat more difficult to digest than animal proteins, and they also lack the amount of amino acids present in meat. If you get most of your protein from beans and grains, this is especially true – ovo lacto vegetarians consume a similar amount of protein to omnivores, and vegans who eat a lot of soy products also get plenty of protein.

It’ll always be true, however, that as a vegetarian you’re eating less protein than people who eat both plant and animal proteins. A 1984 study found that a typical omnivore diet consists of between 15 and 17 percent protein, while lacto-ovo vegetarians generally eat about 13 percent protein and vegans around 11 to 12 percent. Despite needing more protein and eating less, the vegans still had an adequate amount of protein in the diets. So don’t worry about doing anything fancy to meet your protein requirements – just eat from a variety of sources and get enough calories and you’ll be fine.

You will, in fact, be better than fine – because meat-eaters generally eat too much protein! Studies have shown that replacing animal protein with plant protein in your diet can help lower your blood cholesterol levels, decreasing your risk of heart attack. Most people are by now aware of the danger of saturated fats in red meat and its effect on blood cholesterol – people recovering from heart attacks are prescribed diets which replace the beef with skinless chicken or fish. That is a good move, to be sure, but these people could lower their cholesterol even further by switching to a vegetarian diet and reducing the amount of fat that they eat. Plant proteins are lower in saturated fat than animal proteins and dairy products, and free of cholesterol. There are also studies that show that eating slightly less protein than is optimal is far superior than eating too much – and in this era of supersizing, most meat-eaters eat far more than they need. When we eat too much protein, it’s up to our kidneys to filter out the excess. In the process, calcium is lost, increasing the risk of osteoporosis. Since plant-based diets are lower in total protein, vegetarian diets are better for your bones! Excess protein is also, understandably, hard on the kidneys and unhealthy for people with kidney disease.

Plant proteins contain all the same amino acids, to differing degrees, as animal proteins, and eating enough of them gives you all the protein you need. Studies have shown that people can meet their protein needs just by eating rice, wheat or potatoes so long as they meet their caloric needs. By eating a variety of plant foods throughout the day and consuming enough calories, you’ll be getting enough healthy plant protein. You’ll have a lower risk of heart and kidney disease, and you’ll be eating protein that’s more efficiently produced besides, using less valuable resources than animal protein. It’s what people call “win-win!”

Boning up on calcium

Calcium is vital to avoid bone-threatening diseases like osteoporosis – yet in countries where residents eat the highest amount of calcium and protein, they also have the highest number of hip fractures, a symptom of osteoporosis. Because the truth is, scientists are coming to the conclusion that there’s more to osteoporosis than just the amount of calcium we eat – overall lifestyle plays a large part, including physical activity levels and environmental factors. Just eating four to five servings of calcium-rich foods each day is no guarantee that you’ll avoid osteoporosis – but it’ll certainly be a step in the right direction.

Dairy industry propaganda tells us that “milk does a body good,” but that’s simply not true. Over two-thirds of the people in the world are lactose intolerant, making it difficult to digest milk. The cause is an insufficient amount of lactase, the enzyme that breaks down the sugars in milk. Undigested, the mucous-y lactose coats the lining of the colon, bacteria interact with it to cause gas, and the result is cramps, flatulence and diarrhea. All mammals are born with a sufficient amount of lactase, but in decreases as we get older – once we’re out of infancy, we’re not meant to be drinking milk any longer.

But while we don’t need to drink milk, we still need calcium. Almost all of the calcium in our bodies at any given time is stored in our bones and teeth, with about 1 percent in our bloodstream. And that’s the calcium that’s key to good health – it’s needed to send messages between nerves, especially those that contract our muscles. It’s also a vital component in the clotting of blood. Our kidneys filter most of our bodies’ calcium and return it to the bloodstream, but some of it is lost in our urine. We also lose some through sweat and bowel movements.

Our bones are constantly breaking down (don’t worry – they build back up!) replenishing calcium into our blood. Somewhere around the age of 30, our bones stop growing and reach maximum density. This is why calcium is most important when you’re young – the denser your bones are when they reach this stage of development, the less chance you’ll get osteoporosis when you’re older. That’s because after 45 our bones break down faster than they’re rebuilt – at this point we start to lose as much as 0.5 percent of our bone mass each year. So by the time we hit 65, bone loss can start to be a real problem. Women lose even more bone mass when they reach menopause, as they stop producing estrogen, the hormone that protects our bones.

We can’t increase the density of our bones once they stop growing, but we can slow the rate that calcium disappears from our bones by making sure that we eat calcium-rich foods. This applies whether you eat an omnivorous diet, an ovo-lacto diet or a completely vegan diet – there is no firm evidence that vegetarians have stronger bones than people who meat eat, or weaker bones. But some nutritionists believe that vegetarians may actually need less calcium to keep their bones strong.

How can that be? Well, protein from plant sources are metabolized by the body in different ways that animal proteins. Meat contains more sulfur-containing amino acids than plant proteins, which makes the blood more acidic. To neutralize the acid, your body needs more calcium – and what it doesn’t find in the bloodstream it pulls from our bones. That calcium then leaves your body in your urine, taking even more calcium from your kidneys along the way.

In addition, sodium takes a heavy toll on your body’s calcium supplies, and along with table salt, sodium is added to canned foods, cured meats, soft drinks, condiments and snack foods. When you think of the amount of protein and sodium your average American eats during a day full of bacon cheeseburgers, ham sandwiches, sodas and french fries, it’s not hard to see why they need more compensatory calcium than your average vegetarian!

So how much calcium do you need, then? Well, a good rule of thumb is to eat between two and five servings of calcium-rich foods – leafy green vegetables, broccoli, beans and, yes, dairy products are among your choices – while keeping your protein and sodium intake moderate. The recommended calcium-to-protein ratio is 16:1, so if you want to calculate your calcium needs, you’ll need to estimate your protein consumption first.

Surprisingly, even bread can be a good source of calcium. It was once thought that fiber and phytates, substances found in grains and nuts, bind to calcium and make in unavailable to body, which can’t absorb it. However, when yeast is present, it breaks the bond between phytates and calcium, allowing it to be used by the body – so yeast-raised breads, especially whole grain breads, can provide a degree of calcium. Also,some leafy greens are less effective sources of calcium than others – Swiss chard, spinach, beet greens and rhubarb contain substances called oxalates that limits the absorption of calcium (but they’re still chock-full of iron, so eat them anyway!)

Eating a variety of foods every day makes for a more interesting, enjoyable vegetarian way of life, so it makes sense to get your calcium from many different foods. Adequate calcium is especially important for growing children – and we’ll address vegetarian kids in Chapter 16 – so they build the strong bones they’ll need when they’re older. But you don’t need to get your calcium from milk. As we’ve discussed here, milk isn’t even good for you! Plant foods like leafy green vegetables, soy products, fortified orange juice and dried beans are loaded with calcium. And they make your menus much more fun!

Our friends, the vitamins

There are 13 vitamins that have been determined as necessary to human health. They’re divided into two classes – water soluble vitamins, the excess of which is excreted in the urine or through sweat; and fat soluble vitamins, of which our bodies store the excess. Vitamin C and eight B vitamins are water soluble, so if you take too much of these your body just gets rid of what it doesn’t need. Vitamins B12, A, D, K and E are fat soluble – any excess of these are kept in our bodies for some time, and we can overdose on them if we take too much.

Fat soluble vitamins are called that because they need dietary fat to be absorbed by the body. A diet exceedingly low in fat makes it difficult to use these vitamins, although it’s only a small amount of fat –vitamin absorption is only an issue in the most extreme cases. They’re needed for a diverse array of bodily functions, from blood clotting to eyesight to the immune system. Water soluble vitamins already exist in the body’s enzyme system, and are necessary to keep the body functioning smoothly. A handful of these vitamins are especially important to the vegetarian diet, and it’s key that you know why you need them.

Vitamin B12 – the Everything Vitamin

One of the most controversial nutritional elements is this little guy, of which you need only the tiniest amount – just 2 micrograms per day. One tiny pinch would be enough for you to meet your body’s needs for your whole life. How small an amount do you need? Look at it this way – one microgram is one thirty-millionth of an ounce.B12 is created by microorganisms that exist in the air, water and soil. Animals, including humans, have it in their bodies. We consume Vitamin B12 by eating the flesh of animals who pass it along, or by consuming animal products like eggs, milk, cheese and yogurt. Vitamin B12 is also produced in our own intestinal tracts, but scientists believe that it occurs past the point where we can absorb it into our blood streams – so we can’t utilize the B1 we produce ourselves. We have to get it from somewhere else.

Plants only contain B12 through contact with them, passed on through the soil. So if you eat vegetables straight from the garden, you may pick up a little bit of B12 from soil present on the plant. But if you buy all your veggies from the grocery store, they’ll have been cleaned well enough that there’s probably not even the tiniest speck of B12. So where the heck do we get B12 from, anyway?

Coming as it does from minuscule bacteria, there are a number of forms of Vitamnin B12. The one we humans need, the our out bodies can use, is called cyanocobalamin. Other types of B12 – the types we can’t utilize – are called “analogs.” For years, nutritionists lectured that B12 was abundant in foods like nutritional yeast, tempeh and sea vegetables. But it turns out that, while there’s lots of B12 in those foods, it’s mostly of the type we can’t use, despite the claims on the labels. Up to 94 percent of the Vitamin B12 in those foods is in analog form and not cyanocobalamin, making them essentially worthless as sources of B12.

The only sure way to add B12 to your diet is through fortified food products and vitamin supplements. Read labels carefully, and look for the word “cyanocobalamin” – you should be able to find plenty of breakfast cereals and meat substitutes fortified with the right kind of B12. If you decide to go with a vitamin supplement, choose one with the lowest dose available.

Remember, you only need 2 micrograms a day, and most supplements contain much more than that. The reason to keep your daily dosage low is because your body actually adapts to the amount of B12 you get from supplements and your diet – it’s going to absorb just what it needs and discard the rest. So why take a big dose when no matter how much you take, you’ll only absorb 2 micrograms?

Also keep in mind that you really only need a B12 supplement if you’re eating a vegan or near-vegan diet. If you’re ovo-lacto, you’ll get all the B12 you need from the foods you eat.

Riboflavin, your little yellow friend

If you’ve ever taken a megavitamin and was alarmed later at the bright yellow color of your urine, you’ve met Vitamin B2, also known s riboflavin. Like all of the B vitamins, riboflavin plays a part in the complex enzyme reactions that make everything in your engine work. Nutritional scientists believe that Vitamin B2 plays a part in more of the body’s various functions than any other vitamin, so when you don’t get enough it can cause a number of disparate dysfunctions – anemia, skin problems, a swollen tongue, dry cracks at the corners of the mouth or neurological problems.

Riboflavin is naturally present, in small amounts, in a number of foods, and the amount you need is directly connected to your energy intake – the more calories you need, the more riboflavin you require. The recommended daily requirement of riboflavin is 1.7 milligrams per day for men and 1.3 for women, but many experts now believe that number is high – many people eat far less than the RDA of riboflavin and never show any signs of deficiency.

A number of plant foods contain moderate amounts of riboflavin, making it easy to get the amount you need from the foods you eat. Leafy greens, broccoli, yogurt and avocados are sources of riboflavin, and enriched breads and cereals are good sources, and legumes like soybeans and soy food products are even better. You can make sure that your vitamin supplement contains Vitamin B2 but, as with so many nutrients, simply eating a healthy diet that includes a variety of foods will assure you that you’re getting enough.

Vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin

Vitamin D is a vitamin, of course, but it also falls under the same general classification as hormones – our body generates it for use by another part of the body later. In this case, we create Vitamin D through exposure to the sun, then it goes to our bones, kidney and intestines to regulate calcium and strengthen our bones. Hundreds of years ago, people suffered regularly from diseases like rickets and osteomalacia when they received inadequate exposure to sunlight. Thankfully, these are rarely seen today.

To get enough Vitamin D from the sun, you need about a half an hour’s exposure on the hands and face, three times a week with no sunscreen, to generate enough to help your body year ‘round. If you have darker sun, you’ll need more. Lighter skin, less. However much you need, the exposure you get during the summer and spring is supposed to carry you through the long winter. It’s possible to not get enough Vitamin D, especially if you live in an area that has a heavy smog layer, spend all of your days indoors, or only go outside wearing heavy clothing or sunscreen. Older people are at a greater risk of Vitamin D deficiency, as our ability to manufacture it decreases with age.

The good news is that if your vegetarian diet includes dairy, you’re probably getting enough. In the United States, dairy products are fortified with Vitamin D, and extra supplements aren’t necessary. Vegans (and others who forgo dairy products) may want to take supplemental Vitamin D. If so, you may want to consult with a nutritionist or other health professional – excess Vitamin D is stored in the body, creating calcium deposits that can damage the kidneys and heart.

But the best solution? Get outside in the sun!

The rest of the best

Vitamin B1 (thiamin) helps convert carbohydrates to energy, and we need about 0.5 milligrams for every 1,000 calories we eat to do the job. The disease beriberi, famous from countless jungle adventure movies, is caused by a deficiency of thiamine and results in damage to the nervous system. Vegetarians generally get lots of thiamine in their diets – whole grains are loaded with it, enriched breads offer a lot of B1, and nutritional yeast is a good source, too.

Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) is a component of in 60 different enzyme systems, most of which help your body metabolize protein – the amount you need is based on how much protein you eat.

Vegetarians, who consume less protein overall than omnivores, need less B6. Since plant foods contain very high levels of B6 for the amount of protein they offer, vegetarians usually get plenty of B6. There’s even more good news for vegetarians – studies have shown that animal proteins actually increase the need for B6 more than plant proteins, so people on meatless diets need about 25 percent less. It’s also been found that the type of B vitamins offered by plant foods are less susceptible to destruction during cooking than those in meat , so vegetarians win there, too.
Folic acid, also called “folate,” is necessary for the body to metabolize protein and for efficient cell division. It works with B12 to create new material needed for the cells to divide and grow.

The current RDA is 200 micrograms for men and 180 micrograms for women. Vegetables are great sources of folic acid, especially broccoli, leafy greens and asparagus. Legumes also contain a lot of folic acid, so eat your soy and your black-eyed peas.Vitamin C was once believed to cure colds, but we now know that the best you can hope for is that large doses will reduce the severity of a cold if you catch one. Lack of Vitamin C also causes scurvy, once the scourge of sea-faring folk who lacked fresh vegetables on long voyages. Odds are, you’re not a pirate or a merchant seaman, so you probably don’t need to worry about your intake of C as it’s abundant in fruits and vegetables, especially citrus fruits, strawberries, peppers, watermelon, potatoes – yes, potatoes! – and broccoli. Because of this, vegetarians get more than the recommended amounts from the foods they eat, and vegans get the most Vitamin C of all!