I need help with my Vegan diet!?!
Answers:
Sweetness, don't be discouraged. Learn what you can about the proteins you can eat and then sit down with your mother with a list and maybe one recipe at a time that she can help you with until you can do it yourself. Being a vegan isn't as hard as you think. You won't be protein malnourished for long. For you will be adding protein into your diet with ease. And buying a vegan cookbook wouldn't be such a bad idea either. Good eating.
http://www.vegancoach.com/foods-with-pro…
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/…
WHAT A RUDE DOCTORR!!!
If your doctor said you're protein malnourished and all you care about is protein...well, there's the first problem. You're missing out on a LOT of nutrition by only eating rice, granola, soy milk and "maybe some crackers." I don't see why people focus on protein...you're missing out on iron, essential fats, vitamin C, vitamin K, various B vitamins, potassium, magnesium, and pretty much everything else.
And seriously, a sprained finger? That's has nothing to do with a deficiency and everything to do with incorrect usage of your finger (typically hyperextension).
If you're old enough to be insulted by your doctor, chances are you're old enough to get a job and buy your own damn food. Or you can tell your doctor, "I do know what I should be eating, but my mom won't buy me food...just rice and crackers."
Regardless of whether you stay vegan or not, your mom needs to buy vegetables and fruits and nuts and legumes for your family! Seriously, even if all of you ate meat you still need to eat fresh produce.
vegan bodybuilder and personal trainer
Beans (Black, pinto, veg refried, northern, white, garbonzo, kidney, soy etc.), nuts, and even some fruits.
Peanuts
ome Americans are obsessed with protein. Vegans are bombarded with questions about where they get their protein. Athletes used to eat thick steaks before competition because they thought it would improve their performance. Protein supplements are sold at health food stores. This concern about protein is misplaced. Although protein is certainly an essential nutrient which plays many key roles in the way our bodies function, we do not need huge quantities of it. In reality, we need small amounts of protein. Only one calorie out of every ten we take in needs to come from protein 1. Athletes do not need much more protein than the general public 2. Protein supplements are expensive, unnecessary, and even harmful for some people.
How much protein do we need? The RDA recommends that we take in 0.8 grams of protein for every kilogram that we weigh (or about 0.36 grams of protein per pound that we weigh) 1. This recommendation includes a generous safety factor for most people. When we make a few adjustments to account for some plant proteins being digested somewhat differently from animal proteins and for the amino acid mix in some plant proteins, we arrive at a level of 1 gram of protein per kilogram body weight (0.45 grams of protein per pound that we weigh). Since vegans eat a variety of plant protein sources, somewhere between 0.8 and 1 gram of protein per kilogram would be a protein recommendation for vegans. If we do a few calculations we see that the protein recommendation for vegans amounts to close to 10% of calories coming from protein. [For example, a 79 kg vegan male aged 25 to 50 years could have an estimated calorie requirement of 2900 calories per day. His protein needs might be as high as 79 kg x 1 gram/kg = 79 grams of protein. 79 grams of protein x 4 calories/gram of protein = 316 calories from protein per day. 316 calories from protein divided by 2900 calories = 10.1% of calories from protein.] If we look at what vegans are eating, we find that between 10-12% of calories come from protein 3. This contrasts with the protein intake of non-vegetarians, which is close to 14-18% of calories.
So, in the United States it appears that vegan diets are commonly lower in protein than standard American diets. Remember, though, with protein, more (than the RDA) is not necessarily better. There do not appear to be health advantages to consuming a high protein diet. Diets that are high in protein may even increase the risk of osteoporosis 4 and kidney disease 5.
