Is this a balanced vegan diet or am i eating too much?

Lily Lefebvre

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  1. Vegan newbie
Hi, I am a transitioning vegan and I was wondering if what I am eating is healthy. I am doing this for the animals and for the environment, but I also want to see change in my body. Here's an example of what I ate today:
Breakfast: 1 slice of whole wheat toast with a tbs of peanutbutter and a banana
Snack: 4 rice crackers and hummus (1/3 of a container about)
Lunch: Brown rice with steamed broccoli and half an avocado
Dinner: Steamed kale and chopped up sauteed sweet green pepper, eggplant, tomato, and onion with 1 tbs of olive oil.

Am I eating too much? I am still young (17) and I am only 5 feet tall. If you have any healthy diet tips that can help me become more fit that would be great!
 
Hi,
Well done for going Vegan, please see below for a few meal ideas, but you must ensure that your Vitamin levels are good too, get your Doctor or suitably qualified practitioner to periodically check these, especially the 'B' Vitamins i.e. B12, B9, B6 as well as Vitamin 'D' as these are important:
Vegan Breakfasts:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/deenashanker/vegan-breakfasts?utm_term=.opwjzZxRQ2#.qbrAL7kzDq
Vegan Lunches:
http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/18522/lifestyle-diets/vegan/lunch/
Vegan Dinners:
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/vegan
Also, take a look at this website for Nutrition and Health for ideas::
https://www.vegansociety.com/resources/nutrition-and-health

Take care and enjoy.
Mark
 
The places where you can pack on the calories in a vegan diet is peanut butter and hummus. I would just make sure to measure out your servings for those. It looks like you are eating plenty in terms of quantity, but I would recommend adding more fruit to your diet. Try to do a serving of fruit for breakfast and lunch (1 banana, 1 apple.. 1 cup of strawberries) and doing a serving of vegetables at lunch and dinner (1 cup of steamed veggies). You are going to want to take a b12 supplement because it is very difficult to get from plants, you can find chewable ones. For vitamin d you are going to need to eat mushrooms.
If you are looking for recipes and you are on instagram you can check out my page- txnutrition
 
What you eat looks fine. It doesn't look too much although it's hard to say and it depends on the portion size. Some people like to count calories - in my opinion - if you don't feel hungry or weak or low in energy, and are not losing weight, then you are getting enough. You need to eat more total food (as measured by weight or space taken up on a plate) in a vegan diet vs a meat eating diet.

Try and include a mix of fruit and vegetables (including at least some green veg) with some filling/grain foods like bread/pasta/rice and some legumes (soy/lentils/beans etc). That should be the foundation of a vegan diet and then you make sure you supplement vitamin B12, get a source of calcium (e.g. almonds) and omega 3 (walnuts or chia seeds). https://whytryveg.wordpress.com/2017/03/25/vegan-nutrition/ is a blog I wrote covering vegan nutrition in a few paragraphs if you are interested.
 
Hi,
Well done for going Vegan, please see below for a few meal ideas, but you must ensure that your Vitamin levels are good too, get your Doctor or suitably qualified practitioner to periodically check these, especially the 'B' Vitamins i.e. B12, B9, B6 as well as Vitamin 'D' as these are important:

This is good advice if you want to be extra healthy, but it's also true that a well balanced diet as described in my blog will take care of most vitamins, you don't need to over analyze and stress about nutrition.

It would be sad if someone didn't go vegan because they thought all the nutrition advice sounded like a hassle. If you take a vitamin B12 supplement and eat a generally balanced diet and spend 5 minutes reading my blog (and follow the advice), then you will already probably end up just as healthy or more healthy diet than your average meat eater.

By all means investigate other vitamins and get blood tests if you want, but this is just to be extra healthy and get the max. benefits. It's not needed to achieve a long-term health equivalent to a meat eater.
 
For vitamin d you are going to need to eat mushrooms.
Mushrooms are a good food . I like mushrooms. However I'm not convinced you can rely on them for vitamin D. This is disputed and I don't have much knowledge but it seems that some mushrooms will have more vitamin D than others, and depends how much sunlight or UV they have been exposed to.

I think Lily if you tell me your skin colour, where you live and how long you spend outdoors per day on average and at what time of day, I can make a guess as to whether you are getting enough vitamin D already based on sun exposure.
 
Last edited:
Hi,
Well done for going Vegan, please see below for a few meal ideas, but you must ensure that your Vitamin levels are good too, get your Doctor or suitably qualified practitioner to periodically check these, especially the 'B' Vitamins i.e. B12, B9, B6 as well as Vitamin 'D' as these are important:
Vegan Breakfasts:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/deenashanker/vegan-breakfasts?utm_term=.opwjzZxRQ2#.qbrAL7kzDq
Vegan Lunches:
http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/18522/lifestyle-diets/vegan/lunch/
Vegan Dinners:
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/vegan
Also, take a look at this website for Nutrition and Health for ideas::
https://www.vegansociety.com/resources/nutrition-and-health

Take care and enjoy.
Mark
Thank you for sharing such relevant topic of delicious vegan breakfast and healthy vegan lunch recipe with us. I really love all the great stuff you provide. Thanks again and keep it coming