All the Nutrients We Need Are Plant-Based

In my 15+ years of animal and vegetarian/vegan advocacy, I have answered countless questions — some smart, some thoughtful, some antagonistic, some ridiculous, and some over and over and over. Some people seem to think that by virtue of being vegan you hold degrees in nutrition, philosophy, anthropology, animal husbandry, ecology, and the culinary arts and often proceed to cross-examine you on each of these topics. Every vegan or vegetarian has been on the receiving end of someone trying to find a flaw with your lifestyle choice, and it can be exhausting at times.

Luckily for me, I love communicating — through talking (just ask my husband), writing (is anybody reading this?), and other means — and I never get tired of expressing the joy that comes from living a life that reflects compassion, kindness, and non-violence toward others. I am amazed, however, at the questions that arise in people once they encounter a vegan. Questions are great; don’t get me wrong. But, it’s as if people don’t start thinking about health, nutrition, and animal rights until someone says the word vegan or even vegetarian.

It’s a Matter of Health

Despite the very real health concerns associated with the human consumption of animal fat, animal protein, and animal’s milk, how many of us express genuine concern for our friends, coworkers, and family members as we watch them eat this stuff several times a day? How many of us have asked fellow meat-eaters where they’re getting their fiber, complex carbohydrates, magnesium, potassium, folate, vitamin A, phytochemicals, and antioxidants, such as vitamin C and vitamin E — nutrients that people are truly deficient in. These nutrient deficiencies are not because people are eating too many vegetables; it’s because they’re not eating enough!

As a group, vegans tend to eat more vegetables than non-vegetarians. Yes, there are some junk-food vegans, but that doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with veganism in and of itself; rather it’s a comment on the fact that whether youíre a non-vegetarian or a vegan, there are healthy and unhealthy habits within the entire spectrum. But the general perception that nutrient deficiencies exist in a plant-based diet and not in a meat-based is not only false, it completely ignores the fact that Americans are simply in the worse health they’ve ever been. The population of vegetarians in North America is under 5%, so when we read the studies about increasing rates of heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, etc., we’re reading about non-vegetarians — not vegans.

This is not to say that every vegan is in superior health to every non-vegetarian, but I do think it would behoove us all to shift our criticism of plant-based diets to the problems with our daily consumption of meat, dairy, and eggs. Of course, everyone should be concerned about getting proper nutrition, but we’ve become so obsessed with single nutrients that we make it all much more complicated than it needs to be. We’ve also been bombarded by slick, expensive marketing campaigns by those who have the most to gain by our consumption of animal flesh and secretions that we’ve lost sight of the fact that the nutrients we need are actually plant- (or bacteria-) based.

Got Calcium?

Let’s take a look at calcium, as an example. The dairy industry has convinced the public that in order to obtain and absorb calcium, we need to drink cow’s milk. (Goat’s and sheep’s milk are growing trends and touted as health food, and if you go to other places of the world, camel’s milk is considered manna from the gods. And it’s true — if you’re a baby camel.)

Calcium is a mineral found in the ground. While it’s true that cow’s milk contains a lot of calcium, it’s because cows eat grass. Grass — like all green-leafy plants, such as kale, chard, collard greens, mustard greens, and beet greens — contain high amounts of calcium. However, since most dairy cows are raised on dry lots and not given grass to graze on, their feed is supplemented with calcium. Their feed is supplemented to provide the calcium they’re not consuming, the females are continually impregnated in order to keep her lactating (her pregnancy is as long as that of a human), her babies are taken away and either killed immediately (if they’re male) or killed a few years later after a life of servitude (if they’re female) — all so humans can drink this “calcium-rich” fluid meant only to nourish the mammal’s offspring. Ethical concerns aside, just from a resource perspective alone, this is an incredibly wasteful process.

Not only do grown cattle stop drinking the milk of their mothers, humans also stop drinking human milk after they’re weaned and thriving on solid foods. In fact, there have been countless comedy sketches about how repulsed adult humans are at the notion of drinking human breast milk. If the marketing campaign for such milk were as large as that for the cow’s milk industry, perhaps things would be different. Humans have absolutely no nutritional requirement to drink the milk of another animal — whether that animal be hoofed or clawed; in fact, the link between cow’s milk and many preventable Western diseases, including diabetes and certain types of cancer is indisputable, such that we are actually harming ourselves with this seemingly innocuous secretion.

Humans do, however, have a nutritional requirement for calcium, but — in the case of Americans, at least — though we drink more cow’s milk than any other nation, the average diet contains 40-50% of the recommended daily allowance. The best way to consume calcium is to go straight to the source, just like the cows do: to those dark green leafy vegetable I named above, as well as broccoli, beans, and seeds. It is the absence of calcium-rich plant foods as well as the presence of calcium-leeching animal protein in people’s diets that lead to such low calcium levels.

The Fat Question

Another nutrient we obsess over is Omega 3 fatty acid, and most people identify fish as the primary source of this essential fat. Fish oil supplements are flying off the shelves, and people are eating more fish than ever. Aside from the considerations of the fish themselves and the fact that people are eating too man Omega 6 fatty acids from processed foods, there are definitely health concerns over the human consumption of these aquatic animals, not to mention the environmental concerns over how they’re raised or caught. Nearly all fish and shellfish contain traces of methylmercury, a toxin that’s poisonous to the brain and central nervous system. No fish is completely free of mercury and other pollutants, and the fattier and larger fish just absorb more of them. Like mercury, other pollutants, including PCBs, accumulate in fish and in the body tissues of people who eat fish regularly. These pollutants can remain in your body for decades, creating a higher risk of serious diseases, including cancer.

Though we would never drink polluted water, fish — where the toxins are the most concentrated — is one of the most polluted things we eat. In terms of Omega 3s, it’s true that the flesh of salmon contains high amounts of such Omega 3s as EPA and DHA, but it’s only because they’re eating the plants that contain these fats. Like the cows consuming the calcium from plants, fish eat phytoplankton and algae — the plant foods that contain these fats. Whereas you have the mercury contamination in the wild-caught salmon, you have an absence of Omega 3 fatty acids in farm-raised salmon, as well as a number of other considerations that have to do with raising animals in confinement. The bottom line is if the fish don’t get Omega 3s, the person eating the fish doesn’t get Omega 3s. Killing animals to get the nutrients that are contained by plants in the first place is — as in the case of dairy — unnecessary (and thus cruel) as well as terribly inefficient and wasteful.

In this case, too, we can cut out the middle man and go right to the source. Flax seeds are the most concentrated source of Omega 3 fatty acids, and they don’t contain mercury. They’re healthful, beautiful, easy to digest, and relatively inexpensive in terms of the bang you get for your buck. Buy the seeds whole in the bulk section of your natural foods store (brown or golden), and use a coffee grinder to grind them. When they’re whole, they can be stored in the cupboard, but once they’re ground, they need to be stored in the fridge or freezer. Stick them in a container, and add two teaspoons a day to your morning smoothie, oatmeal, cereal, salad, or soup. (Incidentally, if you don’t grind them before eating, you’ll find what an effective laxative they are.) Walnuts, hemp seeds, and chia seeds are also high in Omega 3s, or you can go straight to a DHA supplement.

Finally, it’s worth mentioning B12, since that’s often another nutrient people point out to demonstrate that humans need to eat animals to survive. It’s true that B12 is found primarily in meat and eggs, but this vitamin doesn’t occur in the flesh of living animals, so why is it so prevalent in meat and eggs? The reason is that B12 grows on bacteria. It’s not an animal-derived nutrient; it’s a bacteria-derived nutrient. There tends to be B12 on meat, because meat is — how shall I say this? — the flesh of once-living animals. I’m being tactful here; forensics experts on your favorite medical show say it more plainly than that.

Though we all used to consume some B12 from the ground when we ate our vegetables and thus ate some soil, we now scrub our veggies clean because we’re (justifiably) concerned about pesticides and toxins. We’re also depleting our soil of nutrients, decreasing the chances even more that we’ll consume B12 the old-fashioned way: through the soil. It’s important to note that B12 deficiency is present in vegans and non-vegans, alike, so we should all make it a priority to ensure we’re taking it regularly. Because of all of these factors, the best way to ensure we get B12 is to just take it as a supplement; it’s found in most multivitamins, and many cereals are fortified with it.

The point here is to demonstrate that far from being deficient in essential nutrients, plant-based diets are actually brimming with them. It’s simply inaccurate to say that we need to consume animals and their secretions to survive and thrive. Rather, we need essential nutrients, all of which exist in and are available to us through plants. The bottom line: your mom was right. Eat your vegetables!

Steamed Kale with Tahini Dressing

It’s safe to say that kale is the most nutrient-dense food on the planet. This calcium-rich vegetable is enhanced by the calcium-rich tahini, a paste/butter made from sesame seeds. Serves 2.

Ingredients
1 bunch kale (curly, dinosaur, or Lacinato)
1/2 cup tahini
1/4 cup (more or less) water
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon Bragg Liquid Aminos (or tamari soy sauce)
1 large pitted medjool date, chopped or 2 deglet noor dates
1-2 garlic cloves, chopped

Directions
Wash the kale well by submerging it in clean water a couple of times. Use a sharp knife to cut out the ribs of the kale and coarsely chop the leaves. Prepare the tahini dressing by blending all the dressing ingredients together. You can make it thicker and use it as a sandwich spread or thinner to use as a sauce, as with the kale. Pour over the kale, and enjoy!

Asparagus and Carrots with Walnut Dressing

You can use this dressing with other steamed vegetables (broccoli, kale, etc.), but I really love it with asparagus and carrots. It’s very simple but absolutely delicious and full of Omega-3-rich walnuts. Serves 4

Ingredients - Vegetables
10 asparagus spears, with thick ends removed
4 carrots, peeled and finely sliced into 1-inch matchsticks
1-2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

Ingredients : Dressing
1/4 - 1/2 cup walnuts
2 teaspoons white/light miso or 1 teaspoon red miso
2 tablespoons mirin
2 teaspoons tamari soy sauce
2 tablespoons white wine
2 tablespoons rice vinegar or any white vinegar

Directions

1. Steam the asparagus and carrots for 5-7 minutes, until softer but still crispy. Squeeze the lemon juice over the cooked veggies, and set aside.
2. Using a food processor, blend together the walnuts, miso, mirin, tamari, white wine, and rice vinegar.
3. In a large bowl, mix the carrots and asparagus with the dressing, and arrange on a serving plate.

What is Mirin?

Mirin is a kind of rice wine similar to sake, but with a lower alcohol content. It has a slightly sweet taste and is a common ingredient in teriyaki sauce.

A long-time vegan and animal activist, Colleen Patrick-Goudreau founded Compassionate Cooks to empower people to make informed food choices and to debunk the myths about veganism and animal rights. She’s an author, contributor on the Food Network, and can be found online at Compassionate Cooks.