What vitamans do vegans require?

Question

For my religion, I have to fast for 40 days with no meat or dairy products. What vitamins do I require to stay healthy.. I'm a teenager and I'm still growing. Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

As long as you can (and do) eat a variety of fruits, vegetables, and nuts during these 40 days, the main vitamin deficiencies will be calcium and iron.

Many long-term vegans also nowarn -12 is no problem. It can't hurt, though, so also take vitamin B-12.

To sum up, my advice is to look into calcium, iron, and B-12.
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I am adding the following information to my post after reading others' advice to avoid supplements and rely solely on the nutrients in vegetables and fruits and other vegan foods.

I want to warn you about the reality of going vegan without supplements, especially calcium for a teenager. Yes, dark greens provide much calcium, but you must eat a minimum of 750 grams daily. That's about 1.5 pounds. This is very difficult to do because the costs can be quite high and it's tough to eat that much broccoli and dark leafy greens every day. And remember, 750 grams is the minimum you should eat, not the average. According to the Vegan Society - http://www.vegansociety.com/html/food/nutrition/calcium.php - the recommended calcium intake for teenage girls is 800 mg/day. The Boston Children's Hospital - Center for Young Women's Health - http://www.youngwomenshealth.org/leafy.html - lays out the calcium amounts in various dark leafy green vegetables. You will have to eat over 15 cups of collard greens daily to hit 800 mg of calcium. You will have to eat over 26 cups of spinach. You also have to consider the oxalate levels in the vegetables that can block the absorption of both calcium and iron - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinach

Going vegan without supplements is a big commitment thats involves substantial research and a careful awareness of the nutrients in each food eaten, including a food diary.

I eat only raw vegan foods in addition to B-12 supplements, and the health and vitality from such a lifestyle is phenominal. Just be careful, OK? It's 40 days...My advice is to play it safe and take the supplements. If after the 40 days you want to make that leap to continue the vegan lifestyle and drop the supplements, that's super. Then you can invest in a high-powered juicer to ensure you can obtain the minimum daily nutrients.

Answer 2

You will not need any vitamins during the 40 days. All your vitamins and minerals can be found in beans, grains, seeds/nuts, and vegetables/fruit. In fact, many vitamins are made from dairy and animal products (you will have to search out a vegan multiple vitamin/mineral). Vitamin B-12 can remain stored in the liver from 3 to 6 years! So yes, only long term vegans need to worry about taking Vitamin B-12.
The 40 day fast is for you to cleanse your body. Not to keep dumping things into it. Eat no junkfood, trans fats (partially and fully hydrogenated fats on the label), and sugary processed foods (cookies that are not made fresh by yourself, candy bars, etc.) and just eat if you can organic fruit/vegetables, grains (rice, pasta, bread), legumes (beans like chickpease/hummus, kidney/chili, soy/tofu,soy yogurt, tempeh, miso, refried beans/nachos), nuts (peanut butter, almonds, walnuts, pecans). With your vegetables try to eat broccoli (calcium-more than a glass of milk and highly digestible than milk), leafy greens (lettuce has the fewest nutritients, while kale has the most), carrots or yams for beta carotene, and tomato sauce (for the red lycopene). Fruits can be from bananas (potassium and magnesium), apples/pears, to oranges (not the juice, but eat it with the fiber and Vitamin C that degrades with heat, even if it is flash pasterized).
Feast on the food the Earth provides with Peace, and God blesses.

Answer 3

When I was researching becoming Vegetarian/Vegan, most people just said B-12. They recommended others but said that B-12 was really the most crucial because its something that Vegans especially lack in their diet since B-12 is naturally found in meat, eggs, dairy products.

Answer 4

Vitamin B12 could be a problem because it's mostly found in animal products. soymilk, rice-milk and almond-milk have vitamin B12 added to them. A good source or Vitamin B12 is Yeast extract. I use it to give soy mince a bit of a meat-like flavour. Calcium could be a problem as well but like Vitamin B12 it's added to most milk substitutes.

Answer 5

Just eat healthy meals full of fruits, veggies, beans and nuts and you'll be fine. You may feel so good afterwards that you'll never want to eat meat again! Good luck! Curious...what religion are you?

Answer 6

Because you don't eat meat, you need to find a replacement for protein. Good sources of protein are beans and milk, if you're allowed to have milk. Meat is the best source for iron, so you'll have to replace the iron that you're missing. Fortunately, you won't have a hard time finding non-meat sources of iron. See the link I've pasted.

Answer 7

B-12 for sure

Answer 8

www.veganoutreach.org search for nutrition info. It is the best, most sound vegan info.

Answer 9

I would suggest that you take a multivitamin and a B12 on top of that in order
to get everything you need.

Answer 10

my religion does not allow unholy vitamins ever. Strange how people have a differrent spin on things based on which allmighty being they worship...