Protein is made of smaller components called amino acids, 12 of which are manufactured by the human body. Another 9, called essential amino acids, must be obtained from food. A complete protein or whole protein is a protein that contains all of the essential amino acids. All animal proteins are complete, including red meat, poultry, seafood, eggs, and dairy. Vegetarians will be happy to know that complete proteins can also be obtained through certain plants, such as soy, spirulina, hemp seed, amaranth, buckwheat, and my fave quinoa. Foods can be combined to make complete proteins like pairing beans with rice or corn. There are other combinations as well. Beans and seeds, beans and nuts, and beans and grains will form a complete protein. When you eat hummus and pita bread, nut butter on whole grain bread, pasta with beans, veggie burgers on bread, split pea soup with whole grain bread, and tortillas with refried beans, you are eating complete proteins.

{I don’t think you need to have these combinations together as the body can store amino acids. As long as you consume a variety of proteins sources (not necessarily together) you should be ok}

I got my blood test results back, all good. I’m not anaemic, not low in iron, or B12, or vitamin D, or proteins. My triglyceride levels are a tad below the normal range- my doctor said “you can’t complain about that” so yeah all good :))))

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Under the worst case scenario, based on the 2000 UK study, a vegetarian mother would have a 4% chance of having a baby with hypospadias. The trend since that first report has been to find no association between a vegetarian diet and hypospadias and that is punctuated by the most recent 2012 USA study with almost 25 times as many cases of hypospadias than the 2000 UK study. This gives reasonable confidence that a vegetarian diet is not a significant risk. Making sure pregnant vegans get enough methionine and choline can help alleviate any potential risks

FULL ARTICLE LINK

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CLICK TO READ FULL ARTICLE

Osteoporosis is not so much a disease of deficient calcium intake, but rather excessive calcium loss from the bones. Where is the calcium going? It’s going out through the kidneys into the urine - and down the toilet!

{the full article is very well written and informative! READ IT}

1. Eliminate all “calcium thieves” – especially excess animal protein, sugar, salt, cigarette smoke, alcohol, and phosphoric acid-containing cola drinks.

2. Be sure your intake of calcium and magnesium exceed 1000 mg. of each daily.

3. Assure an adequate intake of other trace minerals, especially boron, manganese, chromium, copper, zinc and silicon in the dosages previously given.

4. Assure adequate vitamin intake, especially vitaminB-6, folic acid, vitamin C, and vitamin K at the dosages given previously.

5. Consult with your physician about the role of hormone replacement, especially natural progesterone for women and testosterone for men. Women need to eat enough of Omega-3 fats.

6. Institute a regular program of weight-bearing activity, possibly including exercise with elastic-resistance bands.

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The only thing that can make me forgive Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees for going over to the dark side (disco) in the late 1970s is the fact that he was a vegan—an “ardent vegan” no less, according to Wikipedia.

Gibb, who was only 62, died last week of colon cancer. It’s unfair when anyone dies of cancer at such a relatively young age, but especially so when they are doing all of the right things—Gibb didn’t drink alcohol either—that should protect against this disease.

I’ve lost three friends to colon cancer. Two were vegetarians who died in their early 50s, and one was a vegan who died in his early 40s. It definitely feels a little surprising when vegans die from this disease, since there is very good evidence that diet affects colon cancer risk. Red and processed meats and excessive alcohol all increase risk while fiber appears to decrease it. The environment of vegetarians’ colons—the types of bacteria that live there, for example—is significantly different in ways that protect against cancer.

One reader of this blog brought to my attention a study linking low vitamin B12 to increased risk for colon cancer. Depending on where Gibb was getting his nutrition information, this might have been a factor, although there is very little research on this.

Alternatively, it’s possible that Gibb’s diet was low in calcium, which might have placed him at increased risk. Calcium regulates cell growth in ways that are thought to lower risk for certain cancers. There is evidence to support a protective effect of dairy foods on colon cancer risk, which is most likely due to the calcium content of these foods. It doesn’t mean that vegans should start drinking milk to reduce their colon cancer risk, but it does mean that it’s important to make sure you’re getting enough of this nutrient. (And, aside from the ethical considerations, I’d opt for leafy greens and soyfoods over cow’s milk as calcium sources since they have other cancer-protective effects.)

The bottom line though, is that some vegans—including those who are doing all the right things as far as we know—get cancer. It’s popular to say that a vegan diet will make you “bullet proof” against disease.  And it’s possible that some vegans become complacent because of this. A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine suggested that removal of polyps through colonoscopy (advised for everyone after the age of 50) could reduce colon cancer risk by as much as 50 percent. Vegans who erroneously believe that their diet guarantees that they won’t get colon cancer might not bother with this exam, thereby increasing their risk.

I have no idea whether any of these considerations affected Robin Gibb. Sometimes despite following every recommendation for reducing cancer risk, people get cancer anyway. It is, after all, a hard disease to pin down. It develops over decades, and there is evidence that it’s what you ate 20 or 30 and 40 years ago that matters the most, not what you are eating now. I doubt that Gibb was a vegan for all of his life (although at least one article said he had been vegan for decades).

Even in late adulthood, of course, diet changes may affect the progression of cancer. Compounds in certain plant foods affect enzymes that allow tumors to spread, for example. So it’s never too late to start eating more healthfully. (That’s especially true for things like heart disease and hypertension which are more sensitive to current dietary habits.)

At any age, we vegans can expect that our compassionate diet has the added advantage of lowering our risk for certain diseases. But, vegan diets are not “miracle” cures or guaranteed prevention and it’s a mistake to ever believe that they are. As always, the only true promise that comes with veganism is that it will remove your contribution to the use and abuse of animals.

Here, then, are supplements (or fortified foods) that vegans need:
All vegans:

Vitamin B12. You can’t get enough by eating unwashed organic produce or mushrooms grown in B12-rich soil. The recommended dose is 25 to 100 micrograms per day or 1,000 micrograms 2-3 times per week. If you have not been taking B12 for a while, start out with 2,000 micrograms daily for several weeks. Or get a blood test to see where you are and whether you might need a more therapeutic dose.

Most vegans:

Vitamin D. If you live where it’s sunny and warm all year and you spend time outdoors without sunscreen, you can make enough. The rest of us need a supplement or fortified foods (just like omnivores do) supplying 1,000 I.U.s of vitamin D. (This amount is well above the RDA for vitamin D but most experts think it’s warranted.
Iodine. Omnivores get most of their iodine from dairy products, which pick up iodine from solutions used to clean cows and equipment on dairy farms. Vegans who regularly eat sea vegetables may get enough, but the content varies a lot as it does for sea salt and other “natural” salts. Miso, which some vegans prefer to use in place of salt—because it’s a whole food—is not usually a good source of iodine. The only reliable sources are iodized salt or a supplement providing around 90 micrograms per day.

Some vegans:

Calcium. We don’t know if vegans have lower needs, but the old “low protein diets reduce calcium needs” theory has taken some real hits in the past years. Based on current understanding–which is admittedly pretty poor–we vegans should strive for the RDA. Our ancestors didn’t drink milk and got all the calcium they needed from wild greens. And even though modern cultivated greens have less, we could get enough calcium just from these foods, too. But the recommendation to eat four or more cups of cooked greens per day makes veganism a hard sell. Without fortified foods, many vegans fall short on calcium. (So do most omnivores; the food industry doesn’t fortify orange juice or instant oatmeal with calcium as a favor to vegans. Those foods are marketed to omnivore women.)

Iron. Young women with heavy periods may have a tough time keeping up with iron needs, and again, this is not a problem that is specific to vegans. Rates of iron deficiency anemia are actually very high among pre-menopausal omnivore women. It can help to take a low dose supplement (high doses can be hard on the stomach) with orange juice to boost absorption, or to include some fortified foods in the diet. There is some evidence that taking supplements of the amino acid L-lysine boosts absorption of supplemental iron.

Possible supplement requirements

DHA: 200 to 300 mg several times a week. It may be a good idea, but we don’t know for sure. I take this amount almost daily and would recommend it in particular for anyone who is prone to depression.
Sound like a lot of supplements? Well, here is some perspective: Omnivores get their vitamin D from fortified foods (cow’s milk is not a natural source of this nutrient) and their iodine from accidental contamination of dairy foods. Many omnivores—women especially—depend on supplements to meet calcium and iron needs. And the Institute of Medicine recommends that everyone over the age of 50 should add vitamin B12 supplements or fortified foods to their diet since it becomes increasingly difficult to digest and absorb the vitamin B12 in animal foods with aging.
Vegans may need to work a little bit harder to meet nutrient needs, but that’s a small trade-off for making choices based on compassion and justice for animals.

click to read full article
There are 3 types DHA, EPA and LNA

Even if you are taking DHA (made from algae) you still need some source of LNA (eg. Flaxseed oil, etc…)