Chapter 4: Essential Nutrients for Healthy Success B2 is a bit easier to find in natural vegetables The following items are easy sources to work into your menu on a regular basis: ✓ Almonds ✓ Asparagus ✓ Bananas ✓ Broccoli ✓ Brussels sprouts ✓ Mushrooms ✓ Nutritional yeast ✓ Peas ✓ Soybeans ✓ Soymilk, fortified ✓ Spinach ✓ Whole grains ✓ Wheat germ ✓ Wild rice Getting enough of the right kind Even though many foods are fortified with B12, vegans can still be deficient This deficiency isn’t due to the amount they consume; instead it’s due to the fact that their body isn’t absorbing the B12 from the intestines well In this case, a probiotic, to improve the health and ability of the digestive system to absorb nutrients properly, and a B-complex vitamin would be useful You also may try other measures to ensure that the intestines are healthy and working properly A daily probiotic can help ensure that the good bacteria are present to help digest and absorb nutrients in the gut A high-fiber diet, which isn’t difficult to achieve as a vegan, helps keep the digestive system clean and clear Luckily, the human body doesn’t need a huge amount of B12; however, it does need a little bit on a regular basis The current RDA for B12 is 2.4 micrograms a day About tablespoons of nutritional yeast fortified with B12 can provide your daily dose Sprinkle nutritional yeast on air-popped popcorn, salads, and pasta; stir it into soups; or use one of the many vegan recipes that use nutritional yeast to imitate cheese Try the Hungry Man Tofu Scramble or the Tempeh Hash recipes in Part IV with Red Star Nutritional Yeast — it’s fortified with B12 Counting on Calcium for Strong Bones Have you ever seen a cow or elephant up close? These enormous animals carry around their hefty weight on strong bones, much like ours Where you think these gigantic animals get the calcium to create their bones? Do they drink cow’s milk as the USDA recommends? Of course not They eat plants 39 40 Part II: Building a Healthy Vegan Diet While humans and animals certainly don’t build their bodies in the same way — or even digest food in exactly the same way — humans, like animals, can get the required calcium needed to build bones from plant foods Our bones hold the largest store of the calcium in our bodies; when they’re healthy, bones are firm and rigid The body doesn’t just use calcium to build bones, however; it also needs the mineral to clot blood and for many muscle and nerve functions Plant foods, like leafy green vegetables, have a better bioavailability of calcium than dairy products This means that our bodies can better absorb and use the calcium present in these greens as compared to dairy foods While dairy foods are rich in calcium, they are also rich in protein, which inhibits the body’s ability to absorb calcium A vegan diet rich in greens and calciumenriched foods will ensure the recommended intake of 1,000-1,200 milligrams a day is met In this section, I help you understand your calcium requirements, and I tell you how, as a vegan, you can successfully meet those requirements I round out the section by discussing calcium’s role in the important acid-alkaline ratio in the body Boning up on calcium requirements Most nutrition guidelines recommend getting between 800 to 1,500 milligrams of calcium a day, mostly from dairy products The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) guidelines state that to avoid osteoporosis and grow healthy bones, these levels must be reached However, according to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, healthy bones can be maintained with a daily consumption of 600 milligrams a day And the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends between 400 and 500 milligrams daily, which is half of the U.S recommended dietary allowance When paired with a healthy nonsmoking lifestyle, regular weight-bearing exercise, and healthy levels of vitamins D and K, the body can build and maintain healthy bones on a sensible vegan diet Never heard of vitamin K? That’s because it’s so easy to get all you need from natural foods that people rarely worry about it Vitamin K helps blood to clot, protects bones, and prevents cell damage from oxidation If you find yourself bruising and bleeding easily or having liver, gallbladder, or digestive system problems, you may need more vitamin K Good sources are spinach, Brussels sprouts, carrots, green beans, peas, broccoli, kale, and asparagus Chapter 4: Essential Nutrients for Healthy Success The truth about dairy products The dairy industry has a lot of money and has been influencing the government, the American public, and health organizations to believe that their products are necessary for good health for decades But the story doesn’t hold up If we eat more dairy products than most countries on the planet, why we have some of the highest osteoporosis rates? There’s clearly more to the story To truly build strong, healthy bones and avoid other major health problems, green leafy veggies, which are often lacking in the average American’s diet, are better sources of calcium than dairy products To prove my point, consider the Harvard Nurses’ Health Study that was published in 2003 This study followed more than 72,000 women for 18 years and found no link between increased milk consumption and risk of fractures On a similar note, in his groundbreaking research project, The China Study, Dr T Colin Campbell showed that the vast majority of the population of China consumes no dairy products Instead, these people get their calcium from mostly plantbased sources, including green leafy vegetables American women have one of the highest rates of hip fracture in the world The only other countries with higher rates — a few Northern European countries as well as Australia and New Zealand — actually eat more dairy than we On the other hand, Chinese women have much lower osteoporosis and hip fracture rates, and they eat no dairy Instead, these women get their calcium from leafy green veggies, tofu, and other natural foods like nuts and seeds Seeking out calcium in vegan foods Since you won’t be consuming dairy products to reach your daily calcium requirements, you may be wondering what foods you should eat Don’t worry You have tons of wonderful, natural vegan foods available to you that will ensure you have enough calcium in your diet Just be sure to eat a variety of the foods in Table 4-1 on a regular basis Spinach, amaranth, rhubarb, chard, and beet greens, which may seem like good sources of calcium, all contain oxalic acid, which can bind with calcium and reduce its absorption These foods are healthy in general, but they shouldn’t be considered good sources of calcium because they can cause the body to lose as much calcium as it gains Other greens like kale, broccoli, mustard greens, and bok choy are better calcium choices 41 42 Part II: Building a Healthy Vegan Diet Table 4-1 Food Vegan Sources of Calcium Amount Calcium (mg) Vegetables Collard greens cup 350 Turnip greens cup 250 Kale cup 180 Okra cup 170 Bok choy cup 160 Arame (sea vegetable) ⁄2 cup 100 Broccoli cup 90 Wakame (sea vegetable) ⁄3 cup 77 Kelp ⁄3 cup 66 Fruits Currants, zante, dried cup 86 Prunes cup 75–95 Orange large 74 Apricots, dried cup 73 Currants, black, fresh cup 62 Blackberries cup 42 Fig, fresh fig 18 Beans and Grains Cornmeal, self-rising cup 483 Wheat flour, enriched cup 423 White beans, cooked cup 130 Quinoa cup 102 Oats cup 84 Chickpeas cup 80 Rye flour, dark cup 72 Buckwheat flour cup 49 Bulgur cup 49 Nuts and Seeds Almonds ⁄4 cup 89 Sesame seeds, whole Tbsp 88 Walnuts, black cup 76 Pecans cup 70 Chapter 4: Essential Nutrients for Healthy Success Food Amount Calcium (mg) Tahini Tbsp 64–154 Brazil nuts oz 45 Hazelnuts oz 42 Almond butter Tbsp 40 Flaxseeds Tbsp 26 Sunflower seeds oz 25 Tofu (made with calcium sulfate) oz 200–325 Edamame (soybeans) ⁄2 cup 197 Soy yogurt oz 150–350 Soymilk oz 80-300 Enriched orange juice cup 300 Blackstrap molasses tsp 80–120 mg Soy Foods Other Source: From the USDA and manufacturer information Avoiding foods that leach calcium The WHO recommends half the daily calcium intake that the United States National Academy of Sciences recommends So, if the rest of the world is consuming less calcium than we are, why we have more osteoporosis? (I discuss this question in the nearby sidebar, “The truth about dairy products.”) The secret part of the calcium story is that calcium isn’t the only player in the bone health game Excess acids, protein, and alcohol cause the body to leach calcium out of the bones, setting them up for fractures and osteoporosis For example, several well-publicized studies have shown that soda drinkers of all ages have higher rates of broken bones and fractures than people who don’t drink soda Most sodas, both regular and diet, contain phosphorus or citric acid The phosphorus and citric acid in these drinks create too much acidity in the body And your body is so smart that it can balance the acidalkaline ratio by drawing calcium (an alkaline material) out of the bones 43 ... American public, and health organizations to believe that their products are necessary for good health for decades But the story doesn’t hold up If we eat more dairy products than most countries... greens, and bok choy are better calcium choices 41 42 Part II: Building a Healthy Vegan Diet Table 4-1 Food Vegan Sources of Calcium Amount Calcium (mg) Vegetables Collard greens cup 350 Turnip... protein, and alcohol cause the body to leach calcium out of the bones, setting them up for fractures and osteoporosis For example, several well-publicized studies have shown that soda drinkers of all