Healthy veganism: where to start

The article in short: Vitamin B12 is mandatory. Vitamin D in autumn and winter. Legumes and whole grains every day. Calcium sources: fortified plant milk, sesame, chia. Iron sources: legumes, grains, seeds; together with vitamin C. Iodine: iodised salt. Omega-3: ground flaxseed or an algae supplement. Introduce legumes gradually, otherwise there will be bloating. It is worth getting blood tests before the transition, so that a year later there is something to compare against.

So what should be replaced, at what pace, and which markers matter to track?

Part 1. What we are actually talking about

Veganism is the rejection of the exploitation of animals as far as is practically possible. The wording belongs to The Vegan Society. It concerns not only food: clothing, cosmetics, household chemicals, entertainment.

Plant-based eating is only about food. A person can eat plant-based for health reasons and still wear leather shoes. The terms are often confused, but they are different things.

Vegetarianism is the rejection of meat, fish and gelatine. Dairy products and eggs remain.

There are three reasons for the transition, and they are usually mixed:

• Animals. The main reason for most vegans. This is an ethical position, not a diet.
• Climate and environment. Animal agriculture takes up more land and water and produces more greenhouse gases per unit of food than crop farming.
• Health. Plant-based diets are associated with a lower rate of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. The word "associated" matters here: this is statistics across groups of people, not a guarantee for any particular individual. A poorly planned vegan diet is no healthier than an ordinary one.

Part 2. What to do before the transition

Get blood tests

Before the transition, not after. The point is to get a baseline: if something drops a year later, there will be something to compare against. Many people come to veganism already with low iron or low B12 — then the deficiency shows up sooner, and it gets blamed on veganism.

The minimum set:

• complete blood count;
• ferritin (the protein that stores iron; it shows reserves, unlike haemoglobin, which falls only at a late stage);
• vitamin B12;
• vitamin D;
• TSH — thyroid-stimulating hormone, a basic thyroid check.

Additionally, if possible: homocysteine, folate, liver enzymes, lipid profile.

Work out whether you need a doctor

It is worth talking to a doctor or a dietitian before the transition if this is about you:

• pregnancy or breastfeeding;
• the transition is planned for a child;
• a chronic condition (diabetes, kidney disease, autoimmune conditions);
• ongoing medication;
• any condition involving a weakened immune system;
• an eating disorder in the past or present.

This does not mean "you must not". It means the diet will need to be planned more precisely, and it is better not to do that alone.

Don't do everything at once

A common pattern: a person decides to go vegan and at the same time gives up sugar, gluten and oil, switches to zero waste and starts running in the mornings. Three weeks later it all falls apart, and the conclusion drawn is about veganism.

The switch to plant-based eating is a stage of its own. The rest can be added later, if you want to.

Part 3. The pace of the transition

Add, don't remove

The most workable mindset for the first months: think not "what am I giving up" but "what am I adding". In practice this means first bringing legumes, whole grains, nuts, seeds, tofu and fortified plant milk into the diet. Animal products get squeezed out on their own, because the space on the plate is taken.

The reverse order — remove first, then work out what to replace it with — is what leads to a person eating salads for two months, never feeling full, and quitting.

Start with breakfast

Breakfast is the easiest meal to make plant-based: it is repetitive, cooked at home and does not need to be agreed with the family. Porridge on fortified milk, toast with hummus, smoothies, tofu scramble. When breakfast runs automatically, you can take on lunch.

Learn 6–8 dishes

An ordinary person eats about eight dishes on rotation and adds a new one a few times a year. Going vegan does not mean inventing a new dinner every day. It is enough to find six to eight plant-based dishes that you like and that you cook without thinking. After that you can expand, or you can not expand.

Set aside time

For the first few weeks, cooking takes more time: unfamiliar products, reading ingredient lists, new recipes. This is temporary, but that time needs to be built into the schedule in advance, otherwise dinner will turn into whatever is at hand.

Keep a stock

A list of what is worth keeping at home permanently:

• grains: oats, buckwheat, brown rice, quinoa, wholegrain pasta;
• legumes: lentils (red and green), chickpeas, beans — dried and tinned;
• tinned tomatoes;
• nuts and seeds: sunflower, pumpkin, flax, sesame, walnut;
• tahini or another nut butter;
• fortified plant milk;
• tofu;
• spices;
• frozen vegetables.

A tin of chickpeas and a tin of tomatoes in the cupboard is a twenty-minute dinner on the evening when you have no energy left.

Introduce legumes gradually

A sharp increase in the amount of legumes causes bloating. The mechanism is explained in Part 13; here is the introduction schedule:

The schedule is approximate. What to go by is how you feel: if the current amount causes no discomfort, you can increase it.

Part 4. What a vegan plate consists of

The main rule goes like this: if you removed a food, put a replacement in its place.

A replacement is not an analogue in taste, but a source of the same nutrients. Dairy gave calcium, meat gave iron, protein and B12, eggs gave protein. Until that is replaced, the diet is not complete, even if it looks healthy.

Five groups that should be in the diet every day:

1. Legumes — lentils, chickpeas, beans, peas, soy, tofu, tempeh, peanuts. Protein, iron, zinc, fibre.
2. Whole grains — oats, buckwheat, brown rice, quinoa, wholegrain bread and pasta. Protein, B vitamins, fibre.
3. Vegetables and fruit — vitamins, minerals, fibre. Dark leafy greens separately: calcium, iron, folate.
4. Nuts and seeds — fats, calcium (sesame, chia, poppy), omega-3 (flax, walnut), selenium (Brazil nut), zinc (pumpkin seeds).
5. Fortified plant milk — calcium, often vitamins B12 and D. Check the label: not every milk is fortified.

The formula for a single meal: a grain or another carbohydrate source + legumes + vegetables + a source of fat. For example: buckwheat, lentil stew, salad, a spoon of tahini. Or pasta, beans in tomato sauce, broccoli, olives.

Part 5. Protein

How it works

Protein is made of amino acids. There are 20 of them, and they link into chains like beads on a string. From 20 kinds of bead you can assemble an unlimited number of different chains: collagen, haemoglobin, enzymes, hormones.

Key point: protein from food is not built into the body as it is. In the stomach and intestines it is taken apart into individual amino acids, and from those the body assembles its own proteins. Amino acids are not animal or plant — the lysine molecule is the same one, whether it comes from lentils or from beef.

Nine of the twenty amino acids are called essential: the body cannot produce them itself, they must come from food. The rest it can synthesise.

What "complete protein" means

The claim "plant protein is incomplete" rests on a real fact, but the conclusions drawn from it are wrong.

The fact is this: in any single plant food, one of the essential amino acids is usually poorly represented. It is called the limiting amino acid — because it limits protein assembly. Assembly proceeds as long as all nine are available; as soon as one runs out, the process stops, even if the other eight are in excess.

Legumes are low in methionine. Grains are low in lysine. If you eat only lentils, you hit the methionine wall. If only bread, the lysine wall.

The solution is simple: these foods complement each other. Such pairs are called complementary proteins. Legumes plus grains cover the whole set.

The main rule of plant-based eating: eat both legumes and whole grains every day.

It used to be thought that they had to be combined in one meal. That requirement has since been dropped: the body keeps a pool of free amino acids, and the foods can be eaten at different times of day. It is enough for both groups to be in the day's diet.

How much you need

1 gram of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. At 60 kg that is 60 g of protein, at 75 kg it is 75 g.

The minimum bar is 0.8 g per kg: at 60 kg that is 48 g. Going below is not advisable. Vegans are better off aiming at 1 g rather than 0.8: plant protein is absorbed slightly worse than animal protein, and the margin covers that.

With strength training the requirement is higher — 1.4–1.7 g per kg.

Where to get it

Protein per 100 g of prepared food:

For reference: a bowl of lentil soup, a portion of tofu and a handful of seeds is already about half the daily requirement for a person weighing 60 kg.

Soy is safe. Concerns about phytoestrogens and hormones have not been confirmed in human studies; reviews of recent years show either a neutral or a protective effect. This is a settled conclusion, not an open question.

If you count

For the first two or three weeks it makes sense to count protein and fat — in an app like Cronometer or FatSecret. The goal is not control but calibration: almost everyone who counts for the first time discovers that there is half as much protein in their diet as they thought.

After two or three weeks you will know your portions by heart, and counting will no longer be needed. Constant counting is not the goal and is harmful for many people (see Part 16).

Signs of a shortfall

Early ones, usually not connected to diet:

• dry skin;
• hair grows more slowly, loses shine, falls out more than usual;
• brittle nails.

Later ones:

• weakness and muscle pain;
• constant craving for sweets;
• fatigue, headaches, swelling;
• worse thinking.

Each of these symptoms has dozens of possible causes. But checking the amount of protein in the diet is the simplest place to start.

If legumes don't work for you

With some conditions, legumes are poorly tolerated even after a long adaptation. Then the basis becomes:

• quinoa and buckwheat — their amino acid profile is fuller than that of other grains;
• pumpkin, hemp or rice protein powder;
• nuts and seeds;
• tofu and tempeh, if soy is tolerated (fermented tempeh is often tolerated better).

Protein powder is ordinary food, not sports chemistry. It is protein separated from the rest of the product.

Part 6. Iron

What the difference is

Iron in plant food is non-heme. It is absorbed worse than heme iron from meat: roughly 2–20% against 15–35%. On the other hand, its absorption depends strongly on what it is eaten with, and that can be influenced.

Because of the worse absorption, official recommendations suggest that vegetarians and vegans multiply the requirement by about 1.8. The base requirement is 8 mg for men and 18 mg for menstruating women. Multiplied, that is about 14 and 32 mg respectively.

The second figure is large, and in practice, instead of chasing it, it is more sensible to track ferritin through blood tests and work on absorption.

Sources

Lentils, chickpeas, beans, tofu, pumpkin seeds, sesame and tahini, oats, buckwheat, dried apricots, dried figs, dark leafy greens, cocoa.

What helps absorption

• Vitamin C. It increases the absorption of non-heme iron several times over. In practice: lemon juice in lentil soup, bell pepper in a chickpea salad, an orange after porridge. This is the simplest lever of all.
• Soaking, sprouting, sourdough fermentation. More on this below.
• Cast iron cookware. A little iron passes into the food, especially when cooking acidic dishes. The effect is small, but it exists.

What hinders absorption

• Coffee and tea. The polyphenols in them bind iron. There is no need to give them up, it is enough to separate them from meals in time — by an hour or two.
• Calcium in supplements. Calcium and iron in tablet form interfere with each other. Space out the doses. If both come from food, this is not a problem: in whole foods their doses are such that mutual blocking does not occur.
• Phytic acid. Covered below.

Phytic acid

This is the substance in which plants store phosphorus. It is present in all grains, legumes, nuts and seeds. It binds iron, zinc and calcium and reduces their availability to the body.

What is done about it:

• Soaking. Grains, legumes, nuts and seeds — overnight in plain water, then drain the water. This activates the plant's own enzyme, phytase, which breaks down phytic acid.
• Sprouting. Works more strongly than soaking.
• Sourdough fermentation. The most effective of the three methods. Sourdough bread contains noticeably less phytic acid than yeast bread.

The size of the effect differs between studies, but the direction is consistent. An additional bonus of soaking is that legumes are digested better and cause less gas.

Phytic acid is not a poison. It has beneficial properties too, including antioxidant ones. The task is not to remove it completely, but not to build a diet exclusively out of untreated grains and legumes.

What to look at in blood tests

Haemoglobin falls late, when reserves are already used up. The early marker is ferritin. Formally, values from 15–30 ng/ml are considered normal, but at values below 30 many people already feel weakness and hair loss. This is worth discussing with a doctor.

Part 7. Calcium

The requirement

1000 mg per day for an adult. After 50 — 1200 mg.

Where to get it

Two clarifications to the table.

Not all tofu counts. It contains calcium only if calcium sulphate was used in production. Check the ingredients: calcium sulphate or E516. Nigari tofu (set with magnesium chloride) contains almost no calcium.

Spinach is a poor source of calcium, even though it has a respectable figure in the tables. It is high in oxalates — substances that bind calcium so tightly that about 5% is absorbed. From kale, broccoli and Chinese cabbage, 50–60% is absorbed. Spinach is good for other reasons, but its calcium does not count.

Fortified milk needs shaking. The calcium in it is not dissolved but suspended, and it settles at the bottom of the carton. If you pour without shaking, a significant part of the calcium stays in the pack.

About the blood test for calcium

It does not show whether there is enough calcium in the diet. The body keeps the calcium level in the blood constant at any cost, because muscle contraction, including the heart, and the transmission of nerve signals depend on it. If calcium does not come from food, the body takes it from the bones.

So the test can be perfect during years of dietary deficiency. The consequences are visible not in the blood but in the bones: brittle nails, dental problems, and in advanced cases osteoporosis. Bone condition is assessed by densitometry, not by a blood test.

About calcium supplements

Calcium in supplements is not the first choice, for two reasons.

1. Vitamin D first. Without it calcium is not absorbed properly. Taking calcium supplements while a vitamin D deficiency is uncorrected is pointless and potentially harmful.
2. Do not exceed the requirement. An excess of calcium from supplements is associated with calcium deposits in the blood vessels. It is not worth going more than one and a half times over the daily requirement, counting food and supplements together.

The working option for most people: a glass of fortified milk a day plus sesame, tahini, chia and green vegetables regularly. That is enough without supplements.

Part 8. Vitamin B12

This is the only item on the list where there are no options: taking a supplement is mandatory.

Why

Vitamin B12 is produced by bacteria. It is not present in any plant food. The human body cannot synthesise it.

Herbivorous animals get B12 from bacteria in their own digestive tract and from soil on their feed. In industrial animal agriculture this is not enough, and B12 is added to livestock feed. That is, a significant part of the B12 in meat is the same supplement, just passed through an animal.

About the argument "bacteria in the gut produce it"

They do produce it, but not in the right part of the gut.

The bacteria that produce B12 live in the large intestine. B12 is absorbed in the small intestine — that is, further upstream. The gut works in one direction, and what is produced in the colon will not get back into the small intestine. How much B12 these bacteria actually produce is also unknown.

About the argument "I don't take it, and my results are fine"

B12 is stored in the liver, and the reserve lasts from several months to several years. In a person who recently stopped eating animal products, the test results will be normal simply because the old reserve is being used up.

The second point is what counts as a good result. The laboratory reference range usually starts at around 190 pg/ml, but the lower part of that range is already associated with symptoms. It is more sensible to aim for values above 400 pg/ml. A more accurate picture comes from a homocysteine or methylmalonic acid test.

What B12 does

Vitamin B12 has three main jobs.

DNA synthesis. Without it, cell division proceeds with errors. The first tissues to suffer are the ones that renew fastest — bone marrow and mucous membranes.

Production of red blood cells — the cells that carry oxygen around the body.

Maintenance of myelin — the sheath of nerve fibres. Myelin works like insulation on a wire: without it the signal travels with interference.

There is a fourth job as well, less obvious. B12 converts folate (vitamin B9) into its working form. Until that happens, folate is useless, however much of it there is in the food. That is why a B12 shortfall and a folate shortfall usually go together.

Bone marrow needs active folate to divide blood cells correctly. When there is none, division goes wrong, and immature red blood cells enter the blood — large ones, unable to carry oxygen properly. This condition is called megaloblastic anaemia. Hence the pallor, breathlessness and constant fatigue.

Anaemia is reversible: it goes away when B12 starts coming in. The worse part is different — myelin is being destroyed in parallel. Numbness, tingling in the hands and feet, loss of balance and memory problems appear. If the deficiency lasts a long time, this damage can remain permanently.

Symptoms of deficiency

Early ones, usually written off as tiredness:

• weakness, fatigue;
• breathlessness on ordinary exertion;
• irritability;
• headaches;
• irregular heartbeat;
• pallor.

Neurological ones, by which B12 deficiency is recognised most accurately:

• numbness and tingling in the hands and feet;
• muscle twitching;
• loss of balance;
• worsening memory and concentration.

An important detail: neurological damage from a long deficiency can become irreversible, whereas anaemia is treatable. So there is no need to wait for symptoms.

Homocysteine

Homocysteine is an amino acid, a by-product of metabolism. Normally B12 and folate convert it into methionine. When B12 is lacking, homocysteine accumulates in the blood. An elevated level is associated with thickening of the vessel walls and an increased risk of blood clots.

The norm in most laboratories is up to 10–15 µmol/l, and a value below 10 is considered optimal. In vegans who do not take B12, values several times above the norm are recorded. This is one of the most reliable indirect markers of B12 status.

How much to take

The standard scheme for an adult:

• 25–100 µg of cyanocobalamin (B12) daily, or
• 1000 µg twice a week.

The doses look enormous next to the daily requirement (about 2.4 µg), and that is normal: with a single dose only a small fraction is absorbed.

The form is cyanocobalamin: it is the best studied, stable and cheaper. Methylcobalamin works too, but there is less data on it. Tablets are better dissolved in the mouth or chewed: part of the B12 is absorbed already in the oral mucosa.

There is no danger of overdose: B12 is water-soluble, the excess is excreted in urine. A separate case is kidney disease, where the dose needs to be discussed with a doctor.

Fortified foods (plant milk, yeast flakes with B12) do count, but relying on them alone is difficult: to reach the requirement you would need to eat them at several meals every day. It is easier to take a tablet.

Part 9. Vitamin D

Vitamin D is often listed among the substances lost together with animal products. That is inaccurate: its main source for humans is not food but synthesis in the skin under ultraviolet light.

At latitudes above the 40th parallel, from October to March the sun stands too low, and the skin produces almost no vitamin D. Deficiency at these latitudes is a mass phenomenon, and vegans are no different from everyone else here.

Plant sources: mushrooms grown under ultraviolet light (this is usually stated on the label), and fortified foods. Ordinary shop champignons contain almost no vitamin D, but you can hold them under direct sunlight — synthesis starts in picked mushrooms too.

Doses. Adults in the autumn-winter period are usually recommended 1000–2000 IU per day. With a confirmed deficiency the doses are higher and are selected based on blood tests. Vitamin D is fat-soluble, it accumulates in the body, and an overdose is possible, so prescribing yourself high doses at random is not a good idea.

Form. D3 is absorbed better than D2. Ordinary D3 is made from lanolin — a fatty substance obtained from sheep's wool. Such D3 is not vegan. Vegan D3 is produced from lichen, and this is stated on the packaging. If there is none — D2 also works, just worse.

Vitamin K2. It often comes paired with D in supplements. Its role is to direct calcium into the bones rather than into the blood vessels. The vegan form of K2 (MK-7) is produced from fermented soy. The data on the necessity of the supplement is less solid than for B12 and D; this is a reasonable option, not a mandatory item.

Part 10. Omega-3

Omega-3 is a family of fatty acids. There are three of them, and that is the heart of the matter.

• ALA (alpha-linolenic acid) — present in plants: flax, chia, walnut, hemp seed, rapeseed oil.
• EPA and DHA — the ones needed by the brain, the retina and the blood vessels. They are not present in plants.

The body can convert ALA into EPA and DHA, but the conversion rate is low: a few percent for EPA and under one percent for DHA. It differs between people and depends on genetics.

What follows from this:

• A tablespoon of ground flaxseed a day. Ground specifically — whole seed passes through the gut undigested. It is better to grind it in small portions and store it in the fridge: ground flax oxidises quickly.
• In addition — chia, walnuts, hemp seed.
• Algae oil — a direct source of EPA and DHA, without the intermediate conversion. It is from algae that fish get their omega-3 in the first place. The usual dose is 200–300 mg of EPA and DHA per day.

Another lever is omega-6. These fatty acids compete with omega-3 for the same enzymes. Sunflower, corn and soybean oil are very high in omega-6, and in an ordinary diet there is an excess of them. Reducing the amount of these oils has almost the same effect as adding omega-3. Olive and rapeseed oil are better in this respect.

Part 11. Iodine, selenium, zinc

Iodine

Needed by the thyroid gland. The requirement is 150 µg per day, more during pregnancy.

A simple and predictable source is iodised salt. A gram of such salt gives roughly 20–30 µg of iodine.

With seaweed it is more complicated. There is a lot of iodine in it, but the amount is unpredictable: the spread between batches of the same product can be tenfold. Kelp is particularly dangerous in this sense — a single portion can give several days' worth. An excess of iodine disrupts the thyroid gland just as a shortage does. Nori is relatively safe; kelp is better not used as a permanent source.

A separate point: Himalayan and sea salt are not fortified with iodine. If you have switched to them from ordinary iodised salt, the dietary source of iodine has disappeared.

Selenium

Needed by the thyroid gland and for antioxidant defence. The requirement is 55 µg per day.

Brazil nuts — one or two nuts a day cover the requirement completely. Their selenium content fluctuates strongly depending on the soil, and a handful of nuts can give an excess. Selenium is toxic in large doses. One or two nuts, no more.

Zinc

The requirement is 8 mg for women and 11 mg for men. Vegans are recommended about 50% more, because phytic acid hinders absorption.

Sources: pumpkin seeds, legumes, nuts, whole grains, tofu. Soaking and sourdough fermentation increase absorption — the same mechanism as with iron.

Part 12. Supplements: a short summary

Needed by all vegans:

Reasonable to consider:

Not needed:

Spirulina, chlorella, chlorophyll, maca, sunflower lecithin, "detox" powders, collagen, any "superfoods". Most of them have no proven effectiveness, no health organisation recommends them, and spirulina on top of that creates a dangerous illusion: it contains pseudo-B12 — a substance that resembles B12, shows up as B12 in some tests, but is not used by the body. A person can spend years "taking B12" from spirulina and have a deficiency.

Separately: iron should not be taken without a doctor's prescription. An excess of iron is toxic, and the body cannot actively excrete it.

Part 13. Bloating and gut adaptation

Bloating in the first weeks is a common reason why people quit.

What happens

Bacteria live in the gut — tens of trillions of them. Some help digestion, produce certain vitamins and support the immune system. Others, in excess, cause gas, disturbed stools and discomfort.

What exactly they eat determines their numbers. Beneficial bacteria feed on fibre. Fibre is present in legumes, grains, vegetables and fruit — and it is absent from meat, dairy, sugar and most processed food.

The recommended fibre intake is 25–30 g per day. In a typical diet it works out at roughly half that. On such a diet, over years, the colonies of bacteria capable of processing fibre shrink: they have nothing to eat.

Then the person abruptly switches to legumes and vegetables. Several times the normal amount of fibre arrives, and there are few bacteria capable of processing it. What is not digested ferments — hence the gas and bloating.

This is not a sign that plant food does not suit you. It is the gap between what has arrived and what there is to digest it with.

What to do

• Build up gradually. The schedule is in Part 3. The gut adapts, but not in a week.
• Soak legumes — overnight, drain the water, cook in fresh water. This removes part of the oligosaccharides — the sugars that the bacteria ferment.
• Cook them thoroughly. Undercooked legumes cause more gas.
• Start with the easier ones. Red lentils (they cook down and have no skin) and tofu are tolerated more easily than beans and chickpeas.
• Add spices. Cumin, fennel, coriander, asafoetida and ginger are traditionally used with legumes for exactly this reason.
• Remove sugar and processed food at least for the duration of the transition. The combination of a lot of sugar, fat and salt with a complete absence of fibre is the worst possible option for the gut flora. Alcohol is on the same list.
• Move. Regular aerobic exercise is associated with greater diversity of gut flora. Three times a week is enough.
• Drink water. Increasing the amount of fibre without enough water gives the opposite effect — constipation.

Probiotics on their own do not solve the problem. Settling bacteria into a gut where they have nothing to eat is pointless: they will not take hold. Probiotics can be part of the plan, but the only thing that works is the combination "remove processed food + gradually add whole plant food + wait".

How long to wait

The first improvements are usually noticeable after a few weeks. Full adaptation takes from several months to a year. That is a long time, and there is no faster way.

When to see a doctor. If the bloating is severe, does not decrease over several months, is accompanied by pain, weight loss or blood in the stool, or starts suddenly — this is not adaptation. Irritable bowel syndrome, SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth), coeliac disease and intolerances require diagnosis, not patience.

Part 14. "I don't feel full"

The second most common reason for quitting. It usually has one of two causes, and both can be fixed.

Cause 1: there is no protein

Almost all animal products are protein. By removing meat, fish, eggs and dairy and putting nothing in their place, a person removes protein from the diet as a category.

Protein is responsible not only for muscles and enzymes. It is responsible for satiety. A diet of fruit, salads and vegetables does not give satiety: an hour later you are hungry again, and usually for something sweet.

What to do: rearrange the priorities. The base of the plate is legumes and whole grains, at every meal. Fruit and salads are an addition, not the base.

Cause 2: there are not enough calories

Basal metabolism is the energy the body spends on its own existence: breathing, heartbeat, brain function, maintaining temperature. In an adult woman this is usually 1200–1500 kcal per day. That is expenditure while completely motionless. Everything beyond lying down requires additional energy.

Plant food is bulkier and less calorie-dense: the same plate gives fewer calories than before. A person eats the same amount by volume and gets less. Hence the hunger.

A long calorie shortfall the body compensates for on its own — usually with a binge on food that can be eaten quickly and in large amounts.

What to do:

• Calculate your calorie requirement in any online calculator and eat accordingly.
• Eat more often, if the portion size has become the constraint. This is a normal adaptation, not weakness.
• Do not remove fats. Nuts, seeds, tahini, avocado — that is calorie density and satiety. A diet without fats does not fill you up.
• Add concentrated sources: dried fruit, nut butters, granola.

Satiety and a full stomach are different things

To feel full is to get satiety and a steady energy level for about four hours. That requires calories, protein and fat.

To stuff the stomach is volume without nutritional value. A big bowl of salad gives a feeling of fullness for forty minutes, after which the hand reaches for something sweet.

There are hormonal and psychological causes of a lack of satiety too. But it is worth starting the analysis with the two described above, because they are the most common.

Part 15. Blood tests: what and when

Before the transition — the basic set (see Part 2).

Then once a year:

• complete blood count;
• ferritin;
• vitamin B12, better together with homocysteine;
• vitamin D;
• TSH;
• biochemistry, lipid profile.

Two things it is useful to understand about blood tests.

The laboratory reference range is not the same as the optimum. Reference ranges are built on population statistics, including people with subclinical deficiencies. Landing at the lower boundary of the range means "not a pathology", not "everything is fine".

Do not prescribe yourself supplements based on the results on your own. Especially iron and vitamin D in high doses. Test results should be interpreted by a doctor who sees the whole picture.

Part 16. What not to do

Do not do cleanses and detoxes. The liver and kidneys are the body's cleaning system, and it works without outside intervention. Detox programmes have no evidence base.

Do not give up gluten, soy and sugar without an indication. Coeliac disease and soy allergy are diagnoses made by a doctor. Giving something up "just in case" narrows an already changed diet and increases the chance of falling short on protein and calories.

Do not start intermittent fasting at the same time. The switch to plant-based eating already requires adaptation and attention to the amount of food. Adding a time restriction on top of that means almost certainly falling short on calories.

Do not switch to a raw food diet. Heat treatment makes some nutrients more available, and a raw diet is hard to make complete in calories and protein.

Do not chase superfoods. Spirulina, goji berries and acai powder do not replace a basic diet and cost dozens of times more than ordinary legumes and grains, with less nutritional value.

A separate point: eating behaviour

The vegan space is full of ideas about "cleansing", "clean food" and giving things up. Part of this is not nutrition but symptoms.

Signs for which it is worth seeing a specialist:

• fear of food or of particular foods;
• guilt and shame about what has been eaten;
• a wish to "cleanse" after eating;
• an urge to compensate for what was eaten by restricting afterwards;
• rigid rules and rituals around food and a fear of breaking them;
• thoughts about food occupy a significant part of the day.

How widespread these thoughts are does not make them normal. Eating disorders are medical conditions, they have treatments, and going to a psychotherapist or psychiatrist with them is as appropriate as going to a dentist with a toothache.

If you have or have had an eating disorder, the calorie and protein counting from this text is not for you. In that case the transition is planned together with a specialist.

Part 17. How to read labels

Animal components often hide under names that say nothing.

It is easier to go by the V-Label or "vegan" marking on the packaging, but it is not everywhere. Apps that recognise ingredients by barcode help, although their databases are incomplete.

Drinks

Not everything that looks plant-based is.

• Wine, beer and some juices are clarified using gelatine, casein, egg white or isinglass. This is not stated in the ingredients, because the substance is removed from the finished product. You can check a specific brand at Barnivore.
• Juices are sometimes fortified with omega-3 from fish oil.
• Water, tea, coffee and ordinary fizzy drinks raise no questions.

Part 18. Replacements

Ready-made meat substitutes are convenient at the transition stage: a familiar format, familiar cooking. At the same time, many of them are processed food with a lot of salt. As the base of a diet they are not suitable; as support in the first months they are perfectly fine.

Part 19. Not food

Veganism does not end in the kitchen.

Clothing. Materials of animal origin: leather, suede, nubuck, wool, cashmere, mohair, angora, silk, fur, down and feathers, felt. Replacements: cotton, linen, hemp, viscose, lyocell (Tencel), synthetics, leather made from apple and grape waste, polyester fillings.

Separately about shoes: even fabric shoes sometimes contain animal glue. Specialised brands state this.

Cosmetics and household chemicals. Two different questions, and they are often confused:

1. Composition — whether there are animal components (lanolin, carmine, beeswax, collagen, keratin, squalene from shark liver).
2. Animal testing — whether the product was tested on animals. In the European Union, testing cosmetics on animals is banned, but a product can be tested for other markets.

Markings: Leaping Bunny and PETA-approved are about testing, V-Label and "vegan" are about composition. Reading the composition yourself is harder here than with food: the names are not obvious, and the composition says nothing about testing.

There is no need to change everything at once. A reasonable order is to finish what has already been bought and replace things as the need arises.

Part 20. The people around you

Restaurants

• Look at the menu on the website in advance and decide what to order. This removes most of the awkwardness.
• Look at the sides and starters section, not only the mains. Two or three sides often add up to a normal meal.
• Ask about butter and broth: a vegetable dish is often cooked with butter or meat stock.
• Tell the waiter directly that you are vegan and ask what can be done. The kitchen accommodates more often than you expect.
• The HappyCow app shows vegan and vegan-friendly places by geolocation.

Family and holidays

• Bring a dish along that everyone eats. This removes both the question "what are you going to eat" and half the conversations.
• Warn people in advance, not at the table.

About slip-ups

Everyone will make mistakes: a waiter will mix up the order, whey will turn up in the ingredients, someone will bake a pie with butter. This does not cancel either the decision or everything that came before.

Veganism is a direction of action, not a state of purity that can be lost with one mistake. A biscuit eaten by mistake does not cancel the previous six months. Giving up veganism after such a mistake is the only outcome that changes the result for the worse.

About conversations with others

There will be questions: about protein, about plants that also feel pain, about ancestors and hunting. A few practical things:

• Prepare short answers to the three or four most common questions in advance. An argument is lost not because of the arguments but because of being unprepared.
• Tell interest apart from provocation. Answer the first in detail, the second briefly.
• Pressure and accusations work against the goal. People change their behaviour when they see that it is doable, not when they feel they are bad.

Part 21. The first month week by week

Week 1. Get blood tests. Buy B12 and start taking it. Stock up on the basic products. Make breakfast plant-based. Start adding legumes — a tablespoon a day.

Week 2. Find and cook three dishes that you like. Count one day in an app once, to see the real amount of protein. Start soaking grains and legumes overnight.

Week 3. Add three more dishes. Replace dairy with fortified plant milk and plant yoghurt. Increase legumes to a quarter of a cup a day. Sort out calcium: sesame, tahini or chia in the daily diet.

Week 4. Make lunch or dinner entirely plant-based. Start reading ingredient lists in the shop. Add a source of omega-3 — ground flaxseed. Check whether you are reaching your calorie requirement.

After that. Build up legumes, expand the list of dishes, and by the end of the third month reassess how you feel. After six months — follow-up blood tests.

Sources and further reading

Books

• Brenda Davis, Vesanto Melina, "Becoming Vegan" — the most detailed book on vegan nutrition, written by two registered dietitians.
• Jack Norris, Virginia Messina, "Vegan for Life" — shorter and more practical.
• Michael Greger, "How Not to Die" — about nutrition and disease, with a large number of references to studies.

Websites

• nutritionfacts.org — analyses of nutrition research, a non-profit project.
• veganhealth.org — a nutrient reference by Jack Norris, a registered dietitian.
• pcrm.org — Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.
• barnivore.com — a database of vegan alcohol.

Official positions

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (USA), the British Dietetic Association, Dietitians of Canada and a number of other professional organisations recognise appropriately planned vegan nutrition as suitable for all stages of life, including pregnancy, lactation, childhood and sport. Some paediatric associations, including the German and the French ones, disagree and do not recommend vegan nutrition for children — their argument is that there is still little data. The wording "appropriately planned" means the same set of conditions for all sides: a B12 supplement, monitoring of vitamin D, daily legumes and whole grains, and sources of calcium, iron, iodine and omega-3.