Vegan Nutrition Guide: The Best Vitamin and Mineral Sources

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When you go vegan, I highly recommend tracking your foods using a tool like Cronometer (free).

You’ll likely see that your intake is low in certain nutrients.

It’s going to be different for everyone. So instead of writing a 100 page guide here, I’ll link to detailed resources of the best vegan foods for each nutrient.

It’s easy to develop deficiencies when you switch to a completely different type of diet. Many new vegans do, develop symptoms (e.g. fatigue, headaches, etc.), and then claim “I’m just not made to be vegan”.

The fact that you’re here means you likely won’t fall into that category, which is great.

This guide will help you identify foods to try to incorporate into your diet and correct any (hopefully minor) deficiencies.

Vegan Sources of Fat and Protein

Why only fat and protein, and not carbohydrates?

Almost every vegan diet is already high in carbohydrates, that’s just the nature of plant nutrition. The list of vegan foods for keto is quite small.

If you’re just getting started looking at vegan nutrition, start with these resources:

Vegan Sources of Vitamins

Most vitamins are pretty easy to get on a vegan diet, but it’s still possible to lack any of them depending on what you’re eating.

I’ve created detailed lists of the best vegan sources of each vitamin:

And while it’s not technically a vitamin, you may have some interest in plant based sources of CoQ10 (an enzyme that’s a nutrient).

Vegan Sources of Minerals

Mineral deficiencies are more common than vitamins for vegans.

Here are links to detailed lists of good sources for each mineral, in alphabetical order:

It may seem like a lot of work, but over time you’ll need to check these lists less and less.

You’ll find ways to include diverse plant foods into your diet that cover all essential vitamins and minerals, and eating a healthy diet will become easier.

Getting The Most Nutrition From Your Food

Storage methods don’t typically change nutritional value. For example, you can freeze tofu and it will taste different, but the nutrition is the same.

However, your cooking method can. In general, steaming and frying is the best way to maximize your nutrition from foods.