FAQ: You need to know this about vegan nutrition

Hi, I’m The Rawtarian from the www.rawtarian.com and I am excited but a little nervous to do this little video here because as you know, I love creating raw brownies, delicious salads, Alfredo sauce – all kinds of raw vegan delights. And what I am not excited about is talking about nutritional content: calories, protein, vitamins. I do it if I have to do it. So what I am doing today is talking about two very important issues: protein and B12. As a raw vegan you need to know both of those, but I’m going to boil it down for you, those of you who are like me who are not really excited about science./

So, let’s start first with protein. What you need to know and as you explore the raw vegan diet you will be asked, “How do you get your protein?” from, you know, people who are concerned and love you such as my dad who wants to make sure I get enough protein. Because normally, people are used to having protein as meat. But what I really want to say is – yes, you can absolutely get protein from fruits and vegetables and nuts and seeds. And all you need to do is know a few things and know that you can answer with certainty, “Yes, you can get protein from fruits and vegetables. You can get an abundant amount of protein and oh yes, the example I was going to give is think of cows and horses. Think how muscular they are, how strong, how fit – and all they eat is, you know, plant foods as well. So what you need to know about protein is the average woman, there’s a crazy calculation but you could use this if you’re of average height and weight, that you need to get about 55 grams of protein per day. Now, an average dude might need around 65 grams. So there is a crazy calculation but it’s complicated. But for the sake of discussion, let’s use that.

So for me, for example, 55 grams of protein would be more than enough. But how do you know how much protein that is? Well, a quarter of a cup of almonds, and four tablespoons of hemp seed hearts have about 15 grams of protein. So remember, what did I say? I was supposed to have about 55? Let’s just round it up to 60 grams of protein. If I ate, and oh my God I know it’s starting to sound scientific, but basically, if I eat, like a crazy amount of hemp seed hearts in one day, like 4 tablespoons in my smoothie in the morning, maybe 4 tablespoons again on my salad – which is delicious, with hemp seed hearts – that would be half of my needed protein for the day. And then I could get my other half perhaps from, let’s say, in dinner I might have a nut burger with almonds, maybe a quarter cup of almonds in that. And then if I had a brownie like this. This is probably not a quarter of a cup. But if I had a brownie with at least a quarter of a cup of almonds in that, that would be protein enough for the day. So now that was getting overwhelming but the gist of what you need to think about and realize is that you can totally get enough protein from fruits and vegetables.

And you just want to make sure you’re consuming some of those high protein foods like almonds, hemp seed hearts, those are some of the two biggies that are really good for protein. So frequently, if it doesn’t really matter what nut you’re using, say in a raw pie crust and it calls for cashews, those have a lot less protein than almonds. I think I have them written down, cashews, the same amount, has 5 grams of protein and almonds has 15 grams of protein. So almonds have 3 times more protein than cashews. So that’s the protein issue. Yes, you can do it. But it is really important, so you do want to pay a little bit of attention just to make sure you’re getting some of those high-value protein items in your day.

Let’s leave that protein thing. If you want to know more, I do have a podcast which is basically like a radio show or an mp3 that is about protein. And that’s for free, you can download that especially if you’re like a dog walker or a jogger or a commuter in your car. Listen to my podcasts! They’re fun and they’re a lot longer and they’re easy to consume when you’re on the road.

So that’s protein!

Now the last thing I want to just touch on briefly is vitamin B12. It’s a very important vitamin. There’s so many vitamins that you could be thinking of and aware of and minerals, but as a vegan who does not eat animal products, you need to supplement with vitamin B12. I’m not big in to supplements. I don’t have like, a crazy vitamin caddy. But B12, you can’t get it without eating animal products. So if you’re not eating animal products you need B12, and if you’re deficient in B12, it can actually cause like neurological damage. So it’s very easy to supplement with it, you could take vitamins, you could take shots, or you could, there’s some food that’s fortified with B12. But anyway, the gist of this is, if you’re a vegan and a raw vegan, you need to be taking B12. And it’s one of the most important vitamins for you. So do it! And really, it is not available in plants, it just comes from animal products so you do want to make sure you’re getting enough B12. If you do happen to be getting any type of bloodwork done, they can easily check your B12 levels. And I would recommend doing that. I actually do that about once a year, just to make sure everything is sound. And for me I just take a B12 vitamin once a day and my body consumes that and assimilates very well, so my B12 levels are fabulous.

And that is really all I wanted to tell you about in terms of nutrition today. Thank you so much for watching and don’t worry, I won’t be going too heavy on the nutrition. But these two points are very important for your health, and I would be remiss if I didn’t share them with you. So thank you so much for joining me today. I’m the Rawtarian from the www.rawtarian.com, where I share plenty of simple, satisfying, raw food recipes. Thank you again for being here and I hope to talk to you soon.