Info Sources

  • VeganHealth
    • The VeganHealth site is the single most helpful resource I’ve found (and something I have come back and referenced numerous times). Specifically, I’ve most used the above “daily needs” page, which is a great summary of their recommendations, with links to further reading if interested. They also have a pretty nice page with “tips for new vegans.”
    • This is also probably the resource I trust the most. Their recommendations seem clear-headed and strongly driven by the literature. Two of the main authors on the site, Jack Norris and Ginny Messina, are registered dieticians and seem very committed to spreading veganism. Due to this goal, I get the impression that they don’t try to sugarcoat nutritional advice, but do their best to give sound advice since this is what will make veganism sustainable for their readers.
      • If I’m ever looking for info from specific dieticians, these two tend to be my go-to sources. Below are their sites, but I mainly just look at them for deeper info on certain topics or if I’m looking for multiple takes on things. I don’t think they very actively post on them anymore and I know Jack mainly uses the VeganHealth site for new info now.

Multivitamins and Supplements

  • Multivitamin I take
    • I compared a lot of options before settling on this one. Feel free to message me for more info on why I chose this one.
  • The one supplement I take
    • I could do without these, but feel like they give me a bit more flexibility: e.g. to not as consistently eat high-calcium, low-oxalate greens or other good sources of calcium.
      • On oxalate: the short story is that oxalate hinders calcium absorption. If you’re interested in more info, see here.

Some Thoughts / Advice / Personal Experience

  • I hope the above resources / info don’t feel overwhelming!
  • Since becoming vegan, I’ve felt that I don’t quite get the common perception that veganism is really hard. It might just come down to personal idiosyncrasies, but it hasn’t felt all that difficult to me to maintain and I don’t currently see much reason for it to not be my lifelong diet.

  • I won’t sugarcoat it: I do think to sustainably and healthily be vegan, you should make some sort of upfront investment to learn and think about nutrition. But there’s a difference between adequate and optimal nutrition. I personally find it easy to ~obsess about nutrition and want to aim towards the “optimal” end of the spectrum, but that’s driven by my own motivations / proclivities, not by strict necessity.

    For some hopefully practical advice, I’d say to approach it as an iterative process. First, aim to learn the strictly necessary things and then set things up around that. Then, if you feel inclined to, you can learn more and refine things as you go. I’d say that a good first step is looking over the daily needs page mentioned above. Frankly, this should basically cover all your bases–in terms of necessities–and probably goes even a bit beyond that.

  • Please feel free to reach out with any questions! I’m more than happy to share my thoughts and experiences.