Nutrition science was born in the early 1800s with the discovery of protein, carbohydrates, and fats. But long before that, humans knew a lot—strictly through trial and error—about food and health without actually understanding what the protective factors in foods were. The first documented nutrition experiment was performed in 1747 by Dr. James Lind, a
Nutrition researchers declared more than thirty years ago that plant foods can provide adequate protein. But “where do you get your protein?” is a question that most vegans have heard more times than they can count. Many of the questions about protein in plant-based diets stem from confusion over what it means for proteins to
You may have heard that vitamin B12 is a controversial topic among vegans. But among nutrition professionals (including those of us who specialize in vegan diets), there is no controversy at all: All vegans need to take a vitamin B12 supplement or consume foods that are fortified with this nutrient. Vitamin B12 is needed for
Calcium For most of human history, people got their calcium from plants, primarily wild, leafy greens. Dairy foods didn’t become part of the human diet until around 10,000 years ago and even then they were consumed only in some parts of the world. Calcium-rich greens were so abundant in early diets that some nutritional anthropologists
Studies show that, on average, vegans consume a little less than 30 percent of their calories from fat. That’s a bit lower than the average for non-vegan Americans, but not by much. The big difference is in the type of fat that vegans consume since plant foods are much lower in saturated fat than meat