This document tries to condense important parts of a vegan nutrition (nutrition in general) for the most optimal health.
Vitamins
B12 is required supplement. Everyone (even non-vegans) need to intake it regularily to avoid health issues.
How much and how often? "The easiest and most inexpensive way to get one’s B12 is to take at least 2,500 mcg (µg) of cyanocobalamin once each week, ideally as a chewable, sublingual, or liquid supplement (you can’t take too much–all you get is expensive pee)."
See here http://nutritionfacts.org/2011/08/30/3964/ (Dr. Michael Greger's blog)
Vitamin D is required in most of the cases where people are not exposed to the light (most of the people fall in this category).
Vegan supplements of Vitamin D can be taken in form of D2. (will add more info about this later on).
Fatty acids
Omega 9 is non essential fat. Body can make it on our own.
While Omega 6 - LA (linoleic acid) and Omega 3 - ALA (alpha-linolenic acid) are essential fats that we need to intake.
- Ideal Omega 6 : Omega 3 ratio should be 4:1 or better
- Avoid Omega 6 rich/dominant oils to avoid disbalancing the ratio
- Always go for Omega 3 dominant foods
Useful reference table of common fat sources:
Another useful table: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2989356/table/t1-cjc26489/
Omega-3 fatty acids in wild plants, nuts and seeds - PDF: http://sci-hub.cc/10.1046/j.1440-6047.11.s.6.5.x
Another useful nuts fact (source: http://primaltoad.com/macadamias/)
Omega 3 vs Omega 6 in Milligrams
- Macadamias – 60 vs 360
- Almonds – 2 vs 3400
- Hazelnuts – 20 vs 2200
- Pistachios – 70 vs 3700
- Brazil Nuts – 5.1 vs 5800
- Cashews – 7 vs 2200
- Walnuts – 2500 vs 10,100
- Pine Nuts – 31 vs 9400
- Pecans – 280 vs 5800
Spices
Recommended spices for a daily intake are:
- Turmeric/Kurkuma - Helps the body kill the cells programmed to be killed, therefore helps curing many types of cancer. One teaspon a day - every day is good enough. Note: Consuming a bit of black pepper along with Turmeric will increase its bio availability. So do add black pepper in your turmeric meals. http://nutritionfacts.org/video/boosting-the-bioavailability-of-curcumin/
- Cinnamon - Since there is a toxin called coumarin in some cinnamon sources, the best source where no coumarin is found is Ceylon cinnamon. (Coumarin is banned as a food additive, but still can be found in Chinese cinnamon. There is not enough data for Vietnamese and Indonesian cinnamon, so it is better to buy Ceylon)
- Ginger - Fresh is great, but powdered gingers works fine as well!