What you should know about the deficiency in vegan and vegetarian diets

A well-designed vegetarian diet is medically recognized as healthy and recommended for all stages of lifespan, including during infancy, childhood, adolescence, pregnancy and lactation.

Vegetarian and vegan diets benefit from lower levels of saturated fat, cholesterol, animal protein and providing higher levels of antioxidants such as vitamins C and E, folate, fibre, magnesium, potassium, phytochemicals and carotenoids. 

In line with this, vegetarian and vegan diets help in preventing coronary heart disease, obesity, atherosclerosis formation, hypertension, renal disease, cholesterol issues, type 2 diabetes and prostate and colon cancer (Source: Janda & Trocchia, 2001; Nobis, 2008; Alvaro, 2017).

However, vegetarian and, especially, vegan diets are at risk of dietary deficiency as is the case of not properly balanced diets, which do not provide all the nutrients your body needs for its perfect functioning. Therefore, scientists suggest the following list of the nutrients and more importantly its equivalent in the plant-based realm to make vegan and vegetarian diets the perfect ally for your optimal health-management.

Source: McGirr, C., McEvoy, C. T., & Woodside, J. V. (2017). Vegetarian and vegan diets: Weighing the claims.