
For many reasons people have a belief, a strong belief, that they need to eat animals and animal products to have a balanced diet and to fill their daily nutrient requirements. It’s just not true.
But hopefully, you are not one of those people or you are someone who is transitioning to eating more of a plant-based diet or nothing but plants. That would be fantastic because if more people ate a whole foods plant-based diet exclusively our health care system wouldn’t be as burdened, our environment would be in much better shape and we would vastly reduce the needless suffering of millions of animals.
Changing your eating habits can be difficult and knowing how to get the nutrients you need can initially be tough too. A good rule to follow is to embrace variety. The more inclusive your diet is of all the choices you have the better you will be at meeting your nutrient requirements. And the more you will enjoy eating too. Just think of having different meals every time you eat instead of the same dish every night or for lunch.
So with that in mind, you will find below some info graphics to remind you what foods have zinc, iron and so on. I hope you find these as a useful reminder on what our favorite foods contain.
Starting with the classic ‘Yeah, but where do you get your protein?’ question here is the protein info graphic. I kept this to 4 choices because all plants have protein and also contain all essential amino acids. This myth of having to mix plants and having to add animal products to ‘complete’ the protein was disproved years ago.
Zinc is needed to help fight off invading bacteria and viruses. The body also uses it to make proteins and DNA, the genetic material in cells. The body also needs zinc to develop and grow properly.
Omega 3 fatty acids are essential nutrients that are important in preventing and managing heart disease by helping to slow the development of plaque in the arteries, lower blood pressure and reduce the chance of abnormal heart rhythm. And you don’t need to get your Omega 3 from fish oil. Something to keep in mind is western diets tend to be low on omega 3 and really high on Omega 6. The recommended ratio of Omega 6 to 3 is 4:1. Research has shown that western diets tend to have this ratio from 10:1 to 50:1.
Iron is one of those nutrients that people believe you have to get it from meat. Not true at all. In fact, heme iron (iron from meat) has been linked to cancer.
Potassium. Contrary to rumor, bananas are not that high in potassium compared to other options. A medium banana provides only 8% of the daily requirement compared to a large sweet potato that has almost 25% of the daily requirement. I’m not beating up on bananas or the banana lobby but why is there this association of potassium with bananas? I don’t know, maybe because they are ready to eat right out of the skin.
And finally, we have calcium. Milk does the body good, right? Wrong. Marketing at it’s best. I’m not going to write paragraph after paragraph as to why we should avoid dairy at all costs because I’ve done that already but listen to what Dr. Milton Mills has to say. And I will say this, you need milk from a cow just as much as you need milk from a cat, a dog, a rat, or a horse.
finally
I hope you enjoyed this post. It’s my first attempt at creating info graphics and I think it servers its purpose here well. Don’t believe the lies companies tell you and the lies from industry-funded studies. It’s all about the money.
Believe me when I say that if they find a way to make broccoli sexy or exuding machismo, you’ll be throwing that on the BBQ instead of steak.
Yours in health,
Darryl