When transitioning to a vegan diet, we have many fears: "Will I have enough proteins? Will I lose my muscles? Will I have enough vitamins? What about B12? I read it can only be found in animal products."

Let's tackle them here!

Carbs & Fats Balance

In yoga, we don't usually talk about food in terms of fats, carbs & proteins. And I don't think it is something you need to get concerned with either. For example, there are people on a keto diet who almost don't eat carbs and people on a fruit diet who eat lots of carbs.

What you should actually concern yourself with is if you have enough vitamins and minerals. Although people tend to focus on things like macro calculation and completely disregard the micronutrients.

Do I eat enough proteins?

Many people have a wrong understanding of how much protein they need. Sadhguru said that after you have grown up proteins should be only 3-5% of your diet, and 10-12% if you are very active. And Yuri Frolov said that it is almost impossible to have protein deficiency.

But excess protein consumption could cause cancer and other health issues.

If you want to grow some muscles it is very possible on a vegetarian diet - there are multiple real-life examples. Even the athletes agree that the popular opinion on how much protein we need is deceptive.

Vitamins

There is much fear around B12 deficiency. You can read my article about it: https://pranic-diet.com/everything-about-b12 . But in short, if you feel good you shouldn't worry much about it (especially in the first 2-3 years after going vegan).

If you have good digestion and eat different foods and grains (not only rice & wheat) you should be good to go. The human body (or gut microflora) can produce all of them.

Minerals

This is a bit trickier compared to Vitamins because we can't produce them ourselves and can only absorb them from food.

Minerals should be in the right organic form to absorb them. You maybe know when you boil water in a kettle there will be a white layer left. This is the layer of minerals. At first, they were dissolved in water, but after heating, above 65 degrees (boiling in particular), the sediment fell out. Ask the doctor if you can mix this limescale with water and drink it. And a good doctor will ask if you lost it and tell you to never consume it because you will kill your kidneys.

And the same happens when you boil a carrot or potato, the minerals change their form and became unabsorbable and now your body needs to filter them out. It is just visibly unnoticeable because this will happen inside the vegetable.

Deficiencies

Causes

And there are a few important things to take note of:

• Minerals should be in the right organic form to absorb them. For example, if you eat a piece of metal or drink mineral water you won't be able to absorb them because they are in the wrong form.

• After you cook the food you will not be able to absorb as many minerals from it. Thermal process changes their form so that they are not absorbable anymore.

• If you have issues with your guts you will absorb only a small part of what you eat.

• Parasites are a great cause of deficiencies. Ascariasis parasites can such 30 ml of blood every day. So it is not surprising that you will have an iron deficiency if your parasites consume it instead of you.

• Because of the current farming techniques the soil and vegetables are very poor in minerals right now.

Do I Have a Deficiency?

If you are feeling great & full of energy, you don't need to worry much about it. But you can always go to a doctor and take a blood test. It the best if you can find a doctor who is also a vegan/raw eater because we have different norms for certain levels.

Food Supplements

Also, it is worth saying that our conditions are unnatural right now, so there is a chance of you having deficiencies (especially minerals) even if you are on a "natural diet" with lots of raw vegetables. So there is nothing wrong with taking certain food supplements to compensate for the soil problems.

Also, it is worth saying that you should minimize the causes (from above), that is

1. You should eat more raw food (veggies & sprouts).

2. You can take antiparasitic programs.

Final Words

Don't worry about protein, carbs & fats.

If you are feeling great, you are full of energy, you rarely fall sick, your nouse doesn't bleed, then you don't have to worry about vitamins & minerals either.

You can test your blood levels if you want, but it is better to wait 2 years after going vegan.

If your blood levels show a deficiency in X change your diet so that you eat more of X or take natural supplements. I don't recommend multivitamins.