Vegan Food Pyramid and Feeding Your Kids
If you're like me, sometimes it's so confusing trying to figure out if you're feeding your kids and yourselves the right variety of foods from the proper food groups. I've always found the task to be confusing but now that my kids and I are vegan, it can be a bit more challenging.
My favorite Vegan Food Pyramid comes from veganfoodpyramid.com, where the artist designed a great version! What I love is that at the very bottom it includes eating a liberal amount of fruits and vegetables, followed by whole grains, breads, rice, pasta and cereals. These are where you'll find a lot of the fortified foods containing some of the essential nutrients needed so sustain a vegan diet. Many cereals contain Vitamin B12 which can be hard to come by in a plant-based diet.
Legumes, seeds and beans are listed under the "eat moderately" category, as well as fortified dairy substitutes. At the top you can find vegetable oils, fats, sweets, salt, spices and nuts.
If you round out the Vegan Food Pyramid with adequate exercise for the whole family, you'll be on the road to a healthy lifestyle in no time!
If you're looking for a standard, government-issued vegan food plan, it doesn't exist (look here http://fnic.nal.usda.gov/nal_display/index.php?info_center=4&tax_level=2&tax_subject=257&topic_id=1359). There are, however, many great Vegan Food Pyramids out there with similar ideas. In my household, I had my kids make our own pyramid with all the food groups they should be eating from.
I even investigated what our government said about nutrition for vegans and there wasn't much. One good thing, however, is that the USDA is now admitting that "vegetarian-style eating patterns have been associated with improved health outcomes..." Times, they are-a-changing!
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