6 Important Nutrients and How to Get Them

Your body needs protein for a number of reasons, the most significant of which is the growth and repair of your body's cells. Protein also transports other nutrients around your body, enhances your immune system, helps maintain fluid balance in your body, and provides an emergency source of energy. Protein also helps satiate appetite, which can help with weight loss.

Protein deficiency in children can impair growth, and in adults, lack of protein can cause loss of hair and muscle mass and abnormal accumulation of fluid.

Typical non-vegetarian diets contain well above the actual daily protein requirements, so contrary to popular myth a carefully-chosen vegan/vegetarian diet can generally still provide sufficient protein.

Where to get it

• Legumes
• Nuts and seeds
• Grains
• Green leafy vegetables
• Yellow fruits and vegetables
• Tofu
• Soymilk
• Milk products
• Eggs
• Fish
• Lean meats
• Poultry

Why it's important
Calcium plays a vital role in nerve and muscle function, clotting of blood, enzyme regulation, insulin secretion and overall bone strength.

When you don't get enough calcium from food, your body draws calcium out of your bones instead. This bone loss over a period of years may lead to osteoporosis - thinning of the bones (porous bones). The bones become weak, brittle and easy to fracture, particularly the bones of the wrist, hips and spine.

Loss of height and curvature of the spine may also develop from lack of calcium, as may periodontal disease - the deterioration of the jaw bones that support the teeth.

Where to get it

• Milk
• Cheese
• Yogurt
• Buttermilk
• Green leafy vegetables
• Tofu (if processed with calcium)
• Orange juice (fortified)
• Enriched bread
• Sesame seeds
• Turnip greens
• Salmon with bones (canned salmon); sardines

Why it's important
Chronic shortage of iron leads to anemia, symptoms of which can include pale skin, excessive tiredness or fatigue, breathlessness, general feeling of malaise and irritability, feeling cold all the time, and a decreased attention span.

Iron deficiency in children (even without anemia), can result in lethargy, irritability, repeated infections, and development problems.

Where to get it

• Eggs
• Spinach and other dark green leafy vegetables
• Whole grains
• Dried fruits including dates, prunes, raisins
• Legumes
• Molasses-only if boiled in cast-iron pots
• Enriched cereals
• Oatmeal
• Lean red meats
• Baked clams

Why it's important
Vitamin D is essential for the absorption of calcium, and thus for keeping teeth and bones strong and healthy.

Vitamin D deficiency results in poor bone and teeth development in children (rickets), and loss of calcium from bones in adults which can result in osteoporosis. 

Where to get it

• Fortified milk
• Eggs
• Cheese
• Enriched cereals
• Fortified soymilk

Why it's important
Zinc is essential for tissue growth and the senses of taste and smell. It also boosts the function of the immune system.

Deficiency can result in slow growth, poor appetite, loss/change of taste and smell, mental lethargy, slow wound healing, increased susceptibility to infections, excessive hair loss, reduced sperm count and reduced sexual libido.

Where to get it

• Milk
• Whole grains
• Yeast
• Rye bread
• Eggs
• Dark green leafy vegetables
• Lean red meats
• Steamed oysters

Why it's important
Some severe illness can result from a long-term deficiency of vitamin B12 including severe anemia and irreversible spinal cord degeneration with neurological symptoms. Because these symptoms don't appear until after many months of poor B12 intake, it is essential to keep an eye on intake to prevent the situation getting out of control.

People eating a vegan diet are more at risk for vitamin B12 deficiency as most food sources for B12 are animal in origin.

Where to get it

Unfortunately for vegetarians, there are very few non-animal sources of Vitamin B12 as plant matter contains virtually none. That said, the amount of B12 required by the body is very small, and the body's stores last for up to six years. Therefore, sufficient vitamin B12 can be obtained by taking vitamin supplements, or eating non-animal foods that have been fortified with Vitamin B12.

• Eggs
• Milk
• Yogurt
• Cheese
• Fortified miso
• Fortified soy sauce
• Fortified soymilk
• Fortified tempeh
• Enriched cereals
• Lean red meats
• Poultry
• Seafood