Vitamins Vegans Don’t Need

AD | Vitamins vegans don’t need? Okay, don’t need? That obviously depends on you as an individual, your diet, metabolism, and how you absorb certain vitamins and minerals. This is more of a vitamins you might not need based on things commonly found in a vegan diet. Consult with a health professional if you have any concerns. Great, now that we have all of the disclaimers I can think about out of the way, shall we get started?  

I think there’s a big misconception about plant based diets that you’re severely lacking in a lot things. Last year I dedicated a whole series to trying to debunk some of that and sharing how you can get your vitamins and minerals in if you plan your diet right.  

But no one wants to put much effort into planning their diet long term unless they have a really specific goal. We’ve spoken this month about the pros and cons of supplementing. But vegan multivitamin supplements tend to contain just about every vitamin and mineral under the sun, and some of it might not be necessary on an average roughly whole foods based diet.  

Vitamins you do need:  

I’m going to cover some basic essentials I think it is worth taking regardless of what you eat, then we’ll talk about what you might not need.  

• B12 – this is the only thing that absolutely everyone needs to take, no questions asked. Take your B12.  You can consider taking Myer’s cocktail, which is a great way of getting vitamin B12. It is a quick and effective way of enriching your body with the necessary vitamins and nutrients by delivering them directly to your bloodstream.
• Vitamin D – Yes, there are plenty of fortified products and you can eat all of the chestnut mushrooms in the world. But this is something I think it’s very easy not to get enough of as a vegan. And if you’re in the UK, like me, sunlight isn’t in abundance. So, there’s no harm in taking some vitamin D, especially in winter, whether you’re plant based or not.  

Vitamins You Don’t Need on a Vegan Diet  

Iron  

Iron is a tricky one because lots of people need iron supplements anyway regardless of their diets, but iron is something that people automatically assume that vegans are going to be low in. Personally, I find it one of the easiest minerals to get on a plant based diet. Lots of essentials and basic foods contain iron, from lentils and beans all the way to dark chocolate.  

Suggested Post: Plant Based Iron Sources

B Vitamins 

Yes, B12 is essential. But a lot of the other vitamins in the B vitamin family are easily obtained through your diet. Things like broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, lentils, potatoes, sweet potatoes and peppers are all high in a range of B vitamins, not to mention the foods that are rich in just one of the B family.  

Vitamin C 

Now, no one thinks that a vegan needs more vitamin C. But iron is better absorbed when eaten with vitamin C, so the majority of multivitamins designed for vegans include it anyway. However, if you’ve just established that you don’t need more iron, you might be better taking a B12 and healthy bones supplement rather than the multivitamin.  

Vitamin A 

As we established in my plant based sources of vitamin A post, if you like orange fruits and vegetables, and leafy greens like kale and spinach, you’re probably getting an abundance of vitamin A daily.  

Do you still need multivitamins? 

If you still want to take a multivitamin for a top-up or peace of mind if you’re diet maybe isn’t the best, go ahead. It’s not doing any harm. But if you maybe don’t want to take one, or you’d rather take individual supplements for the things you definitely need, you might not need the majority of things included in a multivitamin depending on your diet and general health.  

Were you surprised by any of the things on this list? 

Until next time, 

Sophie 

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