— Alanna Dougherty

A good question. And absolutely and I'm really excited that you're going from vegetarian to vegan because I think that's gonna be a big difference in terms of your your long term Health outcomes. And yes soy is not a required Food Group by any means a lot of people associate a plant-based diet whether vegan or vegetarian with having to eat soy and a lot of people get afraid of that. Now let me just say I always say this there's nothing wrong with soy Soy foods are wonderful nutrient-dense. They're great, you know culinarily speaking. They have decreased risk associations with prostate cancer and breast cancer recurrence. So soy foods are wonderful. Now if you have an intolerance though fret not you can absolutely get enough protein. And remember you don't need as much protein as you may hear. You only need about point eight to one grams per kilogram. So if you're say, you know, most women if you need about 45 50 grams Max for the day and that's really just very super easy to get so how you get that. I recommend all other legumes so soy is a legume but there are tons of like humans. There's pinto beans and butter beans which I'm gonna have for lunch next. There's you know, black beans lentils and there's all sorts of different lentils caviar lentils red lentil green lentils French lentils. All of those different foods you could do all sorts of different things with you can make you know, you can make hummus. You can make a loaf like a lentil loaf or Bean loaf. You can make a bean burger a bean Patty, you know, there's so many ways to get lentils beans into your diet. And so that's a great source of plant protein. Got just the right amount of of amino acids. Not too much. Just the right amount not lots of fiber and lots of other wonderful reasons to eat legumes. So I recommend going for about a cup to a cup and a half of legumes every single day so that can come in all those different sources. You can eat them straight up like I'm gonna put them on my salad you could put them in all of those different foods. I talked about you can make it being chilly, but it's really easy and delicious to make sure you're getting the legumes every day another wonderful source of plant protein are nuts and seeds. And what's also wonderful about nuts and seeds is you're also getting all these other wonderful. I keep pulling my sweater because my microphone my headset is pulling my thing back. But anyway, sorry keep doing that looks like a tick. So let's and seeds are wonderful sources of Arginine and vitamin E and phytosterols and there is a huge amount of evidence supporting at the health benefits of consuming one to two ounces or 30 to 60 grams of nuts and seeds every day. So great way to get your protein and you're also getting all these other nutrients so nuts and seeds you could be eating you could have about a about a handful about not a handful but like a palm full will give you about one to two ounces a day, but you could also do that by making a nut bass or seed-based dressing that's a delicious way to incorporate nuts and Seasons your diet or you can do a nut or seed-based sauce to put over your vegetables because I'm always trying to get you eat more vegetables or you can do a little trail mix, you know, keep it have it on the Go I mean it's really easy to eat nuts and seeds and it's a really good way to make sure you're getting all of your protein. If you do that with the cup to a cup and a half of legumes every day, you're gonna be golden don't have to worry about it because remember Bananas have protein even bananas have protein brown rice has a lot of protein. And again, we don't want to get too much protein. We want to get just enough and we really don't need as much as everyone's saying so that's don't be assured going from vegetarian vegan is wonderful because you're getting rid of all the cholesterol and such and fat and all those stuff found and on the essential amino acids found in eggs and dairy and it's it's really a big step up dietary wise. So congratulations and let me know if you need any help because that's a really important transition.