Vegan Nutrition with Jill Nussinow, MS, RD

Jill Nussinow is a Registered Dietitian, culinary educator, cookbook author, speaker and consultant and all around proponent of a plant-based diet. She teaches vegetarian and vegan cooking at Santa Rosa Junior College in California and other places around the US. She has a son who is almost 15. One of her greatest joys is sharing her enthusiasm for vegetables and pressure cooking with anyone who will listen.

How much vitamin B6, 12, and flaxseed do my children need. Their ages are 10, 8, 6,& 5. Is it ok to add nutritional yeast to my food while am still cooking it. And is nutritional yeast good for my children everyday? If so, how much do they need?

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According to the Dietary Reference Intakes, established by the Institute of Medicine, your younger children need .6 milligrams per day of Vitamin B6 while your 10 year old needs 1 milligram per day. Good sources are potatoes, garbanzo beans, brown rice, wild rice, sunflower seeds and a host of other foods which may likely be part of their diet already.

The B12 requirement is 1.2 micrograms per day for the younger children and 1.8 micrograms for the 10-year old. If you are feeding Vitamin B12 fortified foods such as soy milk or using Red Star brand nutritional yeast, then you will be providing some vitamin B12. One and a half to 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast (depending upon flake size) provides 8 micrograms of Vitamin B12.

Regarding the flax, there is no requirement for flax although it's a very good idea to have some source of Omega 3 fatty acids in their diet daily. The issue with flax is that you will have to grind it fresh or buy it ground and store it in the freezer or refrigerator, and with younger children the fiber in flax might fill them up before they get all the calories they need.

My best guess is that you could sprinkle up to 1 tablespoon of ground flax on their food throughout the day.

About the nutritional yeast: it is a good source of B vitamins, which it appears is one of your concerns. Choose Red Star brand yeast to be sure that it includes the B vitamins.

You can cook with it, sprinkle it on foods or add it to smoothies. Again, you don't want to use "too much" yeast but it's almost impossible for me to say what that would be ? I think that a tablespoon or two per day per child would be plenty but a lot depends on your children and their appetites. Also, remember that variety, balance and moderation are extremely important. Another suggestion is to take a look at Raising Vegetarian Children by Jo Stepaniak, M.S.Ed., & Vesanto Melina M.S., R.D (2002 McGraw-Hill) or one of the other books listed on this site for more specific answers to your questions.

I have been vegan for 5 months. I had blood work and again after being vegan I was disappointed to find my "good" HDL cholesterol dropped from 70 to 50. I was shocked by this result. Is this normal? My bad was slightly lower. What foods can I add to my diet to improve my HDL cholesterol levels?

I don't believe that there is any "normal" since more than your diet can contribute to your blood cholesterol levels. Don't be shocked as your body is in a constant state of flux. The most important questions have to do with how your cholesterol numbers relate to one another and if overall your cholesterol profile, along with triglycerides, are within normal limits for your age and sex. Foods that might improve your HDL cholesterol levels are beans and other legumes, oats, apples and barley, and to a lesser extent walnuts and berries. You also want to be sure that you are exercising. And, in general, you want to avoid fatty foods and those with a lot of saturated fat, so eat nuts but in moderation. I usually suggest that someone in your position take a look at what they eat and see if there are a lot of "unnatural" processed foods. You can start by cutting back on those, or cutting them out. Also, cholesterol is just one indicator of your health. So, think about the big picture and how you are doing with your weight, well being and, of course, what you eat every day. Good luck.

Visit Jill's website TheVeggieQueen.com and her blog theveggiequeen.blogspot.com.

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Disclaimer: The advice given here is for eductional purposes only. You should not use this information to diagnose or treat a health problem or disease without consulting with a qualified health care provider.
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