The USDA define 235 kinds of nutrients in their database. Is there a nutrient found in all animal products and no plant foods?
I read that some foods with zero cholesterol aren't always vegan.
But, are there any vegan foods that contain any cholesterol?
I am looking for a way to filter a list of foods to contain only vegan foods.
If there's any way to at least filter non-vegan foods without filtering some vegan foods, it's helpful already.
Dietary cholesterol should eliminate all options. No whole food plant products contain cholesterol. One could also do statistical combination of tolerances to filter foods in a database:
Protein, specific amino acids in combination to a certain extent (e.g., what's defined as complete protein foods), could be used to rule out most meats and dairy (such as red meat, poultry, fish, eggs, milk, cheese and yogurt). Although, quinoa and other plant foods might get caught when filtering using this.
Lipid levels could be partly used to rule out certain meats and dairy (besides fat free or skim). Most plant-based foods are low in all fats. Avacados, nuts and seeds have have fats though. Perhaps an additional filter could be healthy fats.
Fiber is a third macronutrient that may prove useful to sorting.
From there, there are many micronutrients: vitamins and minerals. Although, by this point in the algorithm, I don't know which animal products would be left to finish the sort. In other words, it depends on the type of program and which nutrients are sorted first. If certain micronutrients are started with, you're going to have different foods left before finishing. There are multiple solutions (depending on the method chosen).
