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B12, protein, iron, etc are usually the ones we all hear about. But what about fat soluble vitamins? A vegan diet is characteristically low in fat. Lipids or fats are important to absorb these vitamins.

Mind map

Just going off the national dietary recommendations, it takes at least three whole avocados to meet the RDA:

CronometerAvocados

Or it takes about one cup of nuts:

CronometerNuts

For other fatty foods, I haven't found seeds to have much. Although, 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil provides 20% RDA of fat:

CronometerOil

Cronometer.com


I've heard recommendations about eating a variety of foods on a vegan diet (which seems to be about getting complete protein). And of course, besides the B12 fortified food or supplement, there's also iodine that should be either gotten through cooking/sprinkling food with ionized salt, iodine drops or iodine in a vegan vitamin.

But there seems to be very few focused on fat quantity. (Even though I have heard points about omegas, polyunsaturated fats.) The quantity of both types of healthy fats (monounsaturated too) seem to be largely ignored.

This is what I really want to know: Is there some other way to get the RDA quantity of healthy fats on a vegan diet? (Note, coconut has mostly saturated fat.)


Related

How much fat can the body absorb [in one sitting]? Implications for daily fat distribution

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  • I wasn't sure on how to title this line of inquiry. I want it to be somewhat objective (to diswade speculations and anecdotes).
    – adamaero
    May 19, 2020 at 17:05

2 Answers 2

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I started trying to solve this inquiry by looking at the results of blood tests. It appears none of the ones I found have vitamin levels.

I then searched, pubmed.gov for "fat soluable vitamins vegetarian" as most research does not say "vegan".

Athletes should be discouraged from chronic implementation of fat intakes below 20% of energy intake since the reduction in dietary variety often associated with such restrictions is likely to reduce the intake of a variety of nutrients such as fat-soluble vitamins and essential fatty acids,⁹ especially n-3 fatty acids.

Interestingly, research has indicated that low-fat dieting might negatively influence testosterone levels in males [67]. [...] In many instances, it appears that the health implications of a dietary fat might reflect its fatty acid composition [64, 69], meaning that attention should be paid to the quantity and quality of fat consumed. Achieving recommended values of 0.5–1.5 g∙kg/day (or 30% of daily caloric intake) is feasible for vegan athletes given adequate consumption of oils, avocados, nuts and seeds.


  1. Test1
  2. Test2
  3. Test3
  4. Test4
  5. Test5
  6. Test6
  7. Test7
  8. Test8
  9. Test9

Further

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4628270/

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  • 2
    pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6538617 this link suggests that the decrease in testosterone in men happens only when eating lower dietary fat but a higher percentage of it is unsaturated fat. Which is unconvient for people who don't give a f*** about athleticism and prefer reducing testosterone for lesser chances of developing cancer, since well..unsaturated fat is even worse than testosterone when it comes to cancer and also causes other disseases.
    – user3807
    May 25, 2020 at 13:11
  • I'm not sure what you're trying to say in the last fragment. A decrease in testosterone can be the result of several different dietary reasons, and beyond diet.
    – adamaero
    Aug 1, 2020 at 17:54
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Short answer: No

You don't need to ingest dietary fat to stay alive, you only need Omega 3 and 6. If your body needs more fat it will just use your body fat or the excess carbohydrates or proteins. There is really no biological need for an animal to eat any other type of fat at all.

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  • 2
    Could you provide some sources for your claims? The body can get energy from other sources than fat, like the carbs or protein you mention, but OP asked about the fat needed to absorb fat-soluble vitamins - A, D, E and K. That's not the same process. May 22, 2020 at 10:15

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