From this list, you probably agree that it will be difficult to get enough protein. You would have to eat at least 2,000 g of vegetables and/or mushrooms per day. Some nuts have quite a lot of protein, but most people don’t eat more than 100 g per day.

So what’s the usual source of protein for a vegan? Legumes such as lentils, peas, chickpeas, and beans are a good source of protein. Lentils have ~25 g, chickpeas ~20 g, green peas ~5 g, and kidney beans ~ 20 g.

Can we eat legumes on a keto vegan diet? The problem is that they all have a lot of carbs, some of them even about 50 g per 100 g. So if you decide to eat legumes, most if not all of your carb allowance should be spent on legumes and other such higher protein foods to help you get as much protein as you can before being kicked out of ketosis. It’s not easy! Small amounts of legumes won’t be enough to cover your daily requirement of protein.

Luckily, there is a second path for getting more protein in on a vegan diet. There are quite a few products made from soybeans that have a high protein content but are low in carbs. Tofu, Tempeh and soy yogurt are popular examples. The exact nutrient content varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, but Tofu and Tempeh contain up to 20 g protein per 100 g and usually less than 1 g net carbs.

Anything else? Well, there are quite a lot of vegan protein products. With vegan protein powders, you may be able to supplement away the worst of amino acid deficiencies. Another problem with protein from plant sources is that it is not of high quality. That means that the distribution of the protein building blocks, the amino acids, is not ideal. Even if you eat enough protein in theory, you may not get the right balance of essential amino acids.

Without supplementation, you’ll be far from optimal if not deficient over the long-term in the amino acids



Taurine

Methionine

Glycine

A well-formulated keto vegan diet with Nutrita

Yes, a keto vegan diet is possible! We don’t recommend it, but it can be done as long as you carefully supplement certain nutrients and make very wise food choices. It should be based on low-carb vegetables that offer a huge variety of vitamins and other micronutrients, nuts that deliver healthy fats and no vegetable oils. Preferably, and this is key, it should include eggs, dairy and bivalve crustaceans

There are, however, quite a few things that you have to avoid, because both the keto and vegan diets exclude specific groups of food. Nutrita makes sure you stay ketogenic by providing you with an insulin index and keto score of foods.

It also gives you a dynamic nutrient density score so that you get enough vitamins, protein, minerals and other micronutrients, which is otherwise a bit tricky on this diet.

Nutrita considers not only the nutrient content of food but also its bioavailability. Bioavailability determines how much of a specific nutrient, like calcium for example, you will be able to absorb. This is especially important when it comes to protein needs on a vegan diet which is at an inherent disadvantage given the highest quality protein is found in animal flesh.

Plant proteins are not only lower in quality, meaning that they don’t all the essential amino acids in the right amounts, but they’re also less bioavailable. Nutrita tells you how much protein from a specific food your body can absorb so that you can avoid complicated calculations and can simply enjoy your healthy meal!