I eat two poached eggs every morning. The rest of my diet is skim milk, whole grains, legumes and fruits and vegetables. I don't eat oils, cheese or butter. Am I getting enough fat?

Yes. Totally enough.

What are your qualifications to proclaim this?


To the OP - don't depend on strangers from internet discussion boards for your nutritional advice.

two eggs a day sounds like quite a lot

Beautiful Joe

John McDougall and many other plant based doctors (Esselstyn, Ornish, etc.) have written extensively on the subject of fat and how much you need. They say you need very little. If fact, very little is optimal.

They recommend NO animal fats at all, and no vegetable oil. So if the OP eats eggs, she is getting more than she needs according to the plant based doctors in the low fat camp.

Definitely don't take my word for it. All the names I mentioned have books and websites. Anyone can read their arguments and make up your own mind.

Of fat? That's what the OP is asking about. An egg has 5 grams of fat, and fat has 9 calories per gram. That means she's getting only 90 calories a day from fat (if, as she says, the eggs are the only fat she's eating). That's only 5.6% of her calorie intake from fat, assuming she's at the 1600 calories per day required to maintain a 120 pound inactive woman.

IOW, considerably lower than most nutritional guidelines would suggest as healthy.

Of course, there are much healthier sources for fats than eggs.

Hi terra biped,

I am a fan of the plant-based physicians that you mention (McDougall etc.), but their recommendations do not always agree with the recommendations of mainstream vegan / health organizations.

For example, John McDougall incorrectly states that the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that people obtain 5% of their calories as protein: https://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2007nl/apr/protein.htm . As you and I discussed in another thread, the WHO actually recommends that people obtain at least 11% of their calories as protein (thread: https://www.veggieboards.com/forum/60...ml#post3956481 ).

That's why I rarely cite the recommendations of individual physicians or consultants. Instead, I've found that more accurate information comes with reputable organizations, such as the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association, the American Cancer Society, etc.


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The reason I don't eat other fats is because they hurt my stomach. I have gastritis. Poached eggs don't bother me. Personally I don't think I'm getting enough fat. My skin is really dry and itchy. And I find it hard to gain weight.

whole wheat - have you ever used an app like cronometer.com to determine what percentage of your calories are fat? You might find that useful to get an accurate measure of how much you already consume. The app can also help you make sure you are consuming enough calories to gain weight, if that is your objective.
Avocados, nuts, and full fat soy products are some of my top sources of fat. Do those hurt your stomach?

1 large poached egg contains 4.7 grams of fat: https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q...+egg+nutrition

You can use this calculator, from the American Heart Association, to receive the AHA's recommended fat intake for you: http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Health...69_Article.jsp


Also, you can use this approach to make sure you're getting enough calories:

1. Use an online calorie-needs estimator to estimate your daily calorie needs: http://www.active.com/fitness/calculators/calories

2. Then, you can use this calorie rule-of-thumb to make sure that you're getting enough calories:

One cup of cooked beans/lentils contains about 230 calories

One cup of cooked grains/pasta contains about 180 calories

One cup of fresh fruit contains 40-100 calories

One cup of non-starchy vegetables contains 5-40 calories

One cup of nuts/seeds contains 650-1000 calories


You can get detailed calorie information from websites like http://www.calorieking.com .

The Vegetarian Society of the UK has an ovo-lacto vegetarian nutrition webpage: https://www.vegsoc.org/eatwellplate

If you are interested in the vegan diet, Mercy For Animals has a well-done guide (see page 13): http://www.mercyforanimals.org/files/VSG.pdf

For detailed nutrition information, you can also use a free nutrition tracking program, like http://www.cronometer.com

I'm sorry to hear about your gastritis. I used to get the same dry, itchy skin when I was consuming too little fat in my diet too.

My stomach doesn't take too well to a lot of nut butters/peanut butter or anything peanuts, so I tend to keep those to a minimum. I tolerate stuff like avocados, chia seeds, ground flaxseeds, whole almonds, hemp protein powder, and small amounts of vegan mayo more regularly.

I love flaxseeds and they can be incorporated into so many things. If you have a little coffee grinder, food processer, or high speed blender, you can grind them from whole seeds yourself, then store the ground flaxseed in a glass jar in the refrigerator. I add it to oatmeal, homemade whole wheat bread, muffins, pancakes, homemade bean based energy bars, or sprinkle on fresh fruit in the morning for breakfast.

Avocado can be made into a mayonnaise or pesto sauce. Avocado pesto goes great over pasta, or on toast, or with fresh tomatoes, in a sandwich, etc. Avocado mayo works well for potato salad, sandwiches, macaroni cold salad. Fresh sliced avocado goes well in salads.

Chia seeds can also be soaked and used as a binder in baking, or added to smoothies, or used to make homemade jams and puddings. I make a jam with just fresh or frozen raspberries, maple syrup, and chia seeds. I kid you not the chia seeds thicken the jam to a very nice consistency and it keeps a long time. If you have never tried chia pudding, I also highly recommend that. Flax and chia are some of the best plant foods for getting omega 3 fatty acids into your diet. But even leafy greens have a little fat to some extent. Avocado has loads of health benefits as well. And vegan mayo like Just Mayo, well, it helps make food so much more fun.

Eggs are high in cholesterol and most organizations suggest limiting eggs to 3 per week or no more than 1 per day if you are healthy. Here is just one article that mentions this: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/eggs/

And while they are low in fat, it is mostly saturated fat. Plant fats are mostly unsaturated, with the exception of coconut.

If you don't want to consume nuts or seeds even ground up, soy foods like tofu or full fat soy milk provide some fat, but you need to eat a good bit of it if you rely solely on that to get your fats in.

For a high protein breakfast that has a little fat in it, try making tofu pudding by blending some tofu (a half block of the refrigerated kind or full block of small carton) with stuff like pure cocoa powder and banana, or lemon juice and sweetener, or with vanilla extract and maple syrup. Or for lower carb, scramble some tofu with vegetables and spices.

I was thinking about cholesterol rather than fats generally. Eggs are quite high in cholesterol and 14 eggs per week is rather a lot to consume.

My cholesterol was 160 about five years. It's probably even lower now. I'll give avocados a try. They're also low in acidity. That should help too.

If it's the only cholesterol consumed, it would put the OP above the weekly amount recommended, but not by much. It sounds as though the remainder of her diet more than compensates.

I'm no nutrition expert, but I know that you can get healthy pant-based fats from avocados, nuts and seeds. You could also take about a tablespoon a day of flax oil by either swallowing a spoonful or adding it to salad dressings, sauces or smoothies, I think its better when used raw. Flax oil is very good for skin, hair and joints. You can also have dry skin from not drinking enough water.

Hi whole wheat. Do all other fats bother your stomach? Even olive oil?

I would suspect lack of enough calories, enough food, as a cause of your dry skin and hair.

Yes olive oil irritates my stomach. Otherwise I'd be eating it.

grains are essentially grass seeds, and they have a "germ" if they are whole, so you are getting some fat with the grains. Have you tried seed oils since you are eating whole grains that have oil in them already. These are sesame seed, flax seed, rape seed, poppy seed, sunflower seed, etc. Many of these degrade when cooking so should not be cooked with.

I would suggest getting to know the USDA Nutrient Database instead of relying on Google or other websites for nutritional information whenever possible.

Two thumbs up.

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