What else should I be eating?

Woke up this morning with a slight sore throat. I want to keep this from getting any worse, and also improve my daily diet. I don’t eat animals or animal by-products, so please don’t tell me I need to eat meat or drink milk.

So far today, I have had: Breakfast: Cup of coffee and a bagel with “butter.”

Took a smoothie to work that I drank between 9:30 and 11:30… Two bananas and maybe a cup or a cup and a half of frozen blueberries, with a little bit of water added. Added a tablespoon of flax seed in that.

Lunch: A salad (romaine, spinach [1/2 cup], sunflower meats [1/4-1/3 cup], chickpeas [1/4-1/3 cup], mushrooms) with a homemade “Ranch” dressing, white rice (normally have brown… leftover from Chinese food), carrots (two or three, chopped and steamed).

Had a nectarine around four, four thirty. Had a whole-wheat pita bread with maybe 1/4-1/2 cup of hummus a little while ago. Not sure what I’m going to have for dinner yet… Not much in the house. I’ll probably end up having a stir-fry, but I don’t think there are many vegetables here, if any… I need to go shopping. Anywho.

I’m sorry that was so long, and if you skipped most of it, that’s quite all right. But, what else should I add in to my daily diet? Other meals I typically have are whole-wheat pasta with sauce or “butter,” eggplant sandwiches, brown rice, stir-fries with or without tofu, Eggplant Parmesan (minus the Parmesan), …

Also, how can I keep my sore throat from getting worse? I can’t go to the doctor since I don’t have health insurance at the moment.

On a final note, I wasn’t sure if I should put this in the “Vegetarian and Vegan” section or here… ’cause while I am nearly a Vegan, this is more about health than V&V issues… And “diet” can also mean how you eat, not necessarily that you’re on restricted caloric intake… Which I am not–Already lost the 45+ pounds I needed to.

Thanks in advance to anyone who bothered to read all/most of this and reply. And if you think this is better suited for the V&V category, let me know and I’ll delete it and repost there.

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I am so stressed about what I ate today. I ate wayy too much. Breakfast was good. piece of whole grain?

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2 comments a "What else should I be eating?"

Hmm… I would say your diet is actually pretty well balanced. I would suggest just drinking a glass of orange juice in the morning and one at night for more vitamin c to help your immune system for your throat. What I do for a sore throat is a cup of tea with some honey in it to bring with me on the go as I leave the house and I also eat a tablespoon of honey when I really need to relieve some soreness. I would also advise against eating take-out chinese food from now on. I know a few people who work in take-out restaurants and they use the same pots to cook everything and rarely wash them (so there may possibly be some meat left over in there sometimes). I usually make my own fried rice and stir-frys when thats what I’m in the mood for.

If you aren’t looking to lose weight or add muscle, your diet looks good. All your carbs look to be from complex sources, you get your fiber, and you get a very good mix of vegetables. I would add maybe a serving of almonds/cashews/avocado to add some good fat. I see you are getting some with the sunflower seeds, but nuts are a very good complement to sunflower seeds. Sunflower seeds are high in polyunsaturated fat and low in monounsaturated fat, while almonds are the reverse. If you have energy problems in the morning, I’d eat more in the morning, your breakfast seems small.

If you are looking to add muscle or lose weight, I’d say the above, plus get more protein. I’m afraid I don’t really know a lot about vegan protein sources beyond soy beans. Nothing in your listed diet gets more than 17% of its calories from protein, which is pretty low.

What else should I be eating?

2 comments a "What else should I be eating?"

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