Nutrients in vegetarian foods

Abstract

Persons who use tables of food composition have often found that foods that vegetarians commonly eat are not included. To help remedy this situation, a table is presented which includes the 49 foods on the vegetarian Exchange Lists and 18 additional nonmeat foods. Nutrient contents of household measures of these foods are given for water, protein, fat, carbohydrate, calcium, phosphorus, iron, potassium, zinc, vitamin A, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin C, and folacin. Nutrient amounts were derived from USDA sources and from other published research when available. Nutrient amounts from foods assumed to be identical to those in the table were placed in parentheses. When nutrient amounts were not available, they were estimated from similar foods and placed in brackets. When values found for a single nutrient in a food varied by 20% or more, the total range was shown. When a dash was found in a literature reference and the amount of the nutrient was known to be insignificant, a zero was presented in the table. Thus, there are no gaps in the table. Until accurate laboratory-derived data are available for the nutrients in vegetarian foods, this table, used with appropriate judgment, should be useful for estimating the nutrient intakes of persons who eat vegetarian foods.