Veganism baffles me, it really does. You live in a developed country, with access to properly nutritious food, and yet you've all made a conscious choice to eat the same diet (i.e 100% plant-based) as those in the developing world eat, y'know countries where malnutrition is endemic, y'know countries where they can't afford to eat meat, and yet somehow there are millions of people in developed countries who eat this diet by choice because they believe it to be 'healthy'! Quelle etrange as the French would say!
Malnutrition is not caused by a total lack of food, but a lack of the right food and, as Homo sapiens is an obligate carnivore which has chosen to add a few plants to its diet, it therefore lacks the enzyme necessary to extract nutrition from plants (e.g. oxalase for breaking down oxalic acid (found in dark green leafy veg) and phytic acid (found in all grains)). Remember, something is only an "excellent source" of a certain nutrient if the organism consuming it has the wherewithal to break it down to extract the nutrition, otherwise it has zero nutritional value.
Another thing is that we lack the bacteria necessary to synthesise B12, which is another reason why we must eat meat. A vegan diet is also very high in monounsaturated fats which are, along with grains, a leading cause of obesity and heart disease. In order to receive the correct nutrition, it is imperative that an organism eats the diet it evolved to eat, and the physiology of Homo sapiens is not far removed from that of Canis lupus, Panthera leo, or Ursus arctos.
Because a PBD is nutritionally poor, thousands - millions - more hectares of land are required to grow crops, which will intensify deforestation. If you're vegan because you believe it's cruel to kill animals, then what about all the animals which are killed when the Amazon is deforested…? They're (critically) endangered, why would you rather they died just so you didn't have to eat a cow (or a pig, or a sheep or a chicken…? There are fewer than 2,000 brown spider monkeys left in the wild, I think I'd rather kill a pastured cow (of which there are over 1.8 billion on Earth) than a critically endangered monkey, but each to their own.
Finally, do you ever consider how your food gets to you…? It's predominantly air-freighted - how's that helping to save the planet…?
Being vegan is extremely myopic (not to mention somewhat hypocritical). If you want to be vegan, be vegan, but just don't kid yourself that it's healthy and/or will save the planet, just please ensure you're supplementing, otherwise you'll end up malnourished. You'll need iron, zinc, magnesium, manganese, calcium, selenium, iodine, potassium, copper, full spectrum B complex, plus fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K (because a vegan diet is devoid of animal fats, vegans are often deficient in fat-soluble vitamins) and, for the sake of your heart you really need to add a saturated fat source, lard is the gold-standard (it's highly nutritious) but as you won't eat meat and animal fats, then EVCO is the next best thing, good source of MCTs too.
