Veganism is great for the environment, helps you loose weight and the diet is choke-full of phytonutrients & antioxidants. However you miss out on certain food groups and this in turn can lead to nutritional deficiencies.

DHA and EPA are found in fish and other seafood and are not produced naturally by the body. Your ALA to EPS and DHA conversion is impacted by FADS1 and FADS2 genes. To prevent deficiency you can supplement your diet with EPA and DHA from algae or microalgae oil supplements.

Vegans can have reduced intake of K2 foods which are primarily meat based products. VKORC1 and GGCX genes impact the level of active Vitamin K metabolism. APOE gene also impacts the absorption and transport of fat soluble nutrients like Vitamin K.

People especially vegans with risk variants of MTHFR and MTRR genes will need even higher amounts of B-12 to reduce the deficiency and methylation risk. DNA methylation is an important epigenetic factor in the regulation of gene expression.

Heme iron is found only in meat, and absorbed at a rate of 7 to 35 percent while non-heme iron is typically absorbed at a rate of 2 to 20 percent. People with G type of genetic variant rs4820268 for gene TMPRSS6 have high chances of being deficient in iron. If you're on a plant based diet, you can add Vitmain C to increase bioavailability.

Get the full list of nutrients that you need to be careful about, and how you can use Gini's food lens to optimize your diet.

gini stories

Learn about your health-nutrition-gene relationship

Gini health