Reddit mentions: The best sea vegetables

the only nutrient that is harder to get on vegan diet is b12 as far as I know. everything else will just require you to learn and change your habits a little bit.

• B12: I take this brand, which is a little pricey, but is very high quality. Contains both methylcobalamin and adenosylcobalamin, and does not contain any additives. If you set a price alert on camelcamelcamel.com you can also get it for pretty cheap (I got a years supply for about $24 dollars a bottle). One bottle should last you a month or possibly more.
  
  as for other nutrients that are important to make sure you're getting, vegan or not:
  
  
  
  
• Zinc: this is a good brand if you want to supplement with it. pumpkin seeds are a good whole food source.
  
  
• Iodine: Spirulina is a good source, a daily serving will get you about 30% of the RDA, and spirulina is kinda like a whole food multivitamin. High in protein too. Sea vegetables like dulse (would recommend getting atlantic only) are great sources of iodine. I put a tablespoon or two in a smoothie that I have regularly.
  
  
• Omega 3 (EPA/DHA): Pure encapsulations is generally a good brand, though this particular formulation seems to melt/stick together. They'll probably fix that. You can also get them from flax seeds (either ground, or blend them), hemp seeds, stuff like that. Make sure you're getting a good balance of EPA and DHA-- some things just contain a lot of DHA.
  
  I handle most of those just by taking b12 supplement in the morning, and sticking some flax, hemp, and pumpkin seeds as well as dulse flakes in my smoothie. Once it's a habit, you don't need to think about it anymore.
  
  As far as any other concerns, it's just about making sure you're eating enough, as vegan foods are less calorie dense and so if you eat the amount you're used to eating, you won't be eating enough; and eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables somewhat consistently. Adding a bunch of things like raspberries, frozen wild blueberries, spinach, kale, cilantro, etc to a smoothie in the morning also makes this easy.
  
  Making fruit a big part of your life also makes things easy. Apples, bananas, avocados, dates, mangoes etc are great, easy snacks.
  
  Make steamed potatoes or other veggies-- it is so damn easy! You just wash the potatoes, put some water in the bottom of the pot, steam for 15-30 mins (until a fork can go all the way through), and then toss with some herbs, olive or coconut oil, and sea salt, and you have a delicious filling dinner.

skinny white privileged vegan kid here (don't think I'm low on empathy or have a closed mind though):

wouldn't judge you for doing what you need to do, but a vegan diet is less expensive for a given quality (i.e. an organic, local omnivore diet is more expensive than an organic, local vegan diet; and a conventional omni diet is more expensive than a conventional vegan diet). There's a reason that the staple foods in third world countries (rice and beans, lentils for example) are vegan.

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I'd aim for a high carb low fat vegan diet consisting mainly of whole foods, i.e. non processed foods. Per calorie these are also usually less expensive because you do the preparation. This will mean a lot of cooking on your own, and if you don't have time to do this and need to rely on processed foods, that's okay too, do what you need to do. I'd make meals out of bulk staples like rice, beans, and lentils; and then add whatever fresh veggies and fruits your budget allows on top of that. It will definitely be important for your nutrition to have a variety of fruits and vegetables, so the more the better, but these are typically more expensive than staple grains and legumes, so do whatever is possible. If you can't get fresh fruit, try Wyman's frozen wild blueberries.

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You'll also need a b12 supplement and probably iodine as well, as going without them will lead to severe cognitive problems. Most people get b12 from meat because animals are injected with synthetic b12. This is a good b12 supplement because it has no additives and contains both methylcobalamin and adenosylcobalamin, but despite the fact that it'll last you a month, it's expensive (about $1 per day-- the price fluctuates though, and I've gotten it for $25 a bottle) so get whatever you can afford.

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Dulse flakes are a good source of iodine and you can use these like you would salt, as is spirulina which is kinda like a whole food multivitamin (has some b12 too) which is probably your best bet to make sure you're covering all your bases, but again, whatever you can afford. I believe most salt is iodized so if you use an iodized salt that is probably good enough, though my personal belief is that the naturally occurring version is a better bet.

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Good luck.

It's a little over hyped. It's just red dulse. The "tastes like bacon" was just a method of preparation. When cooked in a salty, smokey, crispy way, it can be used like fakin' bacon. The researchers actively gave reporters bacon'ed pieces so that they could shamelessly ride the internet hype train into convincing people to do what's delicious and good for them. You can order dried dulse online and rehydrate it really easy. Like this stuff on amazon. It's great in soups and salads, and has a great fishy / oceany flavor that some people who were seafood junkies might miss. When crispy, it's a little bacony, and there are recipes to guide you in that.

TL;DR It's good, and super healthy. Everyone should eat more sea vegetables. There is no special strain of bacon-flavored dulse though. It's a recipe on a more common (ish?) product.

this.

Stuff is delicious.

1. That's not Chinese food
   
   
2. Most restaurants either buy them ready-made or from a dry mix.