Once considered fringe, vegan eating is one of the most in-vogue dietary trends. About one per cent of the world’s population identify as vegan, which means they don’t eat any foods of animal origin including meat, fish, eggs and diary food. While this may seem a small number, it has been increasing rapidly over the past few years.

Sales of meat-free and diary-free foods are booming, with even fast food chains cashing in by offering vegan options. It’s predicted that the global vegan food market will be worth US$24.3 billion by 2026.

Why are plants becoming so popular?

A Mintel survey in the U.K found health, weight management, animal welfare and environmental concerns were the big motivators for people to switch to vegan eating. There’s plenty of evidence that eating more plant foods – vegetables, fruit, legumes, nuts, seeds and wholegrains – coupled with a reduced consumption of animal foods, is good for our health, reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and some cancers. But you don’t have to become vegan to eat more plants. Along with full-time veganism, flexitarianism – part-time vegetarianism or veganism – is also becoming more mainstream.

Eliminating all meat, fish, diary and eggs from your diet will mean cutting out valuable sources of nutrients. So, if you’re following a vegan diet, can you meet all your nutritional needs?

Yes, you can, says US vegan dietitian Brenda Davis, a leader in the field of vegan nutrition. But you need to plan. One of the mistakes vegans make, she says, is ignoring the nutrients of concern. You need to make sure that the main nutrients found in foods you’re no longer eating – meat, fish, diary and eggs – are being replaced by plant sources.

Clare Collins, professor of nutrition at the University of Newcastle, agrees. She says vegans must pay strict attention to what they eat and understand food better than the average omnivore or even vegetarian.

What are the nutrients you need to watch out for if you opt for a vegan diet?

Vitamin B12

This is an incredibly important vitamin but one that’s only available from animal foods such as meat, fish, diary and eggs, or in the form of supplements. Trace amounts may be found in some plant foods such as mushrooms that may be contaminated by soil or insects, but these are not reliable sources for vegans, says Davis. “The only reliable sources for vegans are supplements and fortified foods,” she says.

“You don’t want to end up with a B12 deficiency,” says Professor Collins. B12 is vital for making DNA, fatty acids, red blood cells and neurotransmitters – chemicals that pass signals around the brain.

While a deficiency may manifest first as vague symptoms like light-headedness and tiredness, it can progress to mood changes like depression and nerve problems like numbness, pain and loss of taste and smell.

Iron

Iron deficiency is the most common nutritional disorder in the world. This essential mineral is best known for its role in transporting oxygen around our bodies in red blood cells, so if you’re deficient you’re going to feel tired and lethargic, lack the ability to concentrate, and have a lowered immunity to any bug going around.

Plants do contain iron – it’s found in foods like legumes and beans, seeds and dried fruit – but it’s in a form that isn’t as well absorbed as the iron found in meat. This means vegans and vegetarians are more at risk of deficiency if they are not careful with their diet. One simple way to help your body absorb more plant iron is by including a source of vitamin C with your meal. Vegetables like red capsicum and broccoli, and fruit such as oranges, kiwis and strawberries all contain good amounts of vitamin C.

Professor Collins also recommends avoiding cups of tea immediately after meals. “The tannins and the phytates in the tea actually interfere with the absorption of the iron,” she says.

Calcium

Calcium is important for bone health, heart health, muscles and nerves. Diary foods provide a rich source for omnivores so if you don’t replace diary foods with calcium-rich plants, your body will ‘steal’ calcium from your bones putting you at risk of osteoporosis (brittle, weak bones) later in life. One important study, the EPIC-Oxford study, found that vegans who consumed less than 525mg calcium per day had a 30 per cent increase in fracture risk compared to non-vegetarians. Calcium-rich plant foods include tofu, low-oxalate greens (such as broccoli, bok choy, and kale), calcium-fortified non-diary drinks, almonds, sesame seeds (tahini), and figs.

Long chain omega 3 fats

Omega-3 fats are particularly important for the health of your brain, eyes and cell membranes. The most well-known sources include fish and seafood, which are rich in two types of omega 3 fats called EPA and DHA.

Plant foods typically only contain another type of omega 3 fat called alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) which our bodies must convert to EPA and DHA. But this conversion process is quite inefficient, which means that you must eat a good amount of ALA-rich foods to get enough omega-3s.

If you’re switching to a vegan diet, make sure you have plenty of chia seeds, hemp seeds, walnuts, and linseeds (flaxseeds). You can use chia seeds and ground linseeds as egg substitutes in baking. You may also want to consider a supplement of algal oil, which contains EPA and DHA, particularly if you’re pregnant or breastfeeding.

Note: If you’re following a vegan diet, it’s worth mentioning it to your GP so they can check for any early sign of deficiencies, particularly B12 and iron.

Humans conduct electricity very well. This means that electricity can easily pass through our bodies, causing injuries that can include cardiac arrest, burns and muscle, nerve and tissue damage.

Of course, some industries and workers are at higher risk of electrical injury with the risk of injury strongly linked to where and how electricity is used. The risks are generally higher if electrical equipment is used in situations that expose the equipment to moisture, heat, vibration, mechanical damage, corrosive chemicals and dust.

What are some general safety tips for working with or near electricity?

• Water and electricity don’t mix. Ensure your hands are dry before touching appliances or switches, don’t touch electrical appliances if you are near water, and never use or leave electrical appliances where they can fall into water.
• Always turn off the appliance before removing the plug from a power point, and hold the plug, not the cord.

• Tape extension cords to walls or floors when necessary, or use a cover to prevent crushing or other damage in pedestrian and vehicle areas.
• Avoid over-loading power points. Use only one double adaptor per power point.
• Be aware that unusually warm or hot outlets or cords may be a sign that there is unsafe wiring. Unplug any cords or extension cords from these outlets and don’t use them until a qualified electrician has checked the wiring.

Inspect, test and tag

Inspecting and testing of electrical equipment can save lives by identifying faults. Many electrical defects, such as damaged cords, can be detected just by examining them, but regular inspection by a licensed person can pick up electrical faults and deterioration you can’t see. Specified electrical equipment and safety switches need to be tested at regular intervals according to the type of work they are used for.

There are many reasons people put off doing tasks. Some are just too overwhelming, complex or boring (such as your tax return), while we avoid others because we’re distracted or fatigues, or we fear we won’t do them well.

Procrastination isn’t a character flaw, laziness or poor time management, argue some psychologists, but rather it’s a way of coping with challenging emotions and negative moods induced by certain tasks. By putting off the task, we get rid of the bad feeling, whether it’s anxiety, fear, boredom, frustration, or self-doubt.

“Procrastination is an emotion regulation problem, not a time management problem,” said Dr Tim Pychyl, professor of psychology and member of the Procrastination Research Group at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.

Unfortunately putting off the task only makes the negative associations we have with it worse, which contributes to further procrastination. It can also generate worry, guilt and stress which along with affecting your productivity, may also impact your mental health.

So what can you do if you think you might be a habitual procrastinator?

Forgive yourself.

Research suggests this one of the most effective things that you can do. In a study by Dr Pychyl and his colleagues, students who reported forgiving themselves for procrastinating on studying for a first exam ended by procrastinating less for a second exam. This works because procrastination is linked to negative feelings, the researchers say. Forgiving yourself can reduce the guilt you feel about procrastinating, which is one of the main triggers for procrastinating in the first place.

Don’t wait until you are in the right mood.

One of the most important things, advises Dr Pychyl, is to recognise that you don’t have to be in the mood to do a certain task.

“Most of us seem to tacitly believe that our emotional state has to match the task at hand,” says Dr Pychyl. But that’s just not true. Recognise that you’re rarely going to feel like it, he advises, and that it doesn’t matter if you don’t feel like it.

Start with one small step.

Even if it’s a tiny action such as working for 10 to 15 minutes on a task, a little progress will make you feel better about the job ahead and increase your self-esteem, which in turn reduces your need to procrastinate to make yourself feel better.

“We can’t deny our feelings, but we can pay less attention to them… and our research has shown that getting started is key,” says Dr Pychyl.

1.       1. Get moving. We know that regular exercise has numerous benefits. Now we can add brain function, including memory, to that list. In an analysis of previous studies, University of Canberra researchers found that aerobic exercise improved cognitive abilities in the over 50s, such as thinking, reading, learning and reasoning, while strength training improved memory. Study author Joe Northey believed the findings were convincing enough to enable both types of exercise to be prescribed to improve brain health in the over 50s. New research has even found that memory improves immediately after a short, single bout of exercise, although the benefit is only temporary.

2.       2. Tweak your diet. What you eat affects how well your brain functions – just as it affects every other organ in your body. The MIND diet is an approach with the goal of reducing dementia and age-related decline in brain health. Like the Mediterranean diet, it focuses on vegetables and wholefoods, but also singles out specific brain-healthy food groups. These include green leafy vegetables – such as spinach, rocket, kale, and silverbeet; all berries (especially blueberries); and oily fish high in omega-3 fats known to help control inflammation in the brain. What you don’t eat is just as important. The hippocampus is a part of your brain that’s key to your memory. Studies show that diets high in junk and processed foods (think lots of sugar, saturated fat and refined carbohydrates) appear to shrink the hippocampus, while healthy diets are associated with larger hippocampal volume.

3. Do nothing. When trying to memorise new material, most of us assume that the more work we put into it, the better we will perform. But we’d be better off taking breaks and literally doing nothing, say researchers. Just sit back and enjoy 10 to 15 minutes of quiet contemplation immediately after reading the material, and your memory of the facts you’ve just learnt will be far better than if you’d attempted to use that time more productively. The emphasis here is on doing nothing – no running errands, checking emails or surfing the web – as this gives your brain a chance for a complete recharge.

Thanks to the success of public health messages, we know that the dangers of smoking and excess sun exposure and how they increase our risk of lung and skin cancer. But what you put on your plate should be on that list too, as cancer experts become more aware of the important role diet plays in cancer.

Some foods have hit the headlines because of their anti-cancer properties – among the better-known ones are broccoli, cauliflower and other cruciferous vegetables. Healthy as these foods are, it’s unlikely that there are ‘magic bullet’ specific foods or nutrients that in themselves cause or protect against cancer, says Dr Kate Allen, World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) International’s Executive Director of Science & Public Affairs.

“Rather, different patterns of diet and physical activity combine to create a metabolic state that makes you more or less susceptible to cancer,” she says.

In 2018 the WCRF published the landmark report Diet, Nutrition, Physical Activity and Cancer: a Global Perspective, the result of an ongoing review of decades of evidence by independent experts from across the globe.

According to Dr Allen, these are the key messages we need to take from that report.

1. Avoid the gradual weight gain through healthy eating and exercise.

There are at least 12 cancers linked to excess weight, including liver, breast, prostate and kidney cancer.

2. Eat a diet rich in vegetables, fruit, wholegrains and beans. The dietary patterns consistently linked to lower rates of cancer are high in these foods, says Dr Allen.

3. Limit consumptions of ‘fast foods’, red and processed meat, sugar-sweetened drinks and alcohol. Fast food and sugar-sweetened drinks fuel overweight and obesity, red and processed meats are linked with colorectal cancer and alcohol is a cause of six different types of cancer.

4. Do not rely on supplements for cancer prevention. Aim instead to get everything you need from your diet, advises Dr Allen.