We don’t take more supplements than the average American.

We take D3 (lichen-sourced), because we live too far north to get all our D from the sun. All our non-vegan friends here take D as well.

We eat flax seeds for Omega 3 (in smoothies, oatmeal and waffles), and occasionally dip our bread in an algae-based DHA/EPA oil. Probably the ALA flax is good enough, but we figure we should eat some DHA, just in case, since the research is conflicting on how well people convert ALA.

People freak out about vegans and B12, but we eat a ton of nutritional yeast (yum) and we also drink fortified soy milk, which has plenty.

Everything else is just in the whole foods we eat. My husband, daughter and I have all had comprehensive blood tests recently, and everything looked ideal. I’ve been vegan almost 20 years and it’s been great for my body.

I’m not suggesting it’s a magic health cure — yes, vegan people can get sick — but vegan food is more likely to increase overall health, not to decrease it. So it’s strange to me when people try to put veganism on the defense.