OBJECTIVES: To shed light on the most frequent motives for adopting a vegan diet in developed countries (a review of literature); to evaluate the diet quality of young adult (19-30 years old) physically active Slovenian vegans and omnivores; to find out, if vegans’ chances to meet the dietary reference intakes (DRIs) for essential nutrients are lower than omnivores’ chances; to find out, if vegans consume legumes, seeds, nuts, fortified foods and nutritional supplements more often than omnivores; to develop a 7-day vegan menu (based on high quality menus of some participants) that meets the DRIs for all essential nutrients and stays within limits for overconsumed nutrients; to develop a vegan plate (a nutrition plate that provides detailed guidance on adopting a well-planned vegan diet for adults). SAMPLE: We used a Facebook snowball sampling method to find enough participants. 48 participants met our inclusion criteria and fully completed the study (20 female vegans, 6 male vegans, 14 female omnivores and 8 male omnivores). METHODS: A short web survey which included a food propensity questionnaire; two unannounced 24-hour dietary recalls per participant; a web-based application Open platform for clinical nutrition (OPEN); a computer program Microsoft Office Excel. RESULTS: Vegans’ chances to meet the DRIs for essential nutrients were not lower than omnivores’ chances. Vegans’ chances to meet the DRIs were higher than omnivores’ chances for 10 nutrients and lower than omnivores’ chances for 6 nutrients. Vegans consumed legumes, seeds, nuts, fruits and nutritional supplements more often than omnivores.
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