Today we have a guest post on CollegeVegan about important nutritional stuff we should all be paying attention to. Hope you enjoy!
Becoming a vegetarian or giving up a substantial amount of meat in your diet can have vast repercussions on your body as a whole. Leaving out any integral vitamins can result in a deficiency for a number of resources which your body counts on in order to function on a daily basis. B-12 assists the brain and nervous system, especially with DNA synthesis. Lacking this specific vitamin can be detrimental to your health and an unwise decision to make when switching your diet.
B12 is typically found in meat, milk, and eggs. This is not a problem if you still plan to consume dairy products, but many types of vegetarians refuse to consume anything that has an egg or dairy foundation, which rules out milk and eggs. Therefore, these specific vegans need to be even more careful about monitoring their B-12 daily intake. Alternatives to the afore mentioned non-vegan foods can be soy products, energy bars, or certain breakfast cereals. There has also been a multitude of recent supplements that have emerged in supermarkets; these vitamin pills can help ensure that you are getting the proper nutrients. Cyanocobalamin is a vitamer of the B12 vitamin family and can be ingested through a number of other alternatives, including in certain energy drinks and Diet Coke Plus. However, this specific vitamer only represents a fraction of the amount of B12 which is needed per day and therefore needs to be taken in great excess which is not the healthiest option in regards to energy drinks.
Avoiding or not taking the required dosage of B12 can have vast effects in relation to the deficiency including severe nerve and brain damage. Early symptoms of deficiency may seem to be related to anemia, but can lead up to subacute combined degeneration of spinal cord. Early symptoms are pretty common symptoms that can be traced to a plethora of other illnesses, including fatigue, decreased mental work capacity, decreased memory, irritability, and depression. Sleep disturbances are also a common sign of deficiency because B 12 is involved with the sleep wake cycle through melatonin. Left untreated, this deficiency can lead to bouts of mania and can also cause various tingling effects of the nerves and shocks throughout the body. More and more Americans and many other Westerners have a higher prevalence of B12 deficiency than was originally thought, which is an unnerving thought; many developing nations around the world have common B12 deficiencies but are brought about as an effect of the malnutrition which is so often found in these countries which we are all working to combat. B12 deficiency has become common among many vegetarians who are not taking B12 supplements to counteract the lack of vitamins that they are getting by their change from a meat lifestyle. Vegans are especially at risk for this deficiency because many natural food sources do not contain B12, and they instead have to take vitamin pills.
Therefore, it becomes an integral part of vegetarianism (and veganism) to keep up-to-date with your vitamin intake, including daily recordings of how much B12 you are getting, as well as other nutrients which have just as much importance on your body’s well-being. Without this type of enhanced diet, you can find yourself lacking extremely vital nutrients that can severely damage the many organs and systems of the body without you knowing.
This post was contributed by Kathleen Baker, who writes about an online health care administration degree. She welcomes your feedback at KathleenBaker3212 at gmail.com
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