Hey what’s up everyone, coach kyle here!
If you’re a vegan, vegetarian, or even a lacto-ovo vegetarian, you may be at an increased risk of a B12 deficiency.
A recent randomized control study found a 6% reduction in circulating levels of B12 after switching former omivores to a lacto ovo vegetarian diet for three months, that that’s with eggs and dairy in the diet. Another problem is many people, vegetarian or not, may already be deficient if you simply don’t eat a lot of meat in general or have a nutrient absorption problem like celiac or crohn’s disease. Heartburn drugs can even reduce B12 levels since the stomach acid is actually needed to absorb b12. If you lack the intrinsic factor in the intestine, you could be lacking b12.
At the end of this video I’ll talk about how I get B12 and how you can save some money on the multi vitamin I take.
Vitamin B12, aka cobalamin, is a vitamin that plays roles in red blood cell production, dna protuction, and proper functioning of the nervous system. It’s naturally found in animals such as meat, fish, eggs, dairy, poultry.
Symptoms of B12 deficiency include weakness, tiredness, lightheadedness, pale skin, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, a smooth tongue. If you suspect you have a B12 deficiency you can get a blood test done to determine this.
In the study I mentioned, the goal was to assess how a 3-month dietary intervention affected the circulating b12 levels of a group of omnivores.
Scientists for the University of Florence looked at 54 previously meat eaters and found a significant reduction of 6% lower circulating vitamin b12.
The authors concluded that a well plant vegetarian diet can provide adequate nutrition across all life stages but you need to be a little more mindful of a couple nutrient intakes, and one of those is B12. Of course I think the #1 characteristic of a health diet is being whole food plant based, and I feel many vegans or vegetarians will do a better job with that compared to most people on the standard american diet, but you will still be told by the bros that a vegetarian or vegan diet cannot provide all the micro and macro nutrients you need, if you look at the literature that may be true, but that’s likely true for just about any diet, meat or not. You could take this study and say, “see, you don’t get enough b12 on a vegetarian diet!” if you supplement with a simply mutlivitamin such as this one from Future Kind, problem solved. It has Vitamin D in it, and that’s a supplement most people, regardless of diet, can likely benefit from.
If you go through this link and use the KRANZ5 code you will save $5 on any order over $20, which I think a subscription is just over that.
I get a bottle of this each month and Desi and I split it. It’s simply Omega 3, D3, and B12 from methylcobalamin which may be a very easy form of your body to convert.