Ever wonder why the most ardent supporters of crazy environazism and general left wing moon-battery are invariably ardent vegetarians as well?
Mystery solved!
Kidding aside, its been known since ancient times that a 100% vegetarian diet is bad for you (ask any kung fu guy, even Buddhists get to eat shellfish), and its been known for a long time that B12 deficiency causes all manner of brain-related problems. Probably half the diagnosed depression in the Western world these days is actually B12 and D deficiency. So if you feel like crap, bang down some vitamins.
The Supplementary Phantom
Mystery solved!
MELBOURNE: Scientists have discovered that going veggie could be bad for your brain-with those on a meat-free diet six times more likely to suffer brain shrinkage.Brain shrinkage. BWAHAHA!!
Vegans and vegetarians are the most likely to be deficient because the best sources of the vitamin are meat, particularly liver, milk and fish. Vitamin B12 deficiency can also cause anaemia and inflammation of the nervous system. Yeast extracts are one of the few vegetarian foods which provide good levels of the vitamin.
Kidding aside, its been known since ancient times that a 100% vegetarian diet is bad for you (ask any kung fu guy, even Buddhists get to eat shellfish), and its been known for a long time that B12 deficiency causes all manner of brain-related problems. Probably half the diagnosed depression in the Western world these days is actually B12 and D deficiency. So if you feel like crap, bang down some vitamins.
The Supplementary Phantom
5 comments:
bs
100% bs
Erm.. Virtually nothing you say here is correct. Vegetarians have consistently been shown to be significantly more intelligent than meat eaters.
In ancient times and currently in most of the world meat intake is/was insufficient to supply all b12 requirements. The world is not big enough for meat to supply everyone with b12 (Similar with omegas - there aren't enough fish).
The World Health Org has stated that a Vegan diet is suitable for any stage of life. The health risks of a non vegetarian diet far out way the benefits.
Veganism has been shown to massively reduce the risk of many, many diseases including diabetes, bowel cancer, heart disease, obesity and even acne.
Research into b12 deficiency is very sketchy and far from conclusive. The best advice to give a vegan concerned about b12 (or any vitamin) shortage is to eat as wide a variety of foods as possible. DO NOT rely on one source such as supplements.
Depression is virtually unheard of in many countries which consume little or no meat.
Many Buddhists are vegan, some will eat meat if given, some eat eggs and milk, some eat fish or shellfish - it varies a lot. All Jains and 100s of 1000s of Hindus (and some Christians and Jews {possibly Jesus himself if he was an essene as some people believe}) are vegans.
BTW The reason that Vegans are weird is because we are non-conformists, otherwise we wouldn't be Vegan (similar to how most Christians / right wingers are small minded and dull because otherwise they wouldn't be Christian or right wing).
Sorry to shatter your delusions.
ps I think you might find this article interesting. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-sci-politics10sep10,0,1504273.story
Vegan Buddhist you're a kid, right? "Depression is virtually unheard of in many countries which consume little or no meat"? That's deep, man.
True, depression tends not to be a big concern in places where there is no meat. Widespread starvation tends to kill off the depressed people first. That's what no meat usually means, starvation.
Research into vitamin deficiency as a contributor to clinical depression and other cognitive problems is voluminous, to say the least. Take yourself over to http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez, that's Pub Med the grand compilation of all things medical and sciency. Try searching "vitamin depression" and you'll get 2300+ hits. Try "B12 depression" and you'll get 240+ hits.
This here small minded redneck says go read a couple dozen of those like I did already. Y'all might larn sumpthin'.
I'm sorry if I was patronising - I certainly didn't mean to imply that you were small minded - the fact that you keep this blog would suggest that you are anything but. (Being British I have a different {probably poorer} sense of humour and I wrote it in a rush.)
Also I didn't explain my self properly - I was not denying that lack of b12 causes depression just that the lack of animal products = lack of b12.
You don't need to have read dozens of scientific papers (as we both have) to see that most of the hundreds of thousands of vegans aren't b12 deficient so must be getting it from somewhere - we're just not sure where yet. This is why I advise a broad diet rather than just supplementing which has it's own controversies.
Most vegans take care to ensure that they tick all the nutritional boxes and find b12 easy to find in fortified spreads, soy milk, breakfast cereals, yeasts etc. However if you take a typical diet in the developed world and simply strip it of animal products the chances are you will get ill, this is why veggies are more likely (but not inevitably) to be deficient in b12 (and sometimes iron).
I'm sure you know the old '20% of the world eats so much meat that the rest go without thing' - this does not mean that 80% of the world is on the brink of starvation just that they have to cope with a reduced meat intake and there is no evidence to suggest they are all deficient. Interestingly most of the veggies with b12 deficiency in the UK come from the Indian communities however in India itself deficiency is quite rare in people with identical diets. Incidentally a far more common reason for b12 deficiency is alcoholism.
Anyway I dislike this kind of debate we're not going to agree.
Again I'm sorry if I caused offence. There is a lot of misinformation on both sides. Of course Veganism is not for everyone and never will be but personally my experience of it has been nothing but positive (except people think you're weird).
Post a Comment