This is a big topic so stay tuned for the follow up post!
It’s important to remember one thing when it comes to the debate out there over whether one should eat animal foods, either by the truckload, in moderation, or eschew them completely – don’t let your dinner become your dogma. Don’t bash others or look down on them for their food choices, because you don’t know where they’re coming from or their reasons for eating the way that they do. Keep an open mind and remember – it’s just food, and you’re lucky to live in a place of the world where you have access to it.
While it sounds completely unsexy, correcting nutrient deficiencies plays a major role in body composition, mood and energy levels – those things that contribute to your actual sexiness. And while everyone across the board needs to be aware of nutrient deficiencies, most vegetarians and especially vegans should be because the human body has evolved eating both animal and plant foods. This is non-debateable and a fact a life, and because we still have the same body and genetics as our prehistoric ancestors had, we need the same nutrients, and some of these nutrients are only obtainable from animal sources. Luckily for all you vegans out there, you live in a time where you can use supplementation to fill in the gaps.
We’re all just modern cavemen
First, let’s get straight with our definitions. For the purpose of this article, a vegan is someone who completely avoids consuming anything of animal origin, even things that don’t involve that animal’s death, such as dairy, honey, or any animal-derived ingredients in various products such as gelatin. A vegetarian is someone who only allows some milk and/or eggs and/or honey into their diets, but avoids anything that contributes to the death of any creature, which, considering modern factory farming methods and inhumane treatment of bees, could easily include some milks, eggs and honeys.
Remember, I’m not here to tell you being a vegan is better than being an omnivore or vice versa, this post is only to shed some light on nutrient deficiencies so that those who wish to avoid animal products can do so in the healthiest way possible.
We’ll start with the more well known deficiencies that can occur on a vegan/vegetarian diet. First up is vitamin B-12. Let me be very precise when I say that there are NO vegetal sources of this vitamin, zilch, zero. Any time they test plants for this vitamin and get a positive result, they have only detected Vitamin B-12 analogues, which can’t be used by the body and actually block the absorption of real vitamin B-12. If you are hearing otherwise from someone, they are either selling you a vegan product/diet/lifestyle, they haven’t dug deep enough or they have let their dinner become their dogma. The good news is vitamin B-12 is easily supplemented and sourced from yeast. This is a nice broad spectrum B Vitamin product and is the one I personally use – it’s derived from yeast and contains the biologically active forms of all the B Vitamins. Omnivores that eat a healthy diet likely get ample amounts from meat sources.
Except for possibly a certain type of moss, there are also no plant-based sources of Vitamin D3, the kind preferred and used by our bodies. Mushrooms and a few other plants do contain Vitamin D2 but it is poorly utilized by the body. You can easily make this Vitamin from sunlight if and only if you spend at least 15 minutes in the sun during midday, aren’t wearing sunscreen, and you are consuming enough cholesterol, as your body synthesizes it’s own Vitamin D3 from cholesterol (be on the look out for a future post on why your body needs cholesterol and even saturated fats). So if you live somewhere that is sunny year round and you get plenty of time outdoors without sunscreen on, and aren’t following a low fat/cholesterol diet, no need to supplement this vitamin. If you live a bit further away from the equator and have to deal with winter, I highly suggest getting a Vitamin D supplement and using it at least during the months with less light. A good dose is 1000 IU on days during the summer you don’t get much sun, and anywhere from 2000 to 5000 IU in the winter – it’s always best to get blood levels checked, aiming for 50 nanograms per milliliter. I recommend something like this for vegans, as it is purely plant sourced, but even animal sourced Vitamin D just comes from sheep’s wool. This is the product I use as it combines Vitamin D3 with Vitamin K2, another sorely lacking nutrient, has over a years worth of servings in one bottle, and is also suitable for vegetarians.
Most everyone these days know about the importance of Omega 3 fatty acids – they’re essential to health, promoting lustrous skin, improving mental performance, boosting mood, and reducing inflammation. DHA is the star player of Omega 3s, being critical for brain, nervous system and retinal health, and represents a whopping 97% of the Omega 3s in the brain – in fact, it improved memory and reaction time in those lacking the fatty acid in their diet. Further, “DHA has a positive effect on diseases such as hypertension, arthritis, atherosclerosis, depression, adult-onset diabetes… and some cancers.” It is especially important when it comes to pregnant women, newborns and infants as it supports healthy brain and nervous system development. DHA is found in large quantities in fresh, cold water fish, and in decent quantities in breast milk, milk from grass-fed cows and goats, and in eggs from pastured hens. Unfortunately, DHA is rarely found in plants, in fact only in a few algal sources. While the body can convert the plant-based Omega 3 fatty acid ALA into DHA, it does so at an extremely poor conversion rate – up to a meager 9% in healthy women, and a whopping 0-4% for men. So for any vegans and vegetarians out there, I would make sure to have a good algal-based DHA product on hand – at least if you want to remain smart, ward off depression and cognitive decline, and have nice skin and hair.
Fun side note – it is presumed that the reason men are attracted to women with curvy bottoms is because women store large amounts of DHA in their hips, thighs and butts. This signals to males that this particular woman would rear a healthy child, as she has ample DHA to ensure proper fetal development.
Freddie Mercury loves fat-bottomed girls because science
Vitamin A is often thought to be adequately supplied by a vegetarian diet, but this is not technically true. True, preformed Vitamin A is only found in animal foods, but many animal and plant foods do contain an abundance of Vitamin A precursors called carotenoids, the most important and well known one being beta-carotene. Vitamin A is a major player in growth and development, skin, eye and brain health, testosterone production and even the onset of puberty.
So are vegans and vegetarians able to get adequate amounts of Vitamin A through consuming plant based precursors? Well, it’s murky waters – Vitamin A and it’s precursors are fat-soluble nutrients, meaning they can only be utilized by the body when consumed with fat. So for any vegans or vegetarians out there eating a low-fat diet, chances are pretty high you’re deficient in Vitamin A. Further, only 1/12th of the beta-carotene obtained from food sources gets converted into actual Vitamin A. And because Vitamin A is one of those nutrients crucial to proper fetal development and as such is drained from the mother during pregnancy, if you’ve ever been pregnant, you may be Vitamin A deficient.
So what’s the plan for vegans and vegetarians? For the vegetarians, make sure to consume plenty of milk, butter and dairy from humanely raised, grass-fed cows, as well as eggs from pasture-raised hens – these products are rich in preformed, ready-to-use real Vitamin A and don’t involve any slaughtering of animals. Consume this in addition to carotenoid rich foods. For vegans, I recommend buying a Vitamin A supplement that supplies you with the real deal, preformed Vitamin A. I’d suggest something like this supplement, preferably taken until blood levels reach 50-200 micrograms per deciliter (yeah, that means you’ll have to ask your doc for a test next time you’re there), then taken only two or three times a week afterwards as a maintenance dose. Because the product I recommended is Vitamin A palmitate, it is synthetic and thus not animal based, but because it is an isolated synthetic vitamin, be sure to consume Vitamin D3 along with it to prevent toxicity.
For both groups, and for any omnivores reading this, when you eat foods high in pro-vitamin A carotenoids, use liberal amounts of healthy fats, such as olive oil, coconut oil or grass-fed butter. Foods high in carotenoids include dandelion greens, kale, sweet potatoes, carrots, spinach, goji berries (my favorite source) pumpkin, butternut squash and many others. Oddly enough, most of these foods taste great along with some fat – who doesn’t like butter on their carrots, squash and sweet potatoes? Perhaps the easiest way to consume carotenoids is by simply having a few tablespoons of red palm oil – one tablespoon provides 80% of your RDA of carotenoids, already emulsified in a healthy source of fat, plus huge amounts of Vitamin E for nail, skin and hair health. I suggest adding it to low-heat dishes, as a straight tablespoon isn’t the greatest, trust me.
Vegetarians whom consume fish can also get a lot of bang for their buck by simply consuming Fermented Cod Liver Oil, or this Fermented Cod Liver / Butter Oil, as both are naturally rich in Vitamin D3, Vitamin A, Vitamin K2 and DHA. Omnivores can also consume everything listed above – grass-fed dairy and pastured egg products, cod liver oil, as well as other liver products, which are no where near as gross as they sound, I promise. A good pâté, with crackers and a fig spread is hard to beat – trust me, you will love it.
Make sure to stay tuned for the second half of this post, as there are many more nutrients that will make a BIG difference in how a vegan or vegetarian will feel.