"Veggies Shrink the Brain" according to new findings
I think it's a load of crap, but it is worth posting and discussing.
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.
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.
The link was discovered by Oxford University scientists who used memory tests, physical checks and brain scans to examine 107 people between the ages of 61 and 87.
When the volunteers were retested five years later the medics found those with the lowest levels of vitamin B12 were also the most likely to have brain shrinkage. It confirms earlier research showing a link between brain atrophy and low levels of B12.
Brain scans of more than 1,800 people found that people who downed 14 drinks or more a week had 1.6% more brain shrinkage than teetotallers. Women in their seventies were the most at risk.
Beer does less damage than wine according to a study in Alcohol and Alcoholism.
Researchers found that the hippocampus-the part of the brain that stores memories - was 10% smaller in beer drinkers than those who stuck to wine.
And being overweight or obese is linked to brain loss, Swedish researchers discovered. Scans of around 300 women found that those with brain shrink had an average body mass index of 27 And for every one point increase in their BMI the loss rose by 13 to 16%.
I ordered a sublingual B12 spray from Vegan Essentials.
Eat stuff with nutrional yeast. End of discussion.
I also want to know whether B12 naturally occurs in the process of making nooch, or whether they have to supplement it. To put a point on it: I want to know if the organic bulk nooch that I buy has any B12 innit. If not, I need to think about looking for a good multivitamin.
I recommend this article about vegans and B12: http://www.veganhealth.org/articles/vitaminb12
In the section on vegan sources of B12, it says:
"Brewer's and nutritional yeasts do not contain B12 unless they are fortified with it. At least two vegan B12-fortified yeasts are currently on the market: Red Star Vegetarian Support Formula and Twinlab Natural Nutritional Yeast (verified to be fortified with B12 via personal communication with Twinlab June 3, 2003). Unfortunately, there are some drawbacks to relying solely on B12-fortified nutritional yeast for B12:
* Nutritional yeast often comes from bins in health food stores. If not careful, it would be easy for a store employee to order the wrong nutritional yeast out of the distributor catalogs which often list many yeasts. It would also be easy to accidentally put the wrong yeast into the Vegetarian Support Formula bin.
* B12 is light sensitive. Nutritional yeast is likely to be exposed to the light because it is often stored in clear bins or plastic bags.
* At least one vegan who thought he was getting B12 from nutritional yeast developed B12 deficiency symptoms that cleared up upon taking a B12 supplement.
If you are trying to use Red Star Vegetarian Support Formula for B12, make sure you are actually getting what you think. It is also best to keep it in the refrigerator or freezer, out of the light."
Also, a professional nutritionist told me that B12 is not well absorbed; so, even if I eat fortified foods, I should take a sublingual (under the tongue) B12 supplement. (I'm guessing that people who consume animal products get so much B12 that it doesn't matter that it's not well absorbed.)
I know everyone is probably getting sick of hearing me talk about this product, but vega has 100% RDA of B12 per serving!!! you can order it from food fight ;)b
Eat stuff with nutritional yeast. End of discussion.
I also want to know whether B12 naturally occurs in the process of making nooch, or whether they have to supplement it. To put a point on it: I want to know if the organic bulk nooch that I buy has any B12 innit. If not, I need to think about looking for a good multivitamin.
I recommend this article about vegans and B12: http://www.veganhealth.org/articles/vitaminb12
In the section on vegan sources of B12, it says:
Brewer's and nutritional yeasts do not contain B12 unless they are fortified with it. At least two vegan B12-fortified yeasts are currently on the market: Red Star Vegetarian Support Formula and Twinlab Natural Nutritional Yeast (verified to be fortified with B12 via personal communication with Twinlab June 3, 2003). Unfortunately, there are some drawbacks to relying solely on B12-fortified nutritional yeast for B12:
* Nutritional yeast often comes from bins in health food stores. If not careful, it would be easy for a store employee to order the wrong nutritional yeast out of the distributor catalogs which often list many yeasts. It would also be easy to accidentally put the wrong yeast into the Vegetarian Support Formula bin.
* B12 is light sensitive. Nutritional yeast is likely to be exposed to the light because it is often stored in clear bins or plastic bags.
* At least one vegan who thought he was getting B12 from nutritional yeast developed B12 deficiency symptoms that cleared up upon taking a B12 supplement.
If you are trying to use Red Star Vegetarian Support Formula for B12, make sure you are actually getting what you think. It is also best to keep it in the refrigerator or freezer, out of the light.
Also, a professional nutritionist told me that B12 is not well absorbed; so, even if I eat fortified foods, I should take a sublingual (under the tongue) B12 supplement. (I'm guessing that people who consume animal products get so much B12 that it doesn't matter that it's not well absorbed.)
From the Vegan Kitchen:
......It has been noted, particularly by experimentation and research in England, that some people wo change to a vegan regimen after many years of unnatural living may not be able to adequately produce or assimilate sufficient amounts of vitamin B12. It is synthesized mainly in the lower alimentary tract, as well as taken in minute, but possibly significant amounts in their diet. They do all right if the vitamin is giving as a food fortification, as it is then absorbed much earlier in the tract.
The human body stores supply of B12, usually enough to last some years. The problem of B12 deficiency does not appear to arise in lifetime vegans; and some followers of strict natural vegan regimens have reported going for decades in good health without B12 supplementation.
.....The Vegan Society of England has urged all vegans to utilize some , synthetic B12 supplementation to be on the safe side. This can be in the form of fortified soy milk, fortified nutritional yeast or yeast extract, or B12 tablets. The body's need for B12 is so microscopic, and the amount in a tablet is so great, that one could simply break off a tiny portion of a tablet, powder it, and mix it in one's daily food. There is no advantage in taking two or three hundred times as much as the body can possibly use.
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Even if the body doesn't absorb B12 well, it's not like you need a lot anyway. All of those issues could be cleared up by going to a reputable health food store and simply asking a manager what kind of nutritional yeast they keep in the bulk bins. I think it would be foolish for a store to sell unfortified nutritional yeast in bulk bins when as far as I know vegetarians are the primary regular users of this.
I can't recall where I read this but, I heard that if you take way more than your RDI of B12, the body kind of ignores it or can't take it in. ???
I must look into this further! :search:
This is somewhat true. You can't "overdose" on B-12 per se. BUT the reason why many supplements have several hundred or thousand % of your RDI is because some people can't process it as readily and so need tons of extra to "make up" for all the B-12 that's being flushed out. If that person takes in 100% of their RDI, maybe they only get 10 or 15% of what they need, whereas if they take in 1000%, they'll get closer to 100%.
It does not occur naturally in making nutritional yeast-- they do have to fortify it.
I have a B-12 deficiency, so I've done a LOT of research, both on my own and with my awesome doctor. For the moment I need weekly injections again to get my stores back up into the safe range, but the goal is to find an OTC methylcobalamin supplement-- as opposed to cyanocobalamin-- that can safely keep my stores up for at least a year. (For those who remember, I had a pretty severe deficiency last winter, then went on weekly injections, then monthly, then off for several months, but when we rechecked it in July, we discovered it was right back down again.)
Take all this with a grain of salt! Clearly not an expert!
I was taking a b-complex too (now I'm too broke to supplement, so my brain is going to die)
:'( It was nice knowing you, angeln syrup. I hope you hold out past the elections so you can get your vote in for Nader.
I do not absorb B12 from food. I was dangerously low and I am not vegan. Ovo lacto. Even from subliguals. A simple blood test can check if you are getting enough, have enough or are low. I need to take monthly B12 shots and will probably do so for the rest of my life.
As well, sublinguals are a better choice than in a multivitamin. I have heard that we don't absorb it well from a pill. Subliguals get it in to the blood stream right away.
The B12 I was taking was sublingual. I had a blood test done like 6 months ago, and my b12 levels were double what the average person's usually is...
I'm sorry that I must die so soon HH... I will miss you :'(
if a vegetarian diet is short on b12 why is it that every person i have every known who was given b12 shots in the dr's office was an omnivore? :-D
I was taking a b-complex too (now I'm too broke to supplement, so my brain is going to die)
If you're very very quiet, maybe you can hear your brain shrinking!!
I was taking a b-complex too (now I'm too broke to supplement, so my brain is going to die)
If you're very very quiet, maybe you can hear your brain shrinking!!
I hear it screaming in agony every so often...
if a vegetarian diet is short on b12 why is it that every person i have every known who was given b12 shots in the dr's office was an omnivore? :-D
Heh, sorry, I defy your odds. Vegan, and weekly B-12 shots!
read somewhere that your body can actually stock up on enough b-12 to last for 3-5 years.
read somewhere that your body can actually stock up on enough b-12 to last for 3-5 years.
Yes, it takes years for your body to deplete itself of b12.
I will add this "scientific study" to the others in my collection. You know, the famous ones historically done to demonstrate such important comparisons as these:
1. Women have smaller brains than men.
2. Blacks have smaller brains than Whites.
IQ/cognitive ability/memory and brain size are not equivalent!
Maybe I'll do my own study to demonstrate that people who do poorly designed "research" have lower IQs than people who do well-designed research. ^-^
Truth, anna1111.
As in most important body parts, it's not the size, it's what you do with it.
And now, back to the studio.
Dear Editor of Harper's Magazine:
RE: Findings--vegetarianism shrinks brains
Imagine my alarm when I saw this--I have been unintentionally shrinking my children's brains for the past eight years!!! Oh no, what is a mother to do? Well, what she is to do is to get on the computer and read the actual abstracts and press releases from Oxford University and heave a huge sigh of relief. The findings were about B12 levels, which are not a problem for my family nor are they a problem for most educated vegans following a balanced diet.
And then, the next step is to send a scolding email to you for your sloppy reporting. I guess you view the Findings page as a bit of a throwaway, and if you want to report on face value stories on genetalia-eating barnacles or how far elephants can bend their knees, then fine. But, frankly, it is irresponsible to tell millions of people that their diet will cause their brain to shrink without doing some follow-up research.
I expect to see a correction or explanation in the next issue.
Regards,
JKL
http://www.neurology.org/cgi/content/abstract/71/11/826
http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2008/080909.html
I find it interesting that according to these studies veganism shrinks the brain and yet so does obesity - which eating meat helps cause. :hrmm:
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