Today, I Learn How to Spell "Deficiency"

For those of you who don't know me very well, you may not know that I am a vegetarian. I don't remember if I talked about this before, but if I have, read it again, bitches. Anyhow I've been a vegetarian since June 7th, 2008. That's the easy date to remember of 6/7/08. I would also fall into the sub-category of "ovo-lacto vegetarian" as I consume eggs and cheese while drinking milk and other assorted dairy products. Anyway, that's just a little background info before we get under way here today.

I went to the grocery store this morning and was grabbing some things to eat at work this week. As I was checking out, the cashier commented that I had a lot of good things there and that it was going to be hot, for whatever reason mentioning that would be useful. I decided to crack a joke about how this basket of food was a "lazy vegetarian's grocery basket." She suddenly go very serious and asked me if I was taking a B12 supplement. I replied that I was not, and she proceeded to tell me how important it was to take B12, and that if I don't, my spine will erode and my brain will stop working, in a much nicer way that I just described. She encouraged me to pick up some supplements the next time I go shopping, and that others that she has reccomended to start taking supplements have thanked her for helping them out.

This struck me, folks. I suddenly realized that I may be deficient of vitamin B12, as I have been vegetarian for so long, and that's not "normal." It struck me because it is possible, and I know nothing about vitamin B12. So that got me thinking, how in the hell would I be able to tell if I was deficient of a vitamin or mineral? Would I feel it? Have I been feeling it and not even know it? The only time I was for sure deficient in something was the time in early 2009 when I decided to dabble in vegan-ism, and cut out eggs and dairy, only drinking almond or rice milk. After a few weeks of that, my fingernails started breaking off, and chipping. I realized that something was for sure wrong, so I put the eggs and dairy back in my diet, and haven't had a problem since.

But what if I was doing something to myself without even knowing it? I decided to look up B12 once I got home. Symptoms of deficiency and good sources of it. Turns out the best source for B12 is liver, but that's totally out of the question. You get about %750 or you DV in a serving of liver. Two reasons I ain't eating no liver, One, even when I ate meat, that's gross, and two, it's meat. I don't eat meat.

You can get supplements, and that's all fine and dandy, but as I had read before, you can basically find all the vitamins and minerals you need from plants, weather their exotic like weird seaweed or just a regular old vegetable you would buy at you're grocery store and because it's in it's natural form in the food, it's better for you than a synthetic one made in a lab. Turns out that's not the case for B12 (the source, not the supplement). It is created by living beings, not plants. "Oh, shit" says me. Well, it's a good thing I eat eggs and dairy. So that brought me back to the cashier at Trader Joe's, the one who was concerned about my vitamin deficiencies, and I thought about how much B12 I can get from the foods I eat. (I'm assuming she was assuming that me as a vegetarian, I don't eat eggs or consume dairy. Au contraire, my dear.) Turns out I get all the B12 I need from eating an egg. Boom. Done. No worries. I started reading about the symptoms of the deficiency before even finding out if I had one, which of coarse makes you start feeling all the symptoms, because we're all hypochondriac deep-down.

So yeah, I'll just continue eating eggs. I don't eat animals but I eat eggs, because an egg is not an animal, because an animal is a living thing and life begins at birth, therefore eggs are not animals. (This is a WHOLENOTHER argument that I'm not going into today, but this is how I feel in general. K?) I should be fine. It just weirded me out to think that I might be deficient in something and not even know it. It made me think twice about it. It made me think "is this going to kill me?" And if the answer is yes, then I should probably pay attention to it. This a B12 deficiency can do some serious neurological damage, and quite frankly, I'm not sure I want to experience that, so I'll continue with my current diet choices, and I'll be just fine.

P.S.

Found this, and was grossed out:

Human faeces can contain significant B12. A study has shown that a group of Iranian vegans obtained adequate B12 from unwashed vegetables which had been fertilised with human manure. Faecal contamination of vegetables and other plant foods can make a significant contribution to dietary needs, particularly in areas where hygiene standards may be low. This may be responsible for the lack of aneamia due to B12 deficiency in vegan communities in developing countries.

So eat shit and live?