(no subject)

[arethinn]

For some reason I am really craving bread, cheese, and ale. Not in that order, but all together, like a meal.

Comments

[starlightforest.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't think so, as I eat meat and such, but maybe I am and just don't know it (hence a seemingly random craving).

[amberite.livejournal.com]

Meat and B vitamin absorption can have less to do with each other than one might think.

[starlightforest.livejournal.com]

I thought B vitamin deficiency was one of the things to watch out for if eating vegan, because certain B vitamins are only in animal products?

[amberite.livejournal.com]

A vegan diet may imply possible inadequate B-12 intake (although with fortified foods, I imagine this is less prevalent these days) but this does not mean a meat-heavy diet implies *adequate* B vitamin intake. A list of the B vitamins and all their sources is found here:

http://home.howstuffworks.com/vitamin-b1.htm

As you can see, B12 is the only one found solely in animal products, and there are some found more prominently in plant sources (the only animal source listed for B9, folic acid, is liver; the foods for thiamine and pyroxidine likewise may or may not be on your list of staples.)

So if your diet is full of chicken and doesn't include the right diversity of veggies and grain products, yes, you can need more of certain B vitamins. And some people are more prone to deficiencies than others, because of absorption -- I know people who eat scads of meat and get iron-deficient, whereas my mother was found to have a higher than usual iron level while pregnant, when the doctor insisted on testing her for deficiencies because she's vegetarian . . .

Taking a B-50 or B-100 complex rarely hurts anyone, in any case.