Speaking of B12, I just updated Can a Natural Diet Require Supplements? The changes are so extensive that I decided to just link to the article rather than reproduce the changes here. I hope people who get, or have, this question about a vegan diet will find it helpful.

And please remember that you can support JackNorrisRD.com by buying things through the site’s links to Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and Pangea – the Vegan Store! This does make a difference for me and I am most grateful to those of you who continue to do this. Sharing my posts on Facebook and Twitter also makes a big difference and gets the word out about healthy vegan eating.

Thank you!

The good news is that we rarely hear reports such as this coming from the United States these days, so the word seems to have reached most vegans here. But a case report from Italy of a 36-year old vegan was just released. I have added it to Individual Cases of Deficiency of Vitamin B12: Are You Getting It? and reproduced here:

A 36-year-old woman developed numbness, tingling and sensory loss in her hands and feet, weakness in the lower limbs, and disequilibrium, with difficulty in writing, gait, walking up and down stairs, driving. She was a dance-master, and after 3 months she was not able to work. The patient was treated with intramuscular injections of cyanocobalamin. Oral vitamin D3 and calcium were also given. After 3 months, the patient reported paresthesias and gait improvement. Six months later, weakness, sensory disorders, and paresthesias had fully disappeared, and she reported that her skin got clearer and hair loss stopped. After 1 year, spinal cord MRI, nerve conduction studies, and somatosensory evoked potentials were normal. Neurological examination, 2 years from the onset, showed reduced vibration sense in the lower limbs and normal tendon reflexes.

I should add that it can be difficult to get the message about vegans and B12 to non-English speakers. Anyone should feel free to translate posts such as this and send them to vegetarian societies in non-English-speaking countries. You don’t even need to ask me for permission.

B12 Recommendations

Reference

De Rosa A, Rossi F, Lieto M, Bruno R, De Renzo A, Palma V, Quarantelli M, De Michele G. Subacute combined degeneration of the spinal cord in a vegan. Clin Neurol Neurosurg. 2012 Feb 6. | link

An important aspect of health that is often overlooked, if not downright shunned, is sleep.

I previously blogged on a study that showed sleep deprivation among people trying to lose weight was linked to a loss of muscle mass. Sleep deprivation is also linked to an increased risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes.

The Harvard School of Public Health in conjunction with The Huffington Post, have put together a free 1-hour video of a panel discussion on sleep, How America’s Sleep Deficit Is Damaging Long-term Health. They spend a decent amount of time on sleep deprivation for medical training, which might not be relevant to you (unless you’re ever in the hospital being treated by a sleep-deprived physician!), but also cover many other topics.

If a one-hour video is too much, The Huffington Post has an article that summarizes many of the main points of the video, How America’s Sleep Deficit Is Damaging Long-term Health.

Breaking news from 1999:

Many herbal teas inhibit iron absorption. I hate to hear bad news about people’s good habits, and I particularly don’t like it when it’s from 1999 and I’m just finding out about it now! As I’ve mentioned before, I have been working on an iron article for the Vegetarian Nutrition Practice Group and one of the reviewers pointed me to the study below showing that herbal teas inhibit iron absorption. In the past, I had thought herbal tea did not inhibit iron absorption. Sadly, I was wrong.

The herbal teas tested were camomile, vervain, lime flower, pennyroyal, and peppermint. Cocoa also inhibited iron absorption, as did coffee and black tea. The iron absorption was tested against iron-enriched white bread with only water, and these beverages reduced iron absorption by 50% or more (usually more), with black tea being the worst offender cutting iron absorption by about 80%+.

The good news is that this study pinpoints a benefit of iron-enriched white bread! Who would have thought that white bread could be healthier than herbal tea? Guess it all depends on your perspective.

If your iron status is always fine when tested, then I don’t see a need to change your tea drinking habits; but if you have a tendency towards iron deficiency, it’s probably a good idea to avoid drinking tea with meals.

I have updated the Iron section of VeganHealth.org to reflect this study.

Reference

Hurrell RF, Reddy M, Cook JD. Inhibition of non-haem iron absorption in man by polyphenolic-containing beverages. Br J Nutr. 1999 Apr;81(4):289-95. | link

Research study: Age and Gender Differences in Essential Fatty Acids in Long-term Vegans

Thanks, Michael.

I have made a major upgrade to PeaCounter.com. It is now significantly more user-friendly.

Profiles, meal plans, and food searches are now all on the same page, so you can see your meal plan as you add foods to it, as well as make multiple changes to your meal plan all at once. And all the nutrients for a meal plan are now in one table.

If you search for a food (without logging in), it brings up a list of all the serving sizes and the nutrients for those sizes; you no longer have to choose just one.

I hope people find it a lot more useful than before. If you have any problems, please let me know.

From Raveem Ismail:

Dear Vegan Advocates

If you could please fill in our survey, the anonymised results will contribute towards the medical research effort detailed below. The survey is at http://goo.gl/MKYIT and we would encourage you to share the link.

We are carrying out research on Group B streptococcal carriage in vegans during pregnancy. This is an intestinal bacterium, normally harmless, but capable of infecting an unborn baby (for example, 1 in 2,000 UK births have a proven GBS infection). With some weak evidence suggesting a dietary link to GBS, the aim is to ascertain whether Vegan women acquire GBS to the same extent as non-Vegans.

Dr Mark Anthony. Consultant Neonatologist.
Dr Abdul Ismail. FY2 Pediatrics.
Raveem Ismail. Analyst, Trinakria Limited.

Michelle Cehn of Vegan Break was kind enough to interview me and post a 6-minute video about the basics of vegan nutrition:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c81b74mJ2RQ&list=UUo1uLla-0wximfRNIzJpJRg&index=1&feature=plcp

Dr. Michael Greger, the hardest working man in vegan nutrition, has done it again – releasing another volume of his Latest in Clinical Nutrition series (for pre-order).

Always a promoter of leafy greens, I think he might have outdone himself on Volume 8, which starts with kale, moves on to broccoli, more broccoli, then more broccoli, before ending the DVD talking about kale! But coffee and cigarette addicts need not worry, Volume 8 includes Dr. Greger’s biggest endorsement of coffee yet, and he lets us know that cigarettes are no worse than hot dogs. Which is music to the ears of someone like me who loves to hear good news about my bad habits!

(Note: I do not actually smoke cigarettes as I get enough cyanide from B12 pills without having to add to it with cigarettes.)

As always, Volume 8 is packed with interesting info and helpful nutrition tips. If you have missed out on previous volumes, Dr. Greger is currently posting video clips from Volume 7 on his daily video blog at NutritonFacts.org.

Now off to get me some cocoa powder and beets…

Vegan Diets, Critical Thinking, and 9 Blogs You Need to Read

Currently, I only subscribe to Paleoveganology, but I’m going to be checking more of them out now.