
Food as medicine - sr2
https://theconversation.com/food-as-medicine-your-brain-really-does-want-you-to-eat-more-veggies-74685
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amelius
> your brain really does want you to eat more veggies

Meat/fish is also important for the brain as it is a good source of vitamin
B12. Even a slight deficiency of this vitamin can cause mental problems. This
is something to be aware of when following a vegetarian diet.

~~~
wyldfire
What are non meat dietary sources of B12? Or does it mean you'd need to
consider supplements?

~~~
alex_duf
An interesting anecdote about B12 is that it's actually coming from bacteria,
usually found in the ground.

Animals are rich in B12 because they eat grass. Technically if you don't wash
your vegetables you would get more B12, but you would also increase your
chances of catching a bad bug.

B12 isn't synthesised by any animals or plant, we just get it by proxy. (and
by the way, industrially raised cattle who don't see the light of day are
supplemented in B12 just so you don't have to)

So to come back to your original question, I have my B12 mainly from:

\- Marmite (if you fancy that, but I would understand if you disliked it very
much)

\- Some supplements flakes to put on my salads (byproduct of beer I believe,
something like Engevita). It doesn't look like it but I actually enjoy it on
my greens (lettuce, cucumber, or any salad)

\- The very occasional meat/fish. I'm neither vegan nor vegetarian, but I
changed my diet to consider these as a treat.

~~~
goraw
You are correct: Animals and plants don't synthesize B12, bacteria do.
However, these bacteria are also found in the small intestine of humans. So
you might want to add them to your list of contributors.

Check out this study [1]. This fact is usually not mentioned in the livestock
industry fear-mongering propaganda ("You will eventually die without meat").

[1]
[http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v283/n5749/abs/283781a0...](http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v283/n5749/abs/283781a0.html)

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cryodesign
The following story is for anyone who thinks you can't get strong or be a body
builder on a plant-based only diet:

Jim Morris - 78 year old vegan body builder

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUtv4slpm-U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUtv4slpm-U)

~~~
lilactown
I know at least one professional athlete that had to change from vegan to
eating meat, due to not being able to compete physically with his peers.

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2skep
This thread is just endless collection of n=1 observations. This is how it
goes =

\- I eat meat and I am healthy

\- No, I am vegetarian and I can run faster than you

\- No, I eat meat but I also eat peas and I can read better than you.

You know what? Maybe all of you are right and maybe all of us don't need
exactly the same food that is good your somebody else.

Geez!! :-)

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KitDuncan
Not only is a plant based diet healthy, and every study that tells otherwise
is obviously paid by the livestock industry; it's also the only
environmentally sustainable diet. I really don't get how so many highly
intelligent people acknowledge those facts and still put their tastebuds over
everything else. It's not like vegan food can't be absolutely delicious
either.

~~~
tathougies
Yeah, so I have always eaten both meats and veggies. My blood results still
showed a vitamin B12 deficiency. I was already noticing symptoms like anemia,
mental fog, lack of energy, etc. I upped my meat intake to mainly grass-fed,
fatty beef, and my latest tests show a normal level. You cannot get B12 from
plants, period.

Meat is necessary for human life. Saying otherwise is dangerous. After seeing
my experience, my wife (vegetarian for almost a decade) has started eating
meat again. This isn't something worth dying over.

~~~
Blahah
It's not true that "you cannot get B12 from plants, period" [1]. You can get
trace amounts from various edible land plants, but dietarily significant
quantities from some algae. Also fermentation of some plants can provide
B12-rich foods.

It's fair to say that vegans need to take particular care that they get
sufficient B12.

1:
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4042564/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4042564/)

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jschwartzi
I stopped reading when the author admitted that every point he had made in the
first two paragraphs about diet causing depression were based on observational
studies for which it is not strictly possible to draw such conclusions.

~~~
problems
I too almost quit and posted a comment complaining after the first few
paragraphs, but fortunately I read a bit further first.

They go into "Teasing out the cause from the correlation" which actually talks
about the design of a study to do so. Seems like a fairly good approach, wish
they would have made it clear that this was the direction from earlier, but
eh, probably my fault for being lazy and having no attention span anymore.

