B12

Evidently, being a vegetarian isn’t in the cards for me and neither is being a doctor, but I enjoy learning about things so bear with my thought process.

Let me step back a few paces, my friend had brought up vitamin B12 at our last Girls Night Out dinner (she is taking a nutrition college course). Basically the statement that was made was "B12 is only available through eating read meat and eventually you will go insane if you don’t absorb some kind of B12 in your diet" (does this mean the vegetarians and vegans of the world are all insane).

So I venture online to learn more about B12. In a nut shell, B12 is created when a certain kind of animal eats their food and the food combines with a certain bacteria (the B12 can not be created without the bacteria) in the animal’s stomach (the scientific terminology is way too boring to repeat) and absorbs into the animals muscle. In conclusion, we eat the muscle of the animal (ex. Cow). The B12 absorption starts in our mouth and finishes out in our stomach. Now the kicker is that not everyone absorbs B12 the same. There are other factors involved that will prevent B12 absorption as well (too many to list).

B12 cannot be naturally reproduced in a vitamin so the science world has created a synthetic B12 compound for vitamins (again if you want the scientific terminology, look it up). The effects of B12 deficiency can cause permanent damage to the brain and nervous system (you can go insane). The main symptoms include fatigue, depression, poor memory loss basically anemia, but if the deficiency isn’t taken care of mania and psychosis can take over. So my friend was right, but the vegetarians and vegans of the world are not insane because there is a synthetic vitamin they can consume to complete their diet (I love learning new things).

Now you have the basis for my next thought, I pondered my unusual irritation level over the last week and a half. Everything was making me irritated, short tempered, irrational (similar level to PMS, but the timing was off). So I reflected on the amount of red meat I had been eating. I discovered that I wasn’t getting enough B12, which in return was creating my “high irritation symptoms.” I wasn’t attempting to become a vegetarian or anything, but the hubby’s work schedule has been a little crazy for the last couple of weeks and he usually cooks most of the red meat for our house hold. Therefore, I will never be able to become a vegetarian unless I would like the hubby to serve me papers.

Isn’t it great when friends can help you analyze yourself?