The most common nutritional deficiency if you’re a vegan
A lot of you chose a vegetarian diet because of having the impression to have a healthier choice from nutritional perspective, or due to your religious faith. And then, there would be some of you who have been told that meat, eggs and cereals are bad for you and you’ll live longer and enjoy healthy life if you avoid them.
But that is not actually the case because you need to have every element and nutrient of diet in equal quantity. If you’re a vegan, there is a great risk that you will be deficient in those certain nutrients due to a purely organic diet. The nutrients that you won’t get in sufficient amount are proteins, vitamin B12, iron, zinc and magnesium but the most important among these are
- Protein
- Vitamin B12
- Iron
The mentioned important nutrients are essential for normal body functioning and therefore, should be taken in diet. Their deficiency can severely affect you in multiple ways – and here’s how:
Vitamin B12
Vitamin B12 deficiency is especially common in vegans because they opt out of meat in their food plan. In fact, researchers have found in clinical trials that 83% of vegans 
are vitamin B12 deficient.
Vitamin B12 works with folate to synthesize DNA and red blood cells in your body. It is also involved in production of myelin sheath that surrounds and protects the nerves. Its deficiency can cause various health problems such as
- Fatigue
- Lethargy
- Memory loss
- Anemia
- Alzheimer’s disease and dementia
Iron
The recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of iron for vegans is 2 times more than that for non-vegans. The reason behind this is because they absorb little to none heme iron which can only be obtained from meat. Although vegans eat similar amount of iron compared to non-vegans but its deficiency is marked because of less heme iron in the body and its inhibition by substances such as coffee, tea, dairy products etc. Vegans have shown to reduce iron absorption by 85% in the last year. The most common problem causes by iron deficiency is anemia that can be fatal, if chronic and rising.
Proteins
It isn’t difficult for vegans to meet essential protein needs, as with mushrooms, beans, grains, etc. – but recent studies have suggested that vegans can be prone to 
proteins deficiency, especially those doing work out every day or five days a week. It is therefore suggested that daily protein intake should be minimum of 100g distributed over three meals while vegan diet would maximally give you 50g per day. This can be extremely difficult to maintain normal protein values if you’re a vegan. Protein deficiency can cause adverse problems distributed all over the body, such as
- Marasmus
- Kwashiorkor
- Muscle weakness
- Cardiac Problems
- Eye lens degeneration
- Weight-loss
- Ridges in nails
- Brittle and thin hair
- Pale Skin
How to prevent these deficiencies?
You should know that it is quite tough to meet nutrient needs on a vegan diet without supplements and limited alternatives, especially Vitamin B12. If you’re on a vegan diet, you should make sure that you are supplementing yourself with these nutrients. Vitamin B12 is completely absent in a vegan diet.
Similarly you can intake iron by having a diet plan in which there is twice spinach meal in a week as spinach is the one vegetable with great amount of iron in it. Proteins are half deficient in vegan diet. Therefore, it is quite necessary to have a diet plan with eggs, cereals and dairy alternatives once a week.
It is difficult to justify a diet with low levels of several nutrients critical to human function. While it may be possible to address these shortcomings through targeted supplementation (an issue that is still debated), it makes far more sense to meet nutritional needs from food. It is best to experiment with available ingredients and make up for these deficiencies on regular basis to lead a healthier life.
If you have any doubt if you are eating the right food, contact our nutritionist.
Johanna Oosterwijk ND
