B-12 and nutritional balance

Many of us who have been vegan or vegetarian have been at some point confronted with the question of whether or not we are getting the nutrients we need in sufficient quantity. I was a vegetarian for 15 years, 8 of those years a vegan. For an example of the way I lived as a vegan, here is the blog of a vegan who eats the way I used to eat. She seems to have the same degree of knowledge on the subject as I had at the time: Fake meat, fake cheese, margarine, lots of bread and pasta, happy little treats like finding veggie burgers at Burger King, vegan marshmallows and baked goods, etc.. Looking back, I am amazed how ignorant I was by not researching what these artificial, dead food substances were or questioning whether they were truly good for me. Although I thought I was eating a pretty healthy diet because I wasn't eating meat or dairy, there was a lot I didn't know about nutrition. After a while of not feeling so healthy but never suspecting that perhaps the food itself was the culprit, I began to question whether or not I was getting enough b12, which is commonly thought to exist only in animal foods. Because of the information available at the time, which informed me that as a vegan I needed to take B Vitamins in order to be healthy, I did so without even questioning my diet. Like many people, I felt it was the easy solution to the problem--take a pill and don't think about it any more. I cannot honestly say that the vitamins improved my health in the long run. In fact, my overall condition deteriorated until I decided many years later to make a dramatic lifestyle change and adopt a living foods diet.

When I went raw in 2007 and read Spiritual Nutrition by Dr. Gabriel Cousens, I dove into the heart of nutritional science and began to use my own body as a laboratory. After the first few months of detoxification, I felt for the first time in my adult life what it was like to wake up in the morning feeling refreshed. The fatigue, anxiety, mood swings, depression, aches and pains that I'd lived with for years just melted away. No longer did I wonder or worry that I was not getting enough of the essential nutrients--I trusted in what I learned and saw the proof in my vibrant health.

Over the past four months, I have experimented with adding back some of the foods I used to eat before going raw, and some animal foods that I hadn't eaten in many years. Admittedly, part of my doing so was out of indulgence and the resulting laziness that ensues from the stupor. But once I decided to let myself temporarily indulge and not feel guilty about it, I thought it would be useful to study the effects these foods had on my body and mind. Part of what pulled me toward cooked foods was feeling very cold in the winter. So I ate some brown rice, some oatmeal now and then, even treating myself to pastries once a week with a mocha. Introducing grain-based food back into my diet had the desired effect of raising my body temperature, but also produced cravings for more grains and sugar and slowed my digestion down considerably.

More and more, I began to sense that I was lacking in protein so I started eating cooked chicken or fish about once a week. This led to my craving for eggs so I ate them a couple of times per week. I was still starting my day with green smoothies and eating salads, fruit and nuts, but in much smaller amounts because the cooked foods filled me up so much.  I started being less picky about dairy and ate cheese, yogurt, even ice cream a few times. I convinced myself that I must have needed more B Vitamins and protein if I was craving animal foods, so I allowed myself to eat them fairly regularly.

Meanwhile, I observed changes in my appearance and energy level. After a couple of months, it seemed that I required more sleep than I had before on 100% raw. My skin began to show my age (I'm 40, but was told regularly that I looked 15 years younger). The light in my eyes seemed dim, and the dark circles returned.  I felt tired, depressed, moody and sluggish, absolutely requiring caffeine to get going in the morning. I could tell that the overall effects of eating this way were contributing to aging. But still, I had this intense craving for these foods--the more I ate them, the more I seemed to need them.

Toward the end of May I resolved to go back to 100% raw. My experiment had proven what I suspected all along--that the typical American diet, even a so-called healthy one, is largely responsible for lowering energy levels and accelerating aging. I thought that increasing my B Vitamin intake with these foods would increase my energy level, but it had the reverse effect. Over the past few days, I've returned to consuming very green smoothies and eating salads for meals, gradually tapering off of the crap I've allowed to deteriorate my health. This morning I awoke feeling extremely fatigued with no good reason for it. I'm feeling that it is time for me to do a cleansing fast to restore my natural balance and rid my body of any toxins accumulated by consuming mucus-forming grains and putrefying animal products. Again questioning my nutritional balance, I wondered whether a lack of B-12 could be responsible for my fatigue. So I did some more research on the topic and came up with a fantastic article by Gina Shaw on the B-12 issue. She explains thoroughly the science behind B-12 production and absorption in the body, and goes on to illustrate that a raw vegan diet restores the intestinal flora, brings about proper nutritional balance and facilitates adequate absorption of nutrients. This is a good article to bookmark and send to your friends and family when they worry that you're not going to get enough of what you need on a raw diet. If you are vegetarian or vegan, this article may be enough to convince you that including more fresh, living food in your diet could be the best possible thing you could do to improve your health. At the bottom of the page is a link to another B-12 article written by Gabriel Cousens. That is also worth reading to get his perspective on the issue. I will eventually have articles like these compiled here by subject, but the Living Foods website is an amazing resource to bookmark.

The moral of this story is that while adopting a raw lifestyle is optimal in many ways for lots of people, it can be valuable to allow yourself to fall off the wagon now and then. For me, sitting there in the mud for a while gave me a deep appreciation for what it feels like to be light, free, ALIVE, on the road and journeying through life ACTIVATED. Electric Gypsy style. I'm still fighting some of those cravings, but they will subside as I nourish myself back to balance. I wish you great courage and success on your own journey.