According to a survey of 2,000 UK adults, over a third of vegans are worried they dont consume enough vitamin B12 and a whopping 67 percent of vegetarians and pescatarians are concerned that they dont consume sufficient vitamin B12 from their diets. The Hospital group has offered their expertise on B12 deficiencies and how to increase the consumption of the vitamin.

Breathlessness and dizziness

Anaemia caused by vitamin B12 deficiency can cause some people to feel breathless and dizzy This also occurs when the body is unable to transport enough oxygen to all its cells, said Anjana.

Tingling, numbness and reduced sensitivity to pain and pressure

Anjana advised: More severe vitamin B12 deficiency can lead to nerve damage, this can result in tingling and numbness in the ands and feet, muscle weakness and loss of reflexes.

Inflamed tongue and mouth ulcers

An early symptom of B12deficiency out be a red or swollen tongue.

"Those with a B12 deficiency may experience other oral symptoms to include mouth ulcers, feelings of pins and needles in the tongue or a burning and itching sensation in the mouth, added Anjana

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How to increase B12 consumption

The Vegan Society state that in over 60 years of vegan experimentation only vitamin B12 fortified foods and vitamin B12 supplements have proven themselves as reliable sources of B12 capable of supporting optimal health.

Vitamin B12 injections could be considered a convenient weekly supplement option for those wanting to achieve adequate intake.

Sophie Matthews, Specialist Dietitian from The Hospital Group states: "Only animal derived foods contain vitamin B12 therefore, if you follow a vegan diet you are more likely to become deficient in vitamin B12.

The only reliable vegan sources of vitamin B12 come from those foods fortified with this nutrient including some cereals and non dairy milks.

Vegans can meet the recommended intake of 1.5 micrograms per day through meal planning and choosing foods fortified with vitamin B12 for example, a fortified cornflake cereal can contain 25 percent of the recommended nutrient intake for vitamin B12."

What foods are rich in B12

Meat is the most naturallyrich vitamin B12 food, beef liver is jampacked full of vitamin B12, with an 81g portion containing a whopping 67.3 micrograms of vitamin B12.

Second comes Sirloin steak, closely followed by a 0.5 fillet of salmon. Whilst this is great news for meateaters, how can vegetarians and vegans consume these allimportant vitamins?

It's essential that all vegan diets contain a reliable source of vitamin B12, this is also true for vegetarians that do not consume fish and eggs.

Fortified foods and supplements are the only proven reliable sources for vegans and some vegetarians, fortified foods include nutritional yeast, nondairy milk products, vegan spreads and cereals.

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Vitamin B12 deficiency: Top tips from experts on how to spot symptoms and what to eat - Express

People who choose not to eat for 12 hours a day, a.k.a. those who fast, claim it gives you better sleep and abs. Are these people just annoying or are they onto something?

Generally, intermittent fasting is a diet strategy that involves alternating periods of eating and extended fasting (meaning no food at all or very low calorie consumption). Theres quite a bit of debate in our research community: How much of the benefits of intermittent fasting are just due to the fact that it helps people eat less? Could you get the same benefits by just cutting your calories by the same amount? said Courtney M. Peterson, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition Sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham who studies time-restricted feeding, a form of intermittent fasting.

We asked Dr. Peterson and a few other experts to help us sort out the real from the scam on intermittent fasting.

There are four popular fasting approaches: periodic fasting, time-restricted feeding, alternate day fasting and the 5:2 diet. Time-restricted feeding, sometimes called daily intermittent fasting, is perhaps the easiest and most popular fasting method. Daily intermittent fasters restrict eating to certain time periods each day, say 11 in the morning to 7 at night. The fasting period is usually around 12 or more hours that, helpfully, includes time spent sleeping overnight. Periodic fasting will feel most familiar: No food or drinks with calories for 24-hour periods. Another type of fast, alternate day fasting requires severe calorie reduction every other day. Lastly, the 5:2 method was popularized by author Kate Harrisons book The 5:2 Diet" and requires fasting on two nonconsecutive days a week.

If you are obese or overweight, fasting is an effective weight loss method, if you stick to it. But it is no more effective than a diet that restricts your daily calories. We know this because there were no additional weight-loss or cardiovascular benefits of fasting two days per week, over an ordinary calorie restriction diet, in a study of 150 obese adults over the course of 50 weeks.

But you should also consider how difficult the diet will be to stick to. In a study of 100 randomized obese and overweight adults published in 2017, the dropout rate was higher with those who were fasting, 38 percent, compared to 29 percent for calorie restrictors and 26 percent for those who kept eating as they normally did.

Some people really struggle with having to monitor their intake and constantly record food in an app every day. So the takeaway of the study was if daily calorie restriction doesnt work for you, maybe alternate day fasting would be a little easier, said Krista Varady, Ph.D., professor of nutrition at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the senior author of the study. Theres nothing magical here. Were tricking people into eating less food, in different ways, she said in 2017.

There is some new evidence that shows different forms of fasting are not equal in part because some are easier than others, but also because some forms of fasting better match our bodys natural circadian rhythm, thus lowering insulin levels, increasing fat burning hormones and decreasing appetite.

Basically, because our metabolism has evolved to digest food during the day and rest at night, changing the timing of meals to earlier in the day may be beneficial.

In a study done in Dr. Petersons lab, 11 adults did time-restricted feeding (eating from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.) and a control 12-hour eating period, for four days each. On the last day of each session, researchers measured energy expenditure and hunger hormones and found that time-restricted feeding improves the appetite hormone ghrelin and increases fat burning. Its shown to reduce the amount of fat in the liver, which is a risk factor for diabetes and cardiovascular disease, said Dr. Peterson.

Bottom line: If you want to lose weight and are someone who hates counting calories, you might consider fasting, as both methods offer similar weight loss benefits.

The most effective diet is the one you can stick to while still living your best life. Its hard to know which will work best before trying, but doctors and recent studies offer some guidance. Dr. Peterson said that complete, zero-calorie fasts generally prove to be too difficult to maintain. People stick with them maybe for the short-term, but they get quite hungry in the long-term, she said.

Time-restricted feeding fasting overnight and into the next morning is likely the easiest form of fasting to comply with. A longer than normal fasting period each night allows you to burn through some of your sugar stores, called glycogen. That does a couple things. It gives your body a little bit more time to burn fat. It also may help your body get rid of any extra salt in your diet, which would lower your blood pressure, Dr. Peterson said.

There arent any studies right now that state exactly how long one should fast. Researchers, like Dr. Peterson, are working on that. The minimum amount of time it takes to make fasting efficacious hasnt been proven via study, but the prevailing notion is its somewhere between 12 and 18 hours. But it can take a few days sometimes weeks of fasting regularly for your body to start burning fat for fuel. Brooke Alpert, nutritionist and author of The Diet Detox, suggests starting by moving your last meal to around 7 p.m. She said the reason for this is our bodies are better at doing some things at certain times. Our bodies are better at processing sugar in the morning than at night, said Dr. Varady. So eat bigger meals in the morning, for example.

And how often do you have to do daily intermittent fasting to see the benefit? Again, there hasnt been a study thats shown exactly how many days you need to fast, but a recent study in rodents showed they get about the same benefits fasting five days per week as they did fasting every day. The great thing is that were learning is that this type of fasting isnt all or nothing, said Dr. Peterson.

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Are There Benefits to Intermittent Fasting? - The New York Times

When your to-do list just keeps multiplying and you feel like theres never enough time in the day, you may eat the majority of your meals on autopilot. And hey, sometimes thats necessary. If you want to give your everyday eating habits a healthy diagnostic though, try taking the healthy diet quiz designed by nutrition experts at the University of Newcastle in Australia.

The 10-minute questionnaire differs from other online quizzes about what constitutes a healthy diet. Yes, youll run through familiar questions about your macros (the fats, proteins, and carbohydrates that make up your diet). But the quiz also names a specific foodlike pumpkinand ask whether you eat it less than once a week or never or once a week or more often. Because of this extra step, the quiz gets a more better idea of what a week of eating looks like for you.

After answering questions about about the vegetables, fruits, proteins, plant-based proteins, grains, dairy, condiments, and water you consume over the course of seven days, your diet gets a score up to 73 points. A score below 33 needs work, between 33 and 38 is getting there, between 39 and 46 is excellent, and above 47 is outstanding. Youll also get a comprehensive report on the areas where your diet is fueling you, and the parts that could use improvement.

At first, I felt personally offended by my score of 37 points. Then I realized that I wasnt being penalized for the food already in my diet. Instead, the folks at the University of Newcastle want me to diversify the eating styles of those who take the 10-minute questionnaire. For example, I mostly eat cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and spinach for my daily intake of veggies. Maybe I need to shake things up and add in green peas, tomato, and corn.

Whether you decide to take every piece of advice or not, the quiz serves to identify nutritional holes in the 21 meals you consume on a weekly basis.

Stock up on a dietitians Whole Foods shopping list to add a little variety to your fridge:

Learn the core four for making a healthy plate at every meal, and dont forget healthy desserts, too!

Link:
Is my diet healthy? This Australian quiz gave me the answer in 10 minutes - Well+Good

Its not just politics dividing dinner tables this Thanksgiving.

Carbs are the new taboo thanks to the insanely popular and uber-strict keto eating plan. And though the high-fat, low-carb diet allows for plenty of turkey, its the beloved sides that have the dieters plotting their strategy against judgmental family members and waistline-threatening treats.

Keto, which has become a favorite diet of A-listers like Halle Berry and Kourtney Kardashian, works by forcing the body into ketosis, a metabolic state in which energy is sourced from fat instead of carbs, its proponents say. But for it to work, followers have to stay away from carbs and sugar including most fruits and even some vegetables which means Thanksgiving staples such as mashed potatoes, stuffing, and sugary desserts are off-limits.

Thats going to be a challenge for keto dieters such as Daniela Gonzalez, a Chicago-based photographer, who started following the eating plan last January, along with her husband.

I was into mashed potatoes and gravy, Gonzalez, 36, says of her past carb-filled life. And cranberry sauce, which is loaded with sugar. I was a big dessert lover.

But Gonzalez has lost 46 pounds, going from 176 to 130, so she doesnt plan on indulging in no-no foods over the holidays.

Cheating would defeat my victory, the 5-foot-2-inch mom of four says.

Appeasing judgmental relatives is a constant struggle for those on the controversial diet which many doctors and dietitians say isnt sustainable for the average person and critics call a fad.

People tell me that Im going to become anorexic or have high cholesterol, she says. I have friends whose families say, Dont bring that keto stuff here.

Still, she says the haters are floored when they see her progress in person. Theyre the same people who are asking me on the side, like, Howd you do it?

She and other followers of the diet say their strategy to avoid hurt feelings over a rebuffed pecan pie is to just bring their own food partially so that they can get enough to eat, but mostly to prove that the diet isnt just butter and bacon, Gonzalez says.

Im taking a lot so they can see all the options there are. Especially for my father-in-law. Father-in-laws always have something to say.

When Gonzalez shows up to her in-laws house for Thanksgiving next week, shell be armed with a keto stuffing she uses a recipe in which the bread is replaced with a keto corn bread a Puerto Rican lechn, a keto cheesecake, keto pumpkin pie and a zucchini noodle shrimp dish.

Meanwhile, her mother-in-law will make more traditional dishes: Its kind of like a face-off, she says with a laugh.

For the most part, the diets trademark emphasis on butter may actually win over reluctant family members, says Lisa MarcAurele, 49, a Connecticut-based diet coach with 345,000 Instagram followers.

My son actually liked the mock mashed potatoes better than the regular ones because it had cream cheese, heavy cream, which is real, high fat, and butter, MarcAurele says.

Andra Barrow, whos been on the diet for about a year, says for all the trouble of planning separate dishes, itll be worth it when those who stick to the diet see the family photos later.

Last year, we were the only people we knew who weighed less after the holidays than before, says Barrow, 47, a stagehand from the Hudson Valley. Were looking forward to making it two-for-two.

Read more:
Here's how keto dieters are avoiding the carb-filled hell of Thanksgiving - New York Post

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently announced a preliminary finding that implicates a vitamin E additive as the potential cause of lung injury from THC vaping.

The agency examined fluid samples from the lungs of 29 patients with vaping-related illness and found vitamin E acetate in all 29 samples. This is a major development in the search for answers, and it was of great interest to me generally as a public health researcher.

Even more, it was of special interest to me because I previously researched vitamin Es role in lung health and development. For three years, as a post-doctoral research fellow, I studied the role of vitamin Es typical role in lung health, lung development and the epidemiology of childhood lung diseases when it is absorbed from our diet.

Vitamin E comes from oily foods in our diet. It has also long been known to be important for child development, especially in the womb, where it contributes to healthy lung and nervous system growth, among other things. Vitamin E has eight different isoforms, or types, and each may do slightly different things in our bodies. The kind of vitamin E you get from your diet can therefore vary widely based upon the types of oily foods that you eat.

When we eat vitamin E, it is absorbed by our gastrointestinal tract along with fats. It then travels throughout our bloodstream in the fatty molecules called cholesterol. Finally, it is taken up into our bodys fatty tissues and cellular membranes.

Once incorporated into the body, vitamin E serves as an antioxidant, protecting us from some of the harmful effects of our metabolism and respiration. Antioxidants stabilize what are called free radicals, unstable and highly chemically reactive compounds with extra electrons generated by our metabolism. Free radicals, when left unchecked, can destabilize other molecules around them and cause cellular damage.

When vitamin E comes into contact with certain kinds of free radicals, it transfers that instability onto itself and neutralizes those free radicals.

So, in the aftermath of the vaping illnesses and deaths, an important question emerges: What happens if, instead of eating vitamin E in your diet, you inhale vitamin E, along with a vaporized solution of THC?

I have no idea.

There are only a tiny handful of studies in which someone tried to nebulize, or vaporize, vitamin E in experiments related to lung health. All were animal studies with a small sample size, and none were combined with a THC vaping fluid.

Its also not clear in this case why vitamin E acetate was added to the vaping fluid, but reports suggest it is used as a cutting agent to make the THC oils less thick. Perhaps someone thought it was safe to do this in an inhaled product because vitamin E was a natural vitamin. Importantly, however, many substances that are helpful when taken orally can be harmful when inhaled.

The fact that vitamin E typically has to travel in fat-soluble lipids may perhaps provide a clue as to the harms vitamin E acetate can cause when vaped. Physicians have long known that inhaling oils and other lipids can lead to the deposition of oily droplets in the lungs. They also know that this deposition can in turn can lead to inflammation and the potential for permanent lung scarring, respiratory failure or death. Its not a good idea to consistently inhale particles like small solids or oily liquid drops into your very delicate lungs.

We all know what it feels like to choke on something large enough to block our windpipe. But a small, inhaled particle can go past the large airways and lodge in the tiniest airways and the alveoli that transfer oxygen into our bloodstream, causing damage to these fragile structures.

We may not notice right away that we are being harmed. Only tiny segments of the lung are affected, and our lungs are designed to have some reserve capacity.

But over time, as these small injuries add up, more and more lung tissue becomes involved, and symptoms develop. Such injuries can become fatal. For example, think of the diseases caused by asbestos, silica from sand blasting, coal dust and tobacco smoke.

So, perhaps a vitamin E additive could cause damage in a similar way in this context.

In addition, I believe this is actually a symptom of a broader problem, brought about in part by the 1994 law that allows dietary supplements and some devices to go to market without meeting stringent safety and efficacy standards. Supplement makers dont have to provide evidence that their products work, and the FDA allows them to monitor the safety features themselves.

Its a good business for the manufacturers; dietary supplements sales are estimated to be worth about US$120 billion by 2020. But it may not be good for the American public. By taking untested products, or by using products that are safe in one context but not studied in another, consumers end up participating in millions of uncontrolled experiments in which safety data are frequently absent. There is minimal quality control, minimal oversight and minimal knowledge of what might happen.

Any type of minimally regulated product that we inhale into our lungs on a regular basis clearly deserves a special level of scrutiny before use. I would argue that any inhaled product should have to demonstrate significant safety data prior to being allowed on the consumer market. Do these products even work? How do they work? If they do work, whats the right dose so that its safe, but still effective? How long can you safely use it? Without that knowledge, we are sailing in dangerous waters with no map.

So, until the day that our poorly regulated, uncontrolled market of self experimentation in lung health comes to an end, I will share a motto that experiments and experience have equally proven to be true. If you want your lungs to outlast your hair, please dont inhale anything but air.

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Vitamin E and vaping injuries: What's safe in your diet is rarely safe in your lungs - The Conversation US