We Knew It: Eating Nothing But Veggies Shrinks Your Brain
16 September 2008, 4:30 PM. By Carlos Posas
A new study about vegetarianism has just made us a very happy little piglet. Turns out that living on a vegan or vegetarian diet makes you six times as likely to suffer from brain shrinkage. Pause. HA!
A deficiency of vitamin B-12 is the culprit, and B-12 is found mostly in meat products, which explains why vegetarians don’t get enough.
The link was discovered by Oxford University scientists who used memory tests, physical checks and brain scans to examine 107 people. When the volunteers were retested five years later the medics found those with the lowest levels of vitamin B12 were also the most likely to have brain shrinkage.
One of the few good sources for vegetarian B-12 is yeast extract, which means eating Vegemite, which means we will be in the carniceria all today if you need us, because eff that vegemite shit.
However, we begrudgingly admit that this Vegemite recipe looks delicious:
Mostly because it involves cheese.
Toasted Vegemite Cheese Snacks
Ingredients
4 muffins, toasted
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon vegemite
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups grated tasty cheese
1/2 cup chopped parsleyDirections:
-Spread toasted muffins with butter and Vegemite.
-Combine the eggs, cheese and parsley together and spoon onto toasted muffins.
-Place toasted muffins under a medium griller and cook until cheese melts and bubbles. Serve immediately and enjoy.
Earlier: Houston’s Answer To The Naked Alicia Silverstone Peta Ad
Brain shrink risk of veggie diet [Sun]
Going veggie shrinks the brain [AU Courier Mail]
Toasted Vegemite Cheese Snacks [Recipezaar]
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that explains a lot!
one of my coworkers is a vegetarian.. and a big time stoner.
If you think that recipe looks delicious, you’ve obviously never tried vegemite.
I’d like to point out that as far as I can tell this study, published in the journal Neurology, was not done on vegetarians, but rather, “normal” elderly people. I’m not sure then, why the article connects going “veggie” to B12 deficiency: B12 deficiency in the elderly is nothing new, and it is usually caused by the lack of an enzyme necessary to digest B12 from food, called the Intrinsic Factor. Many peoples’ digestive system stops producing the Intrinsic Factor as they age, and even if they were to consume loads of the vitamin B12 in their food, it would not be absorbed. Clearly, eating more meat would not benefit these people.
Also, B12 deficiency from diet is rare: the liver can store B12 for up to 3 years, and some B12 is produced by healthy intestinal flora. Even so, most vegans or strict vegetarians are aware that B12 is the one and only nutrient that is not begotten by plant foods, and so take a supplement or consume foods like soy milk or cereal fortified with B12. Most soy milks are fortified, as are most cereals in the U.S.
I think what’s ironic is that B12 is produced by bacteria found in healthy soil, which is then (theoretically) consumed by livestock, thus delivering B12 in milk and meat. However, assuming that most livestock today are consuming grass grown in healthy soil is an iffy assumption at best. Instead, many livestock are fed grain and other feeds that may not harbor any B12 from soil. So to say vegetarians are more at risk than non-vegetarians is quite SENSATIONAL at the least, and ridiculous at best.
Just funny that, since the author of the article didn’t exactly say this. She actually said something closer to what I’ve already written.
@Bronny: Rant much?
This article makes the most ludicrous claim I have ever read against being a vegetarian. I don’t even know where this person got their facts because, as the previous post stated, no such study exists. Furthermore, some of the most brilliant people in history have been vegetarians–Newton, Votaire, Kafka, Mark Twain, Leonardo Da Vinci, Plato–to name a few. HA! Also, brain size has nothing to do with anything. If the writer is trying to imply that a smaller brain means less intelligence, which I assume from the statement about memory tests, then he/she is completely incorrect. It has been proven that brain size has nothing to do with intelligence, and you CAN find those studies. Vegetarians know they have to supplement their B-12 intake (that’s why they use nutritional yeast) just as people who don’t like milk have to supplement their calcium. Believe it or not, there are people out there supplementing all kinds of vitamins who AREN,T even vegetarians. Eating a vegetarian diet is healthier and every educated person knows that, or maybe you claim to know better than the vegetarians I listed above and most doctors. I think I”ll believe they know better. Moreover, the meat industry, as it operates today, makes animals suffer, and if you like ingesting pain and suffering, then you deserve the karma you get. Perhaps you should eduacate yourself better about vegetarianism and the meat industry before you write uninformed, irrelevant garbage.