January 1, 2020

Vegan-ism and Vitamine B

Updated 13 January 2020

20 days a vegan

After 20 days being a vegan, I woke up this morning with a rash. I never had such thing in my whole life.

“Oh my goodness”, I thought, “Is this whole -being a vegan- a mistake?”

The first thing you hear when you want to become a vegan is that it is dangerous! Why? Because you are not getting enough vitamin B12.

To make sure I was not suffering from insufficient Vitamine B, I am taking a whole vitamin B complex. It seems to me I did something wrong taking it ….

Jumping to conclusions

Looking in the mirror and seeing this rash on my neck, I immediately searched the Internet for what might be the cause. I did hear that too much vitamin B could cause acne.

I found a very interesting article which shows all the symptoms of too much Vitamine B.

You may think that I am jumping to conclusions and I probably am, but the thing is that my boyfriend, who is on the same diet, already experienced these symptons 3 days before me. We did not think much of it as he was still healing from an operation. That was also the main reason why we started the vergan diet. To heal faster.

What kind of Vitamine B should you suplement?

A further article explains what vitamin B a vegan should take as a supplement. I thought it better to go for a whole range of Vitamine B. However I discovered that a vegan with a healthy diet only needs to take Vitamine B12. That’s it.

It seems to me that with my super healthy diet, with loads of fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans and plant based proteins and the supplement, I was overdosing myself with vitamin B’s. (Yesterday I was also in two vegan restaurants and I am not sure if they supplemented their food, will ask next time.)

But! I Am Not a Doctor! This is my personal opinion. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

Anyway. I am reversing the intake right now by buying a vitamin B12 supplement only. No more B-complex. Let’s see if the rash goes. I keep you updated.

The update: 30 days a vegan

After we stopped the vitamin B-complex and only took only a Vitamin b12 supplement there was no more rash. Thank goodness. There are many different vitamin B12 supplements. We stick with the daily dose of

Intake of vitamin B12

as Recommended by the Vegan society

To get the full benefit of a vegan diet, vegans should do one of the following:

Eat fortified foods two or three times a day to get at least three micrograms (mcg or µg) of B12 a day
OR Take one B12 supplement daily providing at least 10 micrograms
OR Take a weekly B12 supplement providing at least 2000 micrograms.