Recently a friend’s mother discovered she was so deficient
in B12 that it didn’t even register in her blood test. It has, of course, had a pretty large impact
on her health but her Dr.’s are working to remedy the problem.
This got Ryan and I wondering … How does one get B12? I found similar information in several
places, but I like how healthaliciousness.com lays it out. The top 5 food sources include shellfish,
liver, fish, fish, and octopus. I can’t
eat things from the ocean (to put it simply) so that leaves me with liver and I
just don’t think I can do it. Liver is
one of those foods I choose to judge, partly, based on appearance. I don’t want to touch it and can’t even
contemplate eating it. So, I look
further down the list and finally see beef, lamb, cheese, and eggs. The average week doesn’t hold a large bounty
of red meat for me and my family; My husband and I discovered long ago that we
felt better when we cut a lot of that out of our diets. I also eat the very occasional porkchop;
every little bit helps, right? It’s at
this point that we started to get worried … are we getting enough B12 in our
diets? Could this be a partial culprit
in my always flagging energy? We were
somewhat comforted to see that cheese and eggs round out this top 10 list. (I’m usually careful not to over-indulge, but
we *do* love our cheeses!) I’m left,
now, to wonder if I should start having my family take B12 supplements and
little worried about ensuring this is in our diets. Should I make fish and *shellfish for the
family and simply not eat it? Is it
right for me to deprive them of such a healthy food just because I cannot have
it?
Fitsugar.com alleviates some of my fears. This site notes that you only need 2.4 mcgs
(microkillograms) of B12 per day. It
further states that 1/2 cup of fortified breakfast cereal gives you, low and behold, 2.4 mcgs! Yogurt, milk, and chicken are also listed as
good sources for this vitamin. I’m
suddenly less concerned about my children because they drink 1-2 glasses of
milk every day, love yogurt for snack, eat cereal at least once a week, and we
all eat chicken once or twice every week or two. I can’t eat most yogurts, and the one’s I can
eat tend to be too expensive to seriously contemplate purchasing on a family
budget. I don’t typically drink a glass
of milk all on its own, either. I get my
dairy other ways (refer to cheese loving and cereal). Maybe I don’t have anything to worry
about, though. Maybe my fatigue is caused by
other deficiencies, health problems, or not enough sleep! I really don’t know, but the next time I have
blood drawn, I’d like it tested, please.
It all gets so overwhelming, doesn’t it?
My paranoia can’t handle the unknown.
*O.K., while I *could* make fish for my family, the thought of shellfish in my kitchen is frightening. Someone else
would have to prepare it and then sanitize the kitchen and all dinnerware that the shrimp touched. I place a high value on my ability to breathe!
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