Very recently a friend of mine changed her life in two drastic ways. 1: she became a vegetarian. 2: she went off to a college 8 hours away from home. These two things seem to have no correlation whatsoever. Unfortunately, my friend is experiencing extreme homesickness and can’t seem to figure out how to feel better. Out of nowhere my friend called me the other day and shared how her mom thinks her newfound “depression” is stemming from the lack of meat going into her system. We found this to be extremely strange and bursted into laughter, but now I am actually taking this preposterous suggestion into consideration.
It is no question that we feel hungry which leads to anger and anxiousness, we eat and we feel satisfied and happy again. Our moods, more often than not, depend on our hunger and more specifically what we are eating. So what about depriving ourselves of the essential nutrients meats possess? The potential sadness, fatigue and overall bitterness a vegetarian might experience can very well be due to the lack of vitamins. Or more commonly known as a vitamin deficiency. By depriving the human body of meat you are ultimately depriving yourself of vitamin B12. This is not like catching a cold and downing a glass of orange juice for that compensation of vitamin C. Lacking Vitamin B12 can seriously lead to depression, paranoia, delusions, and even loss of memory.
So maybe my friends’ mom was not so far-fetched like we thought. Perhaps by taking a vitamin b12 pill on the daily will suffice, but if not it is probably best to introduce meat back into her life.
Sources:
http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-14383/vegetarian-depressed-you-might-be-low-on-b12.html
http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/guide/vitamin-b12-deficiency-symptoms-causes#1
I think anytime you make a dramatic change in your diet you will notice some changes. When traveling overseas, many people become sick because it takes a while for their systems to adjust to the new food they are eating. Of course, like you touched on, I’m sure taking vitamins would help your friend in this situation. It would be curious though to see someone change from a meat eater to a vegan. Going off of your hypothesis, I’m sure even a more drastic change, such as removing all dairy as well as meat out of your diet, would result in an even larger reaction
As someone who eats a lot meat everyday, I can see why your friend can be depressed. Sudden changes to your body requires time for adjustments. When your friend has stopped eating meat all of sudden, his/her body will respond by going through a stage of depression. I know I would if I had to stop eating meat. I would also like to add that it takes a lot of determination to commit to something like this. Therefore, your friend is a very strong person.
This article intrigued me because I could never be a vegetarian due to the fact that I don’t like very many vegetables. Honestly, I would have never thought that being homesick and a vegetarian could be correlated but after reading your research it does make sense. I often times do get homesick, but I do eat meat too. I wonder if it is just the lack of the certain vitamins and nutrients that causes a vegetarians to have negative effect on their brain. In this article that I came across, vegetarians are said to be happier than meat eaters, which is surprising to me after reading your article.
I find this article very interesting to me because I have never eaten meat in my life. I am a pretty happy person, but I can see someone making a drastic shift becoming sad or depressed. I think that I would experience the same thing if I suddenly began to consume meat. I wrote a blog on my vegetarianism, and my research showed me that the vitamins found in meat can be obtained in other, vegetarian ways. The 5 hour energy on my desk right now has 8000% of my daily value of vitamin b12. I think it is more likely that the drastic change in diet has changed your friend’s mood, rather than the lack of meat.