Common Nutritional Deficiencies in Vegetarians

While vegetarians benefit from eating a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, there are some common nutritional deficiencies that they may need to watch out to keep the diet balanced:

Vitamin B-12

Vitamin B-12 is essential for healthy red blood cell formation and nerve function. Deficiencies can cause fatigue, weakness, loss of appetite, neurological changes and poor memory, among other symptoms.

Since the only natural sources of vitamin B-12 are animal products, including meats, poultry, fish, eggs, milk and milk products, vegetarians can be at a higher risk of becoming deficient in vitamin B-12.

However, they can supplement the vegetarian diet with vitamin B-12 fortified breakfast cereals and some nutritional yeasts.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D deficiencies are more of a concern for vegetarians because many of the foods that are higher in vitamin D are animal products. Luckily, we get most of our vitamin D from the sun. Thus we need to expose more to the sunshine.

Iron

There are two types of iron – the kind we get from eating meat called heme iron and the kind we
get from plant-based sources called non-heme iron. Since vegetarians cannot get any heme iron, while this type of iron is absorbed much more efficiently than non-heme iron, recommendations for vegetarians are 1.8 times more than iron recommendations for non-vegetarians.

Vegetarian-friendly iron sources include some vegetables, nuts, beans, and fortified grain products like breads and cereals.