A post about stopping, and living

It happened so slowly that I can hardly say when it began. As is usually the case with these things, one thing simply followed another, and another, and another, until it hit me. Life had become too fast. Too full of worry, anxiety, new jobs, alarms, deadlines, appointments, rushing, working, guilt over projects and people I didn't get to simply because there were just not enough hours in the day. There is a German saying that everyone has the same number of hours in the day, we just prioritize them differently. I realised that the jobs, the chores, the work, it had crept in more and more until I was no longer prioritizing any time for myself, for the things that I love, the things that make my life fulfilling.

It had crept up on me, life had become too hectic. It was time to slow down.

I turned inwards to find the things that really matter to me, and how I could bring them back into my life as well as keeping on with the necessary grind required to survive in this society. How to do this without feeling that the things I love had become another list of 'things that have to be done' intruding upon the freedom and autonomy of my life?

I concluded that it's about being present in the moment, and deliberately organising life to contain windows of freedom, creativity, and self-love.

It's letting go of the anxiety that maybe everything won't get done.

It's quelling the fear of what other people think.

It's choosing to say no to some things, and choosing to say yes to others.

It's slow mornings.

It's using a teapot, and taking the time to enjoy each sip of tea.

It's lying in bed until half past 10 on your one day off because that quilt is just oh so snuggly.

It's taking the time to breathe.

It's stopping to feel your body, to feel how tired it is, and letting it rest.

It's taking the time to give yourself a nice time, instead of just what's next on the agenda of the day.

It's stopping to feel the life running through you, and the life inside others.

It's less phone, less Facebook, less worrying about getting the washing dry, and more life.

It's taking your 15 year old dog to the beach to slowly walk along, basking in the pale glow of the weak winter sun.

Taking an interest in what the sea has washed up after a storm...

...and noticing the galah foraging amongst the seaweed - odd.

It's laughing at your old dog's refusal to climb the steep sand cliff to return home, and carrying her up.

It's looking down the picturesque track, taking a deep breath of that cold fresh air blowing straight in from Antarctica, looking at your dog and feeling blessed to have shared this wonderful moment in time with her.

Happy living! :)

RSPCA: accepted fishing methods are inhumane

We have a sick fish in our house and while searching for advice I came across RSPCA guidelines on euthanasing fish (interesting) and RSPCA guidelines on killing fish for food (more interesting).

Personally I have never fished in my life because even as a child I found it an abhorrent bloodsport. However, as I'm sure we all have, I have witnessed my fair share of fishing. Now, the accepted method of fishing sees fish being pulled from the water and left out in the air to die by suffocation (how 'fun'!). Occasionally I have also seen them put into containers of icy water.

Interestingly, the RSPCA states that both of these methods are "not suitable for killing fish as they do not result in a rapid or humane death". Honestly, I was very surprised (pleasantly surprised) at this considering that the RSPCA endorses practices such as 'barn laid' eggs. So what are the killing methods considered 'humane'? A forceful blow to the head rendering unconsciousness followed by bleeding out, or spiking the brain (which should render the fish unconscious as soon as the spike enters the brain). So, how many people have you seen doing that?!

Unfortunately, despite all Australian animal welfare legislations covering vertebrates (which fish obviously are) in WA and my home state of SA fish are specifically excluded from cruelty protection. This is totally unacceptable and ridiculous! Animals are animals, pain is pain, suffering is suffering. Again, surprisingly the RSPCA agrees (it's not often that we see eye-to-eye) stating that "Because there is clear evidence that fish are sentient animals capable of experiencing pain and suffering, RSPCA Australia believes that fish should be uniformly protected under State and Territory animal welfare legislation."

So be a voice for sea kittens! Share this information and hopefully fish-killing-type-people will start to re-think their actions.

Happy reading and advocating! :)

Out of the mouths of babes...

A couple of days ago I was privy to this interesting exchange between some 5 year olds at the school I work at.

Their class had recently hatched some chicks as part of the Living Eggs program (which is extremely cruel, unethical, and not endorsed by the RSPCA! See the following links for more information: Oppose Living Eggs Facebook group, Edgar's Mission, PETA Australia).

First, some background information: My experience in early childhood education has taught me that a favourite game between children of this age is the "Who likes...?" survey. Children ask "Who likes (topic or item)?" and they all put their hands up if they like it, and so on. Usually the topic is food and as you can imagine there is a lot of silliness involved and it invariably ends up at "Who likes to eat poo?" This was the game being played in this scenario.

4 children (2 girls and 2 boys) were sitting around a table doing a pasting activity. While working, they were playing the "Who likes to eat...?" game. After a few quick-fire rounds, one boy asked "Who likes to eat chicken?" All of the children put their hands up and giggled. "Who likes to eat baby chicks?" he asked. More giggles and a resounding "Ewww!" from everyone at the table, including the questioner. Next, "Who likes to eat big grown-up chickens?" the boy asked with a smile. The other children's faces were about to break into more laughter but then they faltered, the boy's smile slipped, they all avoided each others eye contact, and their body language indicated awkwardness. "Well... I do sometimes" said one girl, her voice sad. They all silently went back to work before one of them brought up a new subject of conversation.

I found this exchange really sad. Children know in their hearts that eating animals is wrong, there are so many examples of this and it is clear to see everyday if you look, in little exchanges such as these. Yet they are taught by others in society that they should blind their hearts to animals' suffering and the blatant wrongness of ending another's life so that you can indulge in its flesh.

There is so much more that I could say about this issue and so much more that I could pull out from this brief moment in time in the lives of these 4 young children. Instead, I'm going to say nothing. I'm going to leave this moment in time as it is, for you all to see, and ponder in your own minds.

Superheroes and the vegan lifestyle

My partner, Jeff, is a big comic book fan, Spider-man being the absolute favourite. While sitting on the lounge last night, I had a sudden realization; that one of the most famous quotes from the Spider-man comics, the creed that he lives by if you will, 'With great power comes great responsibility', is a very vegan message.

When one has the power to extinguish life and cause pain, one also has the responsibility to protect that life. When one has the ability to recognize and avoid actions that cause pain and suffering to others, one has the responsibility to do so.

Believing that I couldn't possibly be the first person to notice the parallels between the messages of Spider-man and the vegan lifestyle, I took to the internet and found Go vegan save the world: 8 similarities between animal rights activists and superheroes by Vegan Rabbit. This essay makes for an interesting and engaging read, especially if you have children who love superheroes (as I'm sure ours will!), and could lead to some great discussions with children.

A question worth contemplating

I have recently learnt of Edgar's Mission farm sanctuary, located in Victoria, and the fantastic question they pose to society:

"If we could live happy and healthy lives without harming others, why wouldn't we?"

That, in one sentence, is what veganism is all about! And an excellent question to pose to non-vegans. I'm going to store it away in my brain for the next time someone asks "so why are you vegan?" It's definitely my philosophical gem of the week!

Some thoughts on the 'humans are meant to eat meat' argument

So now that I'm officially a vegan, I've been doing some thinking about the arguments people come up with as to why I'm a weirdo. One of them is "But humans are meant to eat meat, it's our natural diet". If the person who says this is somewhat intelligent it is often backed up with "That's why we have canine teeth".

Canine teeth. Let's talk about canine teeth.

Canine teeth are named, I assume, after the pointy fangs of dog-animals (wolves, foxes, jackals etc), as their family name is canidae (not to be confused with Canada, they are very different), and wolves and dogs are also from the genus canis. Let's have a look at some human canine teeth.

There they are, they're the ones coloured in red. Basically, there are 3 kinds of teeth. Incisors are the ones at the front (the blue ones), they are chisel shaped and used for cutting plant matter; think of biting an apple or a sheep nibbling grass. Canine teeth are pointy, they are used for tearing flesh and are handy if you want to gnaw meat off a bone. Then there's molars (the green ones), they are flat and ridgy and are used for grinding up plant matter that has already been chomped by the incisors.

Take a look at the set of human teeth, the incisors are actually the longest teeth, if you're canines were longer than your incisors then you'd look like a vampire and people would be creeped out. In fact, people tend to find people with big incisors quite attractive, just look at American celebrities. The widest teeth are the molars, and humans have quite a lot of them, 20 in an adult, and they are nice and flat for grinding. The canine teeth in humans are actually quite small and inconsequential. Sure they might be sharp, but they're no sharper than any of the other teeth.

The argument is that, because humans have canine teeth, they must be 'meat eaters'. It is true that some herbivores lack canine teeth, look at a cow for instance:

 And elephants, in fact, lack everything except molars and 2 incisors (their tusks):

However many, nay, most, herbivores do have canine teeth. Here is a good example of canine teeth in a horse:

The thing about evolution is, it's not neat and simple. There are dead ends and there are leftovers. All animals are descendants of animals which, at some point along the line, probably engaged in a bit of flesh eating. When diets and lifestyles changed over millions of years and generations, the evidence of this didn't disappear, it just started to shrink. In animals that weren't eating as much meat as they used to, canine teeth began to shrink as they became useless. That's why herbivorous animals such as horses, sheep, and deer have little canine teeth that are not suited to meat eating. Why is this relevant? Because people have little canine teeth that are not suited to meat eating.

Cats are one of the few types of animals that are truly carnivorous. While they do occasionally eat grass, they seem to do this to make themselves vomit, rather than for sustenance. Here is a great picture of cat teeth:

Can you even see any incisors? They are virtually non-existent because they are useless to a cat. Cats don't bite apples or nibble grass. Ok, so maybe they do nibble grass, but you'll notice they awkwardly do it with their tall, pointy molars, made for slicing meat rather than grinding like our short, flat ones.

Some will say that the reason people don't have large canines and tiny incisors like cats is because we are omnivores. Is this true though? Dogs are omnivores. Their teeth look like this:

Kind of similar to a cat really. The incisors are bigger but the canine teeth are still huge and the molars are not flat. However, dogs do eat a fair amount of meat so let's take a look at an omnivorous animal that eats very little meat. Grizzly bears. People usually think of bears as carnivores and indeed some bears have to be, such as polar bears. Most bears though are omnivorous and eat mainly plant matter. The majority of a grizzly bear's diet is plant matter, with a few small animals thrown in every now and then. This is a grizzly bear skull:

Those incisors are starting to look familiar and the molars sure are looking nice and flat. However, the canine teeth are still long and very thick. Maybe this is because grizzly bears are more closely related to dogs (and many other animals!) than to humans. People often say that chimpanzees are out closest relatives and indeed their behaviour is very similar to ours. Chimpanzees eat plant matter, but they also hunt mammals and meat makes up a fair percentage of their diet.

Their teeth reveal that it has probably always been this way, or it has been this way for a very long time. While they have large incisors and flat molars, their canine teeth are huge. They overlap each other and protrude as far out of the jaw as those of a grizzly bear. The jaw is also very thickset and strong. Compare this to our actual closest relative, the bonobo. Bonobos are quite peaceful and sociable animals whose diet is almost entirely made up of plants. They do not actively hunt mammals for food though they will eat small ones if the opportunity arises. Mostly the animal-product part of their diet is made up of insects, eggs, and honey. They are foragers, and their teeth look like this:

So let's go back to the human teeth.

We have short flat, molars, largish incisors, and very small canine teeth. This evidence suggests that humans are inherently vegan. We are foragers and scavengers, opportunists who would eat meat if they found it (probably dead) but otherwise lived quite happily on what they could eat from plants. It appears that, up until quite recently, our natural diet consisted of less animal-products than the diet of a bonobo. So why do we eat meat now? Well, lots of reasons really. Farming livestock is easier than foraging, eating meat means that you eat smaller meals and less often than if you were eating only plant matter, and the main reason? Dogs. Dogs hung around people, people hung around dogs. Dogs kill animals and leave leftovers. It doesn't take long for opportunists such as ourselves to work out that if we work in partnership with the dogs we can get a free feed.

Does this mean that we need to continue eating meat and other animal products though? When we are now lucky enough to be able to access our natural diet without the inconvenience of foraging, why would we pass this up? It's been widely shown that eating meat is not very good for our health. It contributes to cancer, cholesterol problems, high blood pressure, heart problems, obesity, and a whole range of other, and related, health problems. Since going vegan I have really felt the change in my body. I have energy, I have vitality, I feel as if I work properly now. I believe this is because I'm now giving my body what it needs, its natural diet.

Canine teeth do tell us what our natural diet is. Our natural diet is pretty much vegan. So take that somewhat intelligent people that try to make me feel like a weirdo because I don't consume the breast milk of another species. Weirdo.

Happy eating! :)

A conundrum

I have a bit of a difficult situation facing me. I am going out for dinner tonight with some old work colleagues. The dinner was organised months ago and I have not seen them for about the same time. When they booked the dinner, they were very concerned about making sure that my vegetarian dietary requirements could be met. Most places serve vegetarian food but these colleagues always worry that there won't be any food for me. They are very lovely and I really appreciated the effort they put in and the concern they showed. However, in the months since I have seen them, I have become vegan. At the present time it is quite unusual for a 'mainstream' restaurant to serve vegan food.

I really feel that I have to go, and I can't now turn around and say, "Oh I know you made such an effort to find somewhere that made vegetarian food, but I'm vegan now and there's nothing here I will eat". This leaves me with only one option. I must eat non-vegan food. I must eat dairy and eggs, thus supporting the very cruelty I want to cut out from my life.

This is a very difficult choice for me but I feel that I should support the effort that my colleagues put into having dinner with me. It does mean that my money will be funding the industries I no longer wish to support, and therefore feed the cycle of consume and demand, but at the same time I will be supporting people who have taken it upon themselves to learn so much about vegetarianism and accommodate their own views as a result.

So I guess this means that my vegan challenge will have to be suspended for one night so that I can support the gradually changing views of these old colleagues. I feel really bad but I know that at the same time I am doing good. I will therefore be extending my vegan challenge by an extra day (to Easter Monday), to make up for this day involving non-vegan eating.

I'm also a bit worried about how my body will react. Since going vegan, I have felt so much healthier and I have so much more energy. Over my years of being vegetarian, there were a few times when I accidentally ate something containing meat. On these occasions I got quite sick, and it wasn't psychological! Apparently it's quite a common occurrence, that the more people cut out meat and animal products, the better they feel, but the reverse is true if you go in the opposite direction. I believe that cutting out dairy has been a big factor in how healthy I feel today, so I'm worried how I will feel after eating a meal no doubt covered in cheese. I guess only time will tell!

A strange thought on what is vegan and what is not vegan

So I've been reading a bit about raising vegan children lately and I had a strange thought, is breast milk vegan? Breast milk is an animal product, it's no different from cow's milk. Except for the fact that it is the natural food for human babies, and cow's milk is the natural food for cow babies, not human babies. Animals aren't meant to drink the milk of another species. Think of it this way, would you drink dog milk? Then why drink cow's milk?!

I guess that breast milk is vegan because, even though it comes from an animal, because it comes from our own species. However, using this thinking, does that mean that cannibalism is vegan?

Just a thought!

Some more thoughts on veganism

Thinking about going vegan, I have obviously been thinking about the way we treat animals and why we treat them this way.

I've been thinking about chickens, eggs, and what this means for my veganism. I don't want to consume eggs anymore because even if the chickens are treated well, are "free-range" and everything, they are still slaughtered, and slaughtered at a young age. This is why I don't want to support the egg industry anymore. It's just not right. However, what if I had my own chickens? Would I eat their eggs? Would I cook using their eggs? That wouldn't be vegan. But I know that those chickens are kept in good conditions and that they will never be slaughtered, even when they grow very old and stop laying altogether.

See, I'm not opposed to the eating of eggs, I know that wild fowl don't lay eggs everyday and that chickens have been selectively bred and manipulated by humans to produce eggs, but that's not the chickens' fault. Should I let my chickens' eggs go to waste because I don't think people have a right to manipulate other animals? It's the treatment of the chickens, but mostly the slaughter, that makes me want to stop eating eggs. But as I said, this would only be an issue with commercially farmed eggs, it would not be an issue of I had my own flock. I wouldn't be able to buy any food with eggs in it though, at restaurants or anything, because those eggs would still come from the egg industry. And no matter how progressive the restaurant or how progressive the company, it is not in an "egg grower's" interest to maintain a flock that is not at its peak production. If I only ate eggs that my chickens produced, could I still call myself a vegan though? Not really. Also, there's still the issue of roosters. Even backyard chicken farming supports the slaughter of roosters. For every hen you have, there was a rooster that the breeder killed. I don't think I'd be able to have any roosters either as most councils have made them illegal here. Even if they weren't illegal, all it takes is one neighbour to complain and you're left looking for a no-kill home for a rooster.

I've also been thinking similar thoughts about honey. I'm not opposed to stealing bees' honey, though I don't believe in taking all of it and then giving them sugar-water, which is what honey producers do. What I am opposed to, is the cruelty towards queen bees. Queen bees, as you probably know, live much longer than their children. They live for years, rather than the months that the workers live for. However, bee-keeping practice is to squash the queen bee every 6 months and replace her with a "virgin queen" - a queen that has been artificially inseminated with sperm collected from a crushed male. The virgin queens have their wings cut off (obviously without anaesthetic) so that they can't swarm, which is the natural mating behaviour for virgin queens and drones. I find these practices appalling and disgusting. Honey production is just like the factory farming of any other animal. I've looked around on the internet, thinking that surely there must be an ethical, cruelty-free, honey producer, only to find none. Bizzarely, I did find a beauty company that uses honey in all of its products and then says that all products contain "no animal ingredients". What about wild honey? I thought desperately, there must be someone going around and harvesting honey from wild bees? Nope, wild honey is honey produced by farmed bees who get to choose what flowers they go to, or ones who are put out in the bush. I've thought about keeping bees myself but the costs involved in buying all the equipment would be extrodinary and I feel that there must be some kind of reason beekeepers keep replaicing the queens, maybe if yuou just have the same queen the hive will die after a few years. Then you'd have to buy a new virgin queen who would have gone through everything previously described. Plus, I don't like honey that much to warrent having my own hive. It's easily replaceable in cooking too. The thing I do love, which I wouldn't be making, is mead. If yuou don't know what mead is it's an alcoholic drink made from honey. It's delicious and we drink heaps of it. I really like it but I know that it supports the honey industry. But I don't want to stop drinking mead.

Then there's the issue of wool. I've always thought that wool was ok because the sheep didn't get killed when they got old. However, as for most "farm" animals, life for these sheep isn't too great, especially not since mulesing is still practiced in this country.

Why isn't life black and white? It would be so much easier. Why can't life be easier?

Vegan food for thought

Through some web surfing I have just discovered an awesome Adelaide blog called Little Vegan Steps. One of the posts in particular caught my attention, On ex-vegans: why people become, stay, or stop being vegan. I think that this is relevant to anyone who is vegetarian, vegan, or thinking of becoming vegetarian or vegan.

The blog has also flared that desire I have to be vegan. I am one of the people mentioned who says "I want to, but it's too hard because I like dairy too much" etc. God knows I've tried vegan alternatives but I really hate them. And If I was vegan I would have to do so much more cooking, which I really don't have the time to do. It would probably help if I had some vegan friends. Is that a good enough excuse though? Does that excuse me for supporting all the things I'm trying to work against through being vegetarian, slaughter, abuse, and animal cruelty?

Cognitive dissonance. That's what this is called, when you have an internal conflict raging inside you. It is a psychological state caused when a person's beliefs and their actions are in conflict. It's extremely uncomfortable and stressful to live with and eventually something's got to give. Either the person changes their beliefs to fit their actions, or they change their actions to fit their beliefs. Do I think I will eventually go vegan? Yes. How that will affect my life though, I can't say. I think my vegan side will eventually win this war that is raging inside me, as my vegetarian side won over my... omnivorous side? I'm actually still omnivorous because I still eat dairy, eggs, and honey. So vegan is actually... vegetarian. And vegetarian is... not. Interesting. Food for thought my friends.

Well, when the vegan side does eventually win out, at least there are more and more vegan companies growing. An interesting one that was mentioned on Little Vegan Steps is Rose Petals Vegan Weddings. Now that's a nice thought isn't it? I mean, ok sure they appear to be based in the United States, but the site still gives lots of ideas for anyone wanting to have a cruelty-free wedding. Or any type of event really.

If you live in Adelaide, there is also an amazing vegan cook called Pixie who runs Tasty Goodness. She does catering and you can buy some of her delicious creations at the Gillies Street markets. Check out the facebook page for updates on when she's going to be there.

An observation...

Something I have noticed through writing this blog is that I don't eat anywhere near the right amount of fruit and vegies! Most of what I eat is just empty carbs. This goes to show that a vegetarian diet can still be unhealthy! As I always say to people, chips (generally) are vegetarian and chocolate certainly is! I really must eat more fresh produce...

Supplements?

So today, after recieving the results of some blood tests related to an ongoing illness, I was once again told of my excellent iron and vitamin B12 levels. As always, this got me thinking about the belief that seems to be held by our society that vegetarians, and especially vegans, must have to take vitamin and mineral supplements because their diet is obviously lacking in nutrients. I have to say once and for all that, in my experience, that is absolutely not true! I have been vegetarian for almost 5 years and, due to unrelated medical issues, I have been having regular blood tests for almost that entire time. Never have I had a deficiency of any kind.

Though many people think that vegetarians need to take vitamin and mineral supplements to stay healthy (even many vegetarians!), in my experience, this is just untrue. Eating a balanced vegetarian diet should provide you with ample nutrients. The only thing that vegetarianism eliminates from the diet is meat and meat by-products and these do not contain any nutrients that cannot also be found in vegetarian foods, especially in dairy and eggs as they are animal derived. I cannot speak on the necessity for supplements in a vegan diet, as I am not vegan, but I would assume that a focused and educated individual could live very well on a vegan diet without supplements.

The main mineral that people seem to think that vegetarians miss out on is iron. This is untrue as the foods highest in iron are mostly vegetarian, and of those that aren't, I doubt they are included in many non-vegetarians' diets.
For example, a quick Google search gave me a list of top 10 foods highest in iron. The list was as follows:
1. Dried thyme
2. Cocoa powder, unsweetened, and dark chocolate
3. Liver
4. Clams, oysters, and mussels
5. Roasted pumpkin and squash seeds
6. Tahini and sesame seeds
7. Caviar
8. Sun-dried tomatoes
9. Sunflower seeds
10. Dried apricots
Another site also has some pretty comprehensive lists of food high in iron, separated into grains, vegetables etc and almost all of these are vegetarian. Therefore, it is a myth that vegetarians are at risk of developing an iron deficiency. Iron supplements should not be needed in any diet, non-vegetarian, vegetarian, or vegan. Iron deficiency is caused by bad diet or medical conditions, not by lack of meat. Also, iron supplements have a tendancy to cause constipation and can, in my anecdotal experience, turn your poo a vivid shade of green. This would undoubtedly lead to amusement in the circles I travel in but constipation, on the other hand, is not fun.

It is important to note that vitamin C plays a vital role in the iron absorption process and that many non-vegetarians (and some vegetarians for that matter!) do not eat enough vitamin C rich foods. This means that of any iron being eaten, much is not absorbed. In an organized and structured fashion that gives me much more joy than it should, the aforementioned website has many lists of top 10 foods to find different nutrients in. Ah lists, categorization, and ranking, how I love thee. One of these lists is on vitamin C rich foods and I thought that since we are on the subject, I should share them with you and pose the question, are you eating these? Because if you're relying on orange juice I'm afraid you might be in for some problems. The list is:
1. Red and green hot chilli peppers
2. Guavas
3. Bell peppers (capsicum to us Australian folk)
4. Fresh thyme and parsley
5. Dark leafy greens (eg kale, mustard greens, garden cress)
6. Broccoli, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts
7. Kiwi fruit
8. Papaya (AKA pawpaw)
9. Citrus fruits (though probably not the juice you buy at the supermarket)
10. Strawberries
So, you probably don't eat as many of those foods as you should, do you? I'm actually worried now that I'm not eating enough of them...

Many foods such as bread and cereals are also iron enriched. When I was in primary school we did a good experiment for this, blending up some breakfast cereal and then stirring it with magnets. Literally, iron filings were pulled from the cereal by the magnets. This is not to say anything against the companies that do it because unless bound within a living thing, ie plants, animals, and fungi, one of the only ways to add iron to the diet is to add iron filings.

The second nutrient often lacking in an unbalanced vegetarian diet is vitamin B12. This is little known in the public conciousness and probably poses a greater risk to vegetarians because of that. Many people just starting to live a vegetarian lifestyle are not aware that vitamin B12 deficiency is something  they should be aware of. I have heard that vitamin B12 is particularly difficult for vegans to incorporate into their diet as it is very difficult to find in much abundance in non-animal foods. Indeed the website with the top ten list of iron rich  and vitamin C rich foods mentioned above also has one for vitamin B12 rich foods (yay! How very comprehensive!), their list is:
1. Clams, oysters, and mussels
2. Liver
3. Caviar
4. Octopus
5. Fish
6. Crab and lobster
7. Beef
8. Lamb and mutton
9. Cheese
10. Eggs
As you can see, only two of these are vegetarian, and none are vegan. As part of a balanced diet, vegetarians should get enough vitamin B12 but it is something to be aware of. The next best vegetarian source of vitamin B12 after dairy and eggs (and probably one of the best vegan sources) is Vegemite and similar yeast spreads, such as Marmite. And really, how hard is it to have some Vegemite on toast for breakfast every once in a while?

So in conclusion, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, unless caused by an underlying medical condition, are the result of an unbalanced diet. Take a look at your diet and see if you should perhaps be eating more of the above mentioned foods!

Happy eating :)