Vitamin B12 Deficiency Is Prevalent Among Czech Vegans Who Do Not Use Vitamin B12 Supplements.

Eliška Selinger,Michal Anděl,Jan Gojda,Tilman Kühn,Magdalena Procházková

doi:10.3390/nu11123019

Abstract

As not much is known about the prevalence and predictors of nutritional deficiencies among vegans in the Czech Republic, we evaluated whether supplement use and duration of adherence to the vegan diet are associated with the risk of cobalamin and iron deficiencies. Associations between self-reported supplementation and duration of vegan diet with biomarkers of cobalamin (serum cobalamin, holotranscobalamin, homocysteine, folate) and iron status (serum ferritin, iron binding capacity, transferrin and saturation of transferrin) were assessed by cross-sectional analyses of medical data from a clinical nutrition center. Data from 151 (72 females) adult vegans (age 18–67 years), who were free of major chronic diseases and 85 (40 females) healthy non-vegans (age 21–47 years) were analyzed. Overall, vegans had significantly lower cobalamin, hemoglobin and ferritin levels, but higher folate and MCV values compared to non-vegans. Vegans not using cobalamin supplements were at higher risk of low plasma cobalamin than regularly supplementing vegans (OR: 4.41, 95% CI 1.2–16.16 for cobalamin, OR: 19.18, 95% CI 1.02–359.42 for holotranscobalamin), whereas no significant differences in cobalamin status related to duration of the vegan diet were observed. Regularly supplementing vegans had similar levels of cobalamin/holotranscobalamin as non-vegans. Despite lower ferritin and hemoglobin levels, there was no indication of a higher risk of iron-deficiency among vegans. To conclude cobalamin deficiency risk depends on supplementation status and not on the duration of an exclusive vegan diet, which underlines the need to integrate cobalamin status monitoring and counselling on supplement use in routine clinical care in the Czech Republic.

Highlights

Veganism is defined as a philosophy and way of living, which seeks to exclude, as far as possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing and any other purpose [1]
The risk of laboratory signs of cobalamin deficiency among vegans was strongly related to the non-use of dietary supplements, and even irregular users of supplements were at higher risk for low levels of cobalamin and holotranscobalamin compared with regular users or non-vegans
Our study does not indicate that the duration of adherence to the vegan diet alone is related to the risk of cobalamin deficiency

Summary

Introduction

Veganism is defined as a philosophy and way of living, which seeks to exclude, as far as possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing and any other purpose [1]. Recent surveys indicate that the number of self-identified vegans in the USA increased from 0.4% in 2015 to 6% in [2]. In the Czech Republic, 1% of the population reported to be vegetarian in 2002, and about. According to a current marketing survey performed in 2019, 1% of Czech population consider themselves as vegans (excluding all animal products) and 3% as vegetarians (excluding only meat). In younger adults (18–34 years) the proportion of vegetarians and vegans is 10% [4]

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