{"id":16259,"date":"2024-09-10T21:11:49","date_gmt":"2024-09-10T21:11:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/social.coldstreams.com\/?p=16259"},"modified":"2025-12-08T13:24:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T21:24:17","slug":"media-dangerous-misinformation-about-plant-based-eating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/2024\/09\/10\/media-dangerous-misinformation-about-plant-based-eating\/","title":{"rendered":"Media: Misinformation about plant-based eating"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>This article: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.today.com\/health\/diet-fitness\/plant-based-diet-rcna136256\">Plant-Based Diet Guide: Tips To Start, Foods To Eat And Recipes (today.com)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/sarah-digiulio-096b5011\/\">Sarah DiGiulo<\/a>, who has a BA in Magazine Journalism, tells us that eating a plant-based diet is healthy &#8211; and never mentions the vitamin B-12 deficiency problem. This is dangerous reporting of the type that led to my years of serious health problems: see <a href=\"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/2024\/03\/21\/public-health-vegetarianism-is-not-a-panacea\/\">The Accidental Vegetarian \u2013 Coldstreams<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bad reporting occurs when writers who are not formally trained in their subject area write articles like the above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Plant-based&#8221; is the new age term for pseudo vegetarian &#8211; along with the many other new names like pescatarian, flexitarian, etc. You are supposed to eat mostly plants but its ok if you hop off the wagon once in a while and eat meat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was &#8220;plant-based&#8221; as I did, occasionally but not often, eat meat during the time I became B-12 deficient, but mostly chicken which is very low in B-12. I did not view myself as a vegetarian (see my link above). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;B-12 deficient&#8221; sounds like a minor thing &#8211; it&#8217;s just a vitamin and can&#8217;t be a big deal. Nothing serious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s a very big deal. I had<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>irregular heart beat<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>outbreaks of warts<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>gall bladder inflammation (cause unknown but B-12 deficiency can be a cause)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>non A\/non B\/non C hepatitis (cause unknown but a B-12 deficiency can be a cause or an effect of hepatitis)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Extreme dizziness at times &#8211; I could not stand up without falling unless I was holding on to something<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Hairloss<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Gradually increasing migraines, visual auras (flashing lines in my vision lasting 30 minutes &#8211; up to 3x\/day), and scotomas (blind areas forming in my field of vision) &#8211; which escalated to 5x to 10x per day.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>ST anomaly &#8211; irregular heart rate<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>I was very sick, and my life was disrupted, particularly during the last 6-12 months of this. I began to think I was in the early phases of dying (seriously).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because of the various symptoms, I underwent many tests including ECG, blood tests, an echocardiogram stress test, ultrasound imaging of my carotid arteries, ultrasound imaging of my abdominal cavity and more. I spent about $6,000 out of pocket over 2 years &#8211; on our ACA insurance policy, costing $2,000 per month for 2 adults, our family deductible was $19,600 per year. (ACA polices are very expensive and do not cover anything like your corporate group insurance policies).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once this was identified, my doctor has me taking 1,000 mcg of vitamin B-12, daily. I have had one visual aura in 9 months, down from 5x to 10x per day before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I also resumed eating meat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>35% of those who choose to &#8220;go vegetarian&#8221; end up quitting within 6 months because of health problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is why articles telling us to &#8220;go plant-based&#8221; &#8211; without discussing serious health problems that can develop &#8211; are reckless misinformation. Particularly when we learn that 1\/3d drop out due to health problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>If you wish to eat vegetarian and continue doing that for a period of time, you must let your doctor know and you must consult with a nutritionist or dietician. This is not something to take lightly. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Few people are vegetarian (2023 Gallup poll &#8211; 4% are vegetarian and 1% are vegan), and most who start will give it up before the potential onset of vitamin B-12 deficiency (which can be 2-6 years for most adults due to our liver&#8217;s ability to store B-12 for long periods).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Story teller advocates via Today Show that we should eat &#8220;plant-based&#8221;, without once mentioning real life health effects such as B-12 deficiency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,348,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-facts","category-public-health","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16259\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldstreams.com\/social\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}