The Vegetarian Trap

[Guest guest]

Diet is a dangerous subject, and misinformation in that field can be

very harmful or even fatal. Wrong guidance on what you eat can be as

easy as catching a cold, whether it's from television, or the people

around you, or just yourself. I was one of the victims of that trap,

where I somehow stubbornly convinced myself against the advice of my

parents that a complete vegetarian diet is the ultimate solution to

obesity.

 

Oh, how wrong I was! Within less than two and a half weeks I

realized that there was something terribly wrong with this

vegetarian diet. The first signs started with weariness and

heaviness; every time I went to play squash with my uncle, I was

barely able to lift the racket. I also expected my weight to reduce

drastically, as I watched it rocket 20kgs within three weeks (from

125kgs to 145kgs). The situation spoke for itself, and I did not

have to communicate to my parents the harshly humorous situation. My

father immediately took me to the hospital, where the doctors made

many blood tests. Everything was fine except for vitamin B12, which

was lower than the bare minimum on their `human scale'.

 

I was set on a lengthy course of B12 injections and tablets, and

came to know that vitamin B12 was a major component in the

metabolism of fats and sugars, which means that a lack of it would

make a person fat. I also found out that this vitamin was only

present in animal products, whether in the form of meat, eggs, dairy

products, liver, mollusks, etc.

 

After two months of B12 medication and a diet reset to normal, I

continued taking B12 supplements as I felt a tremendous difference.

The tiredness was gone, and I would play squash and tennis for

hours; and my weight plummeted a staggering 40kgs (i.e. it became

105kgs). For a height of 6ft 4inches, this was not bad. I was having

a balanced diet, but the carbohydrates were preferentially taken in

the form of fruits, vegetables, and nuts, and not in the form of

seeds and beans. I was drinking on average one and a half large

cartons of juice per day, and was eating lots of sea bream (my

favorite fish), and I never felt that I was starving myself or

depriving myself of a favorite meal. In fact, I was losing weight

without even going on a real weight-loss diet.