Hello Quantum Mechanic and Sarabi...
Hundreds of millions of non-vegans have various deficiencies, and of course vegans have deficiencies too. We have a subforum called "Personal Health Issues" in the member section, and here's the message/disclaimer posted in that area:
Please don't use this section as a substitute for professional diagnosis or treatment!
We have members on this board who has been vegans for many years, and who haven't experienced any symptoms of eg. B12 deficiency - and that includes vegans who haven't taken any B12 supplements for years. I'm not advocating that people should avoid supplements, or that vegans should always take supplements because we are risking more deficiencies than non-vegans.... I'm saying is that if you have any reason to believe that you need a normal - or therapeutic - amount of a vitamin or mineral, take a blood test and have a look at the results along with a health professional, or learn enough to figure out how likely it is that you should have a deficiency, or take a small amount before you get any problems to prevent problems to occur.
Nobody - vegan or not - should take a 'wait and see' approach.Quantum Mechanic became a vegan in October and is worried that he is having a B12 deficiency in November... and: maybe he is right, but if he is, he can't possible have had healthy B12 levels in October. Sarabi also registered in October, and find things 'scary' already, but I encourage you both to find out what your B12 status is, and to get back to this thread if you actually have a B12 deficiency.
Maybe you aren't missing proteins at all. Did you check our
vegan protein threads yet?
I don't know what sensation that would be... Since this thread is about actual deficiencies... with all due respect, please do yourself a favor and find out what you're missing - if you are missing anything - and get back to this thread if you find out that you have a B12 deficiency. You are more than welcome to ask for feedback in the Personal Health Issues-section, but again: please don't use this section as a substitute for professional help. Seizures and borderline clinical depressions are serious stuff, and please don't risk anything by guessing that your problems are caused by this or that....
It's said that only 1% of the average population have healthy levels of all nutrients, and if you actually find out that you have a B12 deficiency after a few weeks on a vegan diet, this documents that your diet before you became a vegan was lacking out on B12, because most B12 experts seem to agree that a person with healthy B12 can store B12 reserves in his body for years (mainly in the liver).
At some point I was eating vegan for several years without any B12 supplementation/fortified foods, and didn't have anything that slightly reminded of B12 deficiency symptoms. I'm not saying that others should follow this example: I don't drink coffee, hardly drink alcohol, I never take any medicine, I don't smoke, live in an area with a lot of fresh air and happen to have a taste/lifestyle which means that I avoid a lot of the 'B12 killers'.
It's hard to avoid certain 'B12 troublemakers' (eg. chlorinated water, or eating plants from a soil depleted in essential nutrients). It's probably a good idea (for most people) to compensate for the expected lack of certain nutrients we'll end up with as a result of living in a 'modern' world by taking some supplements - but not instead of eating real food / real plants (preferably organic with a good amount of raw stuff daily). This actually applies as much - or more - to non-vegans than vegans, because they live on a mix of meat ("plants that has been eaten once already") and plants, normally with a good portion of sugar, junk food etc....
We have to collectively move away from the assumption that if a vegan is sick, it's because she is a vegan, but if a non-vegan is sick, she is just sick - at the same time as we need to make sure we are healthy and (like everybody else) get professional help or supplements if/when we need it.