Vegetarianism and tiredness?

I've been a vegetarian for nearly 5 years now. I'm always tired and I can pinpoint this feeling starting not long after I became a vegetarian. I sleep like a log but it doesn't seem to be very refreshing sleep. I've had blood tests and my iron levels came back normal so I'm not sure what I could be missing.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thank you

[knightofalbion]

Probably low blood sugar. There isn't anything magic about meat. It's just protein, fat, carbohydrate, vitamins and minerals. Not taking into account the spiritual and moral issues of it, it isn't even the best source of protein.
It is a 'heavy' food, rather fatty, and takes a time to break down, so it sits in the stomach for quite a while.
The nutrition one can get elsewhere, you're not short of iron as the tests have shown, but people can miss that slow burn release of calories.
Have you tried a (healthy) mid-morning/mid-afternoon snack? Adding more healthy fat (i.e. nuts/avocados) to your meals?
Unrefreshing sleep could well suggest a lack of calories - or even just the need for a thicker blanket!
Are you getting a good protein intake? (See 'Red Meat' in the 'Health' section)

[Podshell]

May help to look out for GM ingredients too and avoid them (if you don't do this already of course) , do most soya products contain GM beans now?

(heaven knows what these things are doing to us and it is very hard to avoid them, the side effects would suit the meat industry too if lots of problems are showing up in vegetarians, they can then use statistics to prove its an 'unhealthy' lifestyle)

I have been veggie for perhaps fifteen years or more , have suffered with tiredness and other stuff for the last few years, but being more strict with GM avoidence of late.

[Miss Hepburn]

Sooo many vegetarians still don't get the protein right...it really
is a delicate balance, so I've been told by a genius nutritionist that
sees this oh so much.

I would ask are you correctly combining food to make complete proteins...
Depending who you are you may need 70 grams daily.
Then you have the B12 thing. Potassium and magnesium defic can cause severe lethargy...
I'm always curious to ask if you feel sensitive to cold compared to friends.

A nice addition is Hemp Hearts added to sandwiches,salads,smoothies,pasta
It adds 10 grams right there with 3 tablespoons Refridg.section of Whole Foods and Sprouts
In an orange/white bag.
You may also know the trick of grinding nuts into almost a powder to add
More protein the same way..
I agree to check for hypo glocemia and also thyroid...ur blood test prob
Showed ur thyroid function, tho.
I'll try to remember more. Oh, adrenals...are you sensitive to light, always wearing
Sunglasses? Then get high quality adrenal glandular supplements or at least adrenal support.
Cut out white flour products, caffeine and sugar, if you still use those...at least til you build
Yourself up again....also a vitamin "cocktail" to cover those bases...just ideas, not telling u what to do.
Good luck.

I've been vegetarian for 15 years. I feel healthier now than I did as a meat eater. Don't believe the marketing hype. Meat is an unnecessary EVIL.

[samantha]

I stopped eating meat when i was about 8, i ate all meat and fish then out of the blue for i dont no what reason i went completely off it. I remember my mum chasing me round the kitchen to take vitamins but i could not swallow tablets. Anyway tiredness had never been an issue with me until i turned 30, i have always been healthy and didnt get colds or bugs as much as others. I eat plenty fruit and veg. Lack of vit b can cause tiredness, you could try eating plenty green veg like, broccoli, spinach, dark green lettuce, these are the best for tiredness.

Thank you for the advice, everyone. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one! I didn't know about GM products. I actually consume soya products on a daily basis so I'm definitely going to check what's in the milk I buy later on. It's a bit naive perhaps but with soya beans being a natural product, I just always assumed that products created with them would be made of that and nothing else. I've just had a quick Google of GM soya products and one of the first phrases I came across was "...poisoning our children..." It's not just our bodies it's affecting though apparently, it's also the communities these soy beans are grown in. I've just read a horrific article about a woman whose son died hours after being accidentally sprayed with pesticides after cycling by a soy bean field Definitely going to do some more research into this. If large amounts can kill someone, I imagine small amounts can inflict a fair amount of damage.

I've looked at hemp products before but it's always so expensive! It might be something I invest in after Christmas when my student loan has come in My friend's mum (who's actually vegan) mentioned something protein and said she tries to eat about three brazil nuts a say. I've been trying to do this by eating things like peanut butter. I might go and see if I can buy some nuts today actually. My problem is that I find them addictive and they're quite calorific

Thank you so much for the advice though. I will certainly take it all on board I think sometimes I don't help myself. My flat mates (well, one in particular) refuses to wash her own dishes so we don't usually have many things to cook with so it's rare I get a hot meal at uni these days so I think the balance isn't too balanced at the moment!

[knightofalbion]

I see you're in England....

Soya milk here is GM-free. You can get organic soya milk, but obviously you have to pay a bit more for it.

Webste of the market leader

http://www.alpro.com/uk/faq

Other plant milks are available aside from soya - almond, hazelnut, rice, coconut and oat

[Podshell]

I get Mercola's news articles sent me via email , he has wrote a lot about GM stuff

eg a search

http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&sugex...&bpcl=39942515

Re my own vegetarianism , I definitely would say the positives have outweighed any negatives, also only used hemp when it was on offer once (they have big bags of it in the angling shops though as its used as fishing bait, so some of the fish will be healthy)

It could take you a while to find this one.

Zinc deficiency is also implicated in tiredness, although that is usually improved as a vegetarian. White flecks in fingernails indicate this.

Carbs make us lethargic too but the effect is quite subtle.

It might even be unrelated. What exactly are your symptoms?