The Unreported Link Between Veganism and Depression

The more popular the vegan lifestyle gets, the more backlash it seems to attract. From viral memes to scientific studies, there seems to be an endless stream of playground insults and contradictory findings from both corners of the debate. The back and forth usually focuses on animal welfare and dietary shortcomings.

But there is one serious issue surrounding the philosophy that is rarely brought to light.

Through studying the actions and opinions of vegans across a number of different platforms, it is clear that both the diet and lifestyle can severely affect a person’s mental health, and if either are adopted without prior research and careful consideration, they most likely will.

Putting aside for the moment the assumed and somewhat obvious nutritional problems people may associate with veganism, the main issue is one that vegans themselves often fail to notice.

Whether it’s for animal welfare, personal health, or environmental issues, there are many different paths that lead toward the plant-based lifestyle and for those who have entered veganism through the door of ethics, the way in which animals are treated and used as commodities can instantly become all too harrowing to continue to take part in. It is this shifted perception that can lead to lead to veganism’s first - and often silent - mental health issue.

The Psychological Issue

Through documentaries such as Earthlings and Cowspiracy, as well as a number of candid videos circulating the internet that illuminate the often unwatchable realities of industrial farming, people are starting to realise that the mass consumption of meat across the globe can’t be sustained by the happy ‘Old MacDonald’ idea of a farm from which we hope our meat is sourced.

Within days, hours, or even minutes, a person can change their perception of life and can quickly develop a new outlook on the world around them. It is this transition under which people go through that can cause vegans to develop an often unnoticeable, or even self-justified, change in mental well-being.

After witnessing a number of people reach the depths of depression over the thought of animal cruelty, I reached out to Clare Mann, a dedicated vegan therapist, who explained how the realisation of farming practises can lead to shock, trauma, and ultimately, depression:

“Given that every year we kill over 70 billion animals, when somebody finds out they had no idea the extent of this, and that their every day actions contribute to that industrialised cruelty, they are kind of trapped. It can be traumatic with shock.”

“So firstly there’s the horror of finding out what happens in the industrialised cruelty of animals. Then secondly, this existential crisis that happens that says ‘the world will never be as I perceived it to be’. Thirdly is ‘how the heck do I work in a world whereby people are involved in this and I can’t get them to see it?”

“If we give that depression is either feeling pressed down or feeling you’re pressing something down, I think it’s fair to say that vegans can be given such rise to anger, despair, grief, disbelief that when they try to get respite from that they come against an every day society that says ‘don’t put your values on me’ at a time of trauma. So people can either rant at the world and hate everyone and go to work at a sanctuary with animals or they turn that anger onto themselves and it turns into depression.”

A number of small-scale studies have been conducted into the broader umbrella of diets and mental health, and a number of different conclusions have been drawn from each. Most can offer no evidence that vegans develop depression at a higher rate than meat eaters — but there does seem to be a disproportionate amount of people who already suffer from depression converting to veganism. So for those who feel they have become depressed since going vegan may have had some acute level of the health issue before.

Whether veganism draws in depressed people or not, it is clear that the weight of knowledge a person joins the lifestyle with can definitely accentuate their issues and create a whole new channel for their negative emotions.

The idea that the sudden realisation of farming practices can cause shock, trauma, grief and depression may be alien to many, but once the facts are laid upon the table, it becomes a lot more understandable.

The Welfare Issue

Annually, 56 billion animals are killed all over the world before making their way to our plates. In the UK over 8 billion animals are killed every year, which equates to 22 million a day, or 225 every second. That means that every three days, the number of animals slaughtered in the UK is bigger than the total population of all four nations.

We are somewhat blessed in the UK to have some of the highest standards of animal welfare in the world, but our permissive trading regulations mean we can import produce that falls out of our own legislation (arguably for both animal and human welfare). In 2010, The Guardian found that one quarter of meat sold in the UK comes from countries with animal welfare regulations that don’t meet our own national standards.

Inland, we have the most progressive forms of slaughter. Although there is the age old argument of whether any form of slaughter can be compassionate, Britain’s stun method is by far the most humane. But according to The EU Scientific Veterinary Committee, around 5 to 10% of cattle are not stunned effectively with the captive bolt (230,000 a year). With many other farming issues being being discovered across all species according to Viva!.

We are also given a choice over the meat we buy, and have the opportunity that many other nations don’t to buy grass fed, free range, organic meat. But there is little education on these seemingly benevolent labels.

• Organic — Simply that animals have to be fed non-GM organic feed, and that they can’t be given antibiotics. There are no other regulations surrounding these two conditions such as over feeding or disease curbing.
• Grass fed — Animals have been fed conserved grass or they have grazed outside for a period of time determined by the farmer.

• Free Range — EU laws determine that ‘Free Range’ hens can be raised indoors, with up to 16,000 birds per building with separate flocks reaching 4,000 birds. This means 9 hens are allowed per square metre. Outside, a farmer must have 10,000 square metres of space per 2,500 birds but the amount of time they spend outside is up to the farmer to decide.
• Any other key words such as ‘happy eggs’, ‘100% natural’, ‘farm fresh’, etc. are all random marketing words designed to make the consumer feel better, as described in this video from CIWF.

Little of these regulations require the animals to be reared in a happy, healthy environment and many end up subjected to a life of stress, disease and pain. It isn’t just vegans and animal rights activists that are standing up against the industry, many farmers are calling for tighter regulations too.

There are of course organisations in place to oversee that farming practices are up to standard, but according to Viva! ‘even the government’s advisory body, the Farm Animal Welfare Council, has been refused access to some of the larger plants’. The government has also controversially announced it will be scrapping animal welfare guidance and granting regulatory powers to the industry itself.

For clarification, this isn’t to say that all farms in the UK follow mistreatment practices and there are many farms and organisations, such as the Soil Association, that ensure they go above and beyond what is legally expected of them.

But veganism goes deeper than farming practices, as the lifestyle shuns any product through which an animal was exploited for it’s production. It is these other practices that makes veganism a lifestyle and not just a fad diet. This means any pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies that test their products on animals are often boycotted, as are the leather, suede, fur, feather and industries. Even honey is spared from the vegan shopping list.

Some of these industries, such as the feather market, are seen as a by-product of meat. In reality they are a lucrative co-product in which the animals are used for their extra commodities whilst being reared for meat rather than once they are killed.

But it isn’t just faming’s impact on animals that can lead to mental health issues; farming is also greatly affecting humans and the earth itself.

The Environmental Issue

Greenhouse gasses produced via the farming industry account for 19% of all humanity’s carbon emissions. This figure is more than all the emissions given off by every mode of transport — ever. On top of the carbon footprint, farming also accounts for 7% of global fresh water consumption and 38% of land use. So not only is farming a huge contributor to global warming meaning future generations will feel the brunt of its harmful effects, it has also arguably been a main catalyst in modern day tragedies such as the conflict in Syria.

Even a recent UN study has called for a global shift toward veganism to save the world from hunger, fuel poverty and the worst impacts of climate change. It could also save a lot of people from mental health issues.

According to the Psychologists For Social Responsibility, climate change will ‘cause more psychological than physical for people around the world’, and many scientists and climate activists are reporting ‘climate depression’, ‘climate anxiety’ and burnout from their seemingly failing efforts to slow global warming let alone reverse it.

It is this burnout, or ‘compassion fatigue’ that also plagues vegans in their plight to change what they see as atrocities in the farming industry. For vegans who see all the above information and feel that for everybody’s benefit, more people should either turn vegan or vegetarian or even cut down massively on meat, they often find themselves in a position of activism, and from their soapbox they try and share all their newfound knowledge with those around them.

This is of course met with the ‘preachy vegan’ backlash that has often (and sometimes hilariously) found itself at the forefront of internet culture.

Both veganism and depression can be very personal and misunderstood mindsets and, according to Clare, it is important for vegans suffering from mental health issues to seek help and advice from a vegan counsellor such as herself.

“Say a vegan walks into a general psychologists office, they may have to sit in a leather chair and wait. They could see the receptionist at the desk sipping a latte made with cows milk, they go in to see the therapist who might have a bit of wool or fur on their coat, as they open their leather bound diary and the person says ‘sit down and tell me your troubles’.”

“That person has to share — in a vulnerable position — the grief, trauma, rage, despair. And the therapist says ‘I don’t need to be a vegan to understand you’.”

“But if the person says tells the psychologist about the real extent of industrialised cruelty they usually have a dilemma. Because if the therapist says ‘I understand you’ but doesn’t immediately become vegan, there’s a number of options: they either don’t understand at all, gets it and thinks they are lying, or they don’t get it at all. So the person says ‘well you cant understand me and you’re going to deal with this in a general way as if my condition is an aberration from the norm’.”

The aforementioned scenario may seem like a hypothetical one, but it is becoming increasingly apparent that some counsellors and doctors struggle to understand where it is vegans are coming from, and are instead convincing them to revert back to a meat-based diet to help their mental health problems, often asking them to go against their beliefs and ethics. There are many blogs and even a book on the subject of reverting back to an omnivorous diet, with most people reporting a sudden boost of good health as soon as they eat meat.

But is it right for doctors to be advising people to go against their beliefs and ethics? It is arguable that a GP would not recommend meat to a Buddhist or Hindu, so should the same go for vegans? And if people manage a vegan lifestyle their whole life without suffering any mental distress, whilst others praise it for the health benefits it gives them, what is the science surrounding which diet is healthier?

The Nutritional Issue

Of course meat gives us a lot of our daily nutrients and is an excellent source of protein. But when we consume meat, we are involuntarily ingesting antibiotics that have been dished out to the animals. A staggering 80% of the worlds antibiotics are sold to the farming industries, which end up in our stomach and can cause antibiotic resistant bacteria to be transferred into our bodies. This practice has led to condemnation by the NHS over the adverse effects the meat can have on human health.

But what about a plant based diet? Can it supply us with the all the nutrients and energy for optimum mental well-being we need? Well, kind of but not really.

According to Alice Mackintosh, a Nutritional Therapist working at The Food Doctor, “From a nutritional perspective, the brain needs a lot. It’s a matter of delivering the right micronutrients to keep it working properly.”

Like the rest of the body, the brain needs fuel. The most important fuels that power our happiness and mental stability are serotonin and dopamine, which are neurotransmitters that are often referred to as the ‘happy hormones’.

Everything we do in life that we enjoy — or that keeps us motivated enough to continue — releases dopamine. So good food, sex and conversation all release high levels into the brain and keep us happy. Even this post has created enough dopamine in your brain to bring you as far as this sentence (for that I thank both you and your healthy neurotransmitters). With low levels of either dopamine and serotonin, chemical imbalances in the brain can lead to depression, and most anti-depressant drugs are designed to boost levels of both to keep us feeling positive again.

“To make dopamine, to make serotonin” explains Alice. “You need a range of nutrients from B vitamins, magnesium, vitamin C, zinc down to protein. For people who aren’t doing a vegan diet properly, they are missing out on all of these but specifically protein. Equally to make serotonin from tryptophan (which is the form of protein that supports the brain), you get that in meat, fish, eggs, to make that turn into serotonin, you need zinc, you need B6, and a lot of those things are all going to be deficient in a vegan diet.”

“I think the problem with a vegan diet is that not only are you missing out on essential proteins, all the amino acids, tyrosine, tryptophan. The brain just doesn’t function properly without protein.”

As with any aspect of veganism, nutrition is a hotly contested issue with very strong arguments on each side. For example, holding his own in the vegan corner of the debate is Dr John McDougall. The physician-turned-author is the man behind the best-selling book The McDougall Programme — in which his research leads to him advocating a low-fat plant based diet for optimum health and well-being.

On the subject of protein and tryptophan he writes:

“A high-protein meal (full of meats, dairy foods, and eggs) provides many other amino acids that compete with tryptophan for entry into the brain; the end result is less tryptophan passing into the brain and a decrease in the synthesis of serotonin. Conversely, a low-protein, carbohydrate-rich diet (full of starches, vegetables, and fruits) results in the highest levels of serotonin in the brain, because fewer large-molecule amino acids are competing with tryptophan to enter the brain. For you this means less hyperactivity, anxiety, depression, and insomnia-provided you eat that healthier diet.”

The reality of a vegan diet seems to be a much disputed one between professionals in the nutrition industry, but it was a nutritionist working at BrainNutrition that offered me the simplest form of clarity on the issue: “I just can’t help thinking it has to be down to the individual” explains Lucinda Bevan. “Because everybody comes with a different sort of problem.” But even Lucinda has her 2 cents on the issue, believing “any plant based diet is a good thing”.

Aside from the possible protein issues, vegans — like veggies and omnivores — have to make sure they are getting the right range of nutrients for a happy brain. Iron, Vitamin D, Iodine and omega 3 are all essential to maintaining stable mental health and positive moods. As described by nutritional therapist Joan Landino of The Therapy Twins, “The lack of nutrients in both a vegan & non vegan diet can be a trigger for depression. Within our own practice we have seen a correlation between depression and poor quality foods lacking in vital nutrients like vitamins minerals & omegas.”

None of the aforementioned nutrients are unavailable in the vegan diet, and vegans are no more likely to be deficient in each one than their omnivorous counterparts. In fact, more than 1 billion people globally are Vitamin D deficient which has a direct impact on serotonin in the brain.

A healthy balanced diet is necessary for optimum happiness for all of us, regardless of diet and ethics. For nutrient requirements that can’t be met through diet and lifestyle, natural supplements are vital — otherwise you could find yourself being prescribed something heavier from the doctor further down the line.

So if vegans stick to a diet that covers their nutritional requirement they can expect optimum mental health, right? Unfortunately not.

Aside from these vitamins, which can be obtained through specific diet regimes, there is one vitamin almost completely unobtainable for vegans that plays the most vital role to our wellbeing; Vitamin B12.

The Vitamin B12 Issue

Of all the nutrients essential to human health, Vitamin B12 is the only one that cannot be obtained through plants or sunlight. Instead, it is developed from bacteria that is found in soil and converted into B12 in our large intestine. Rather unfortunately, it is absorbed before the large intestine — in the small intestine. As it is converted so far down the body, it comes out in abundance in our (and all other animal’s) faeces before our bodies get a chance to absorb it. This is historically where humans would get their B12 from - when manure was used to grow vegetables and nothing was washed before using it. But now, in our hyper-sterilised world, we are actually washing off bacteria that is vital to our wellbeing.

B12 is one of our brains’ key vitamins and a large part of its role keeps us from slipping into depression.

B12 converts homocysteine in the body — a process known as protein metabolism. To purify the protein metabolism and make it useable, B12 is needed to convert the homocysteine into methionine — and that chemical is called S-adenosylmethionine, which is known by retired GP Dr Joseph Chandy as “our own god given anti depressant”.

In 1981 Dr Chandy was the first doctor to publish a research paper on Vitamin B12 deficiencies. Whilst trying to solve the cause of a patient’s anaemia here in the UK, he made a sudden realisation that women he treated in Kerala when he first started practising medicine had similar problems, and as they were Hindu Brahman they were all vegetarians, as was the woman he was treating, so he began to make the dietary connection and discovered it was in fact a B12 deficiency causing the issue.

He also realised that although communities in India have been vegetarian for centuries, people have recently begun contracting problems from their diet because farming practices in certain communities have stopped using human manure, so B12 that was being developed in their guts wasn’t making its way back to their bloodstream.

But anaemia, as Dr Chandy found out, is only one of the many awful side effects of low B12. “If there is little B12 in our system” he explains. “The brain gets clogged up by homocysteine which is of course — if not converted by B12 to S-adenosylmethionine — what the brain is receiving in the fluid that converts into brain tissue is methionine, and that methionine causes depression, anxiety, psychosis, nightmares, hallucinations, disturbance of memory loss, eventually [it can] lead to dementia.”

After moving to the UK, Dr Chandy began studying B12 deficiencies more broadly and found that even relatively medium-low levels of B12 can cause adverse effects on mental health. For the Durham-based doctor, B12 is one of life’s most important elements.

“If you and me need to be functioning, we need three important agents. One is oxygen, second is water the third, if you ask me, is B12. It is one of the most vital elements God has created for the survival of human beings but I don’t know why he has made it so complex.”

The reason Dr Chandy is perplexed at the complexity of the Vitamin is due to the way in which our bodies process the vitamin, or at least try to.

In the animal kingdom, B12 consumption and absorption is part of everyday natural processes. All carnivores get theirs from the meat they consume, and herbivores have evolved to develop their own tactful ways around getting the nutrient if it isn’t directly available in their soil. For example rodents excrete two different kinds of droppings — hard and soft — and they re-ingest the softer faeces which are full of important nutrients, such as B12. Other animals inadvertently consume their own faeces whilst grazing, and Ruminants (cows, sheep, deer etc) can synthesise B12 in their stomachs before it is ingested in their intestines.

But for humans, we really struggle with the Vitamin. Even omnivores have a hard time absorbing the nutrient, The Framingham Offspring study found that 39 percent of the general population may be in the ‘low normal’ and ‘deficient’ B12 blood level ranges.

So for Dr Chandy, it is vital that vegans take B12 supplements to counter the adverse effects of low levels in the body. The idea of supplementing a diet can often raise suspicion surrounding the naturally of said diet, but omnivores are also supplemented with B12 in their diets too.

According to Dr. Jennifer Rooke in an article in the Baltimore Post-examiner, 90% of the world’s B12 supplements are fed to livestock as well as being artificially added to dairy supplies. This is due to the unnatural diets that are fed to animals, who would traditionally get their B12 from grazing straight from the soil. Even for omnivores who get a decent meat-heavy diet, practitioners such as Dr. Greger recommends that we all take supplements of the vitamin because our bodies have such a hard time absorbing it — especially those over 50 years old.

If left untreated, the psychological effects of B12 depression can end up fatal, as Dr Chandy tearfully tells me down the phone. But there are also devastating physical issues that can face those who don’t supplement the vitamin, and in his 50 years of medicine, Dr Chandy has seen some of the worst.

“Vegan and Vegetarian mothers who are pregnant and do not take B12 supplements can sometimes produce babies without heads or brains. That is called neural tube defect. That means the spinal cord is coming out of the back — no brain, no heart, that sort of thing”

“If you are a total vegetarian or vegan then unfortunately you do not get any B12. A lady rang me just last night and all her life she had been vegetarian then became vegan and now I am advising her. She’s in a wheelchair, paralysed from the waist down [due to multiple sclerosis].”

“I say there is no multiple sclerosis as a disease. The cause of MS they haven’t yet found. They have given some fancy names to describe the condition but not the cause. They say if a Dr can find what causes the demyelination of the spinal cord, brain and peripheral nerves [they will know the cause of B12].”

“Because B12 is needed to myelinate — that is to put this healthy covering through which the messages go. If I were to touch your feet, you would know within milliseconds. That happens through this myelin sheet and for the myelin sheet to be healthy you need to have B12. So if someone is B12 deficient, the myelin sheet is frayed and it cannot pass the message from one node to the other. So when that is damaged, it means from waist down people can become paralysed. But the damage is doe from brain downwards in the spinal cord.”

“So what’s the cause of Multiple Sclerosis? I say B12 deficiency.”

“I had a lady [multiple sclerosis] who had been in a wheelchair for five years with. She got up and walked after 3 months of B12 injections. When it was stopped she went back into a wheelchair.”

Dr Chandy’s practices are seen as ‘unorthodox’ by the authorities in the medical world — the reason being, according to the retired GP, is that B12 can be used to cure a plethora of symptoms (such as those of MS) that keep money flowing into Big Pharma.

Some may brush the Dr’s claims off as conspiracy but he has good reason to believe his authorities are not acting in the interests of the ill. Despite his award winning accomplishments with B12, in 2014 the the Medical Practitioners and Tribunal Service banned Dr Chandy from prescribing the vitamin. The reasoning behind the ban came down to their belief he was ‘experimenting’ on his patients, as he hadn’t conducted a full placebo trial with the vitamin.

For Dr Chandy, a placebo trial in the case of a vitamin B12 deficiency is too dangerous. “If somebody was dehydrated you would give them water. The same reason you should never do a placebo trial for a deficiency disease.”

Upon his retirement soon after, Dr Chandy began paying for the B12 injections of his patients himself, as many who were mid-way through their treatments began to revert back to their side effects. Once his patients realised their treatment was coming from his own pocket, they helped Dr Chandy’s set up the world’s first Vitamin B12 deficiency charity, for which he continues to volunteer 18 hours a day at 75 years old.

Solutions

The issues surrounding veganism and good health are rather complex and broad, but the solutions are surprisingly simple. In terms of psychological well-being, Clare Mann recommends “show[ing] compassion to yourself”.

“Remind yourself its not just about animal cruelty — its about creating a world that we all want to belong. Often people find a way to transmute their grief into powerful action.” There are also a number of therapists like Clare who are on hand to help when times get tough.

On the nutritional side of things, the answer lies in a healthy, balanced diet. But for those of us who would rather experiment with vegan pizzas and cheesecakes rather than tuck into superfood salads, it is essential to supplement omega 3, iron, iodine and vitamins B6, D and C (links lead to the best and/or cheapest supplements, but of course consult with a doctor prior to purchasing). An arguably small price to pay for the impact the diet has on the environment.

For our misunderstood and complex friend Vitamin B12, supplementation is essential (omnivores included). Certain foods are pre supplemented with B12, such as plant-based milks and nutritional yeast, but these should not be relied upon for maintained healthy levels. Doctors can check B12 levels with a simple blood test and if they are dangerously low, injections will be supplied. For every day supplements, oral sprays ensure full absorption into the blood and can relieve depression and fatigue in a matter of hours.

Veganism and mental health is an intricate web of issues and solutions, and for anybody who has decided upon adopting to the lifestyle, nutritionist Lucinda Bevan leaves us with the best overall advice. “You have to be very careful, and you have to make sure you are getting a really good varied diet if you’re a vegan. If you are susceptible to depression or chemical imbalances which cause depression then I think you’ve got to be doubly aware. But I would never put anybody off it.”