Get this: After about a month of enjoying a vegan diet, my tongue started hurting. Nope, you didn’t read it wrong. My tongue. It hurt. I began wracking my brain trying to recall if I had bit it while eating an apple or burnt it while taking the first sip of a Grande fresh brew coffee from . No such recollection. A couple of days passed and my tongue still hurt. What the fuck, amirite? The tip and underneath felt bruised and trying to get food out of my teeth with my tongue was a nightmare. After careful inspection by my husband ( a certified tongue inspector ), it was determined that there were no bumps or sores in my mouth. His final diagnosis was that, visually, I was immaculate. Eventually I finally gave in and Googled: “Why is my tongue sore?” Immediately I knew what was going on…

Confessions of a Nutrition Dietetics Graduate: I know that if you stop eating animal products, you need to take supplements of Vitamin B12. It is literally the only thing you absolutely must take if you stop eating meat. Chapter 1 of Veganism for Dummies (don’t quote me on that). And I did set myself up for success. I went to the store and bought supplements of Vitamin B12 like a good little vegan. But I only took about 3 of them over the entire 30-day period. I guess that would be the result of storing them on the highest shelf in the cabinet. Google provided me with many results saying that tongue soreness is often a symptom of Glossitis which (surprise surprise) is associated with B-vitamin deficiencies. It all made perfect sense.

Learn from me. If you are not eating meat: take Vitamin B12 supplements. Needless to say, I have since upped my dosage to one every morning. After a few days of religiously taking the supplement: Voila! My tongue was as good as new and ready to continue taking on the vegan world one plant-based delicacy at a time.

Although B12 is the hot topic when it comes to supplementing a diet free of animal suffering, there are several other supplements to consider when consuming a vegan diet. Here is a lovely consolidated list of Internet findings so you do not have to bounce from website to website like I did:

Vitamin D – Recommended 600 IU per day – Recommended 600 IU per day Exposure to sunlight (10-60 minutes a day depending on skin tone, distance from the equator, and season) is the best way to obtain Vitamin D Mushrooms (one of the only plant sources of Vitamin D) – A mere 5 IU per 1 cup



Iodine – Recommended 150 micrograms per day Table Salt – 400 micrograms per teaspoon Seaweed and Dry Kelp – 19 to 2,984 micrograms per sheet Lima Beans, Corn, Bananas, Prunes – Less than 20 micrograms per serving



Calcium – Recommended 800-1,000 milligrams per day Soy products Tofu – 506 milligrams per cup Soy milk – 368 milligrams per cup (compared to an average 293mg per cup in cow’s milk!) Edamame – 175 milligrams per cup Vegetables Black Beans – 294 milligrams per cup Collard Greens – 266 milligrams per cup Kale – 94 milligrams per cup Sweet Potatoes – 76 milligrams per cup Broccoli – 62 milligrams per cup Calcium-fortified orange juice – Approximately 300 milligrams per cup



Iron – Recommended 8-18 milligrams per day Lentils – 6.6 milligrams per cup (compared to 2.5mg in a 3-ounce serving of steak!) Cooked Spinach – 6.4 milligrams per cup Black Beans – 3.6 milligrams per cup Dark Chocolate – 3.3 milligrams per ounce Pistachios – 1.1 milligrams per ounce Raw Spinach – 0.8 milligrams per cup



DHA – Recommended 500 milligrams per day Flaxseed – 6,388 milligrams per ounce (compared to 2,000-3,000mg per 6-ounce serving of salmon!) Chia Seeds – 4,915 milligrams per ounce Cooked Spinach – 352 milligrams per cup Blueberries – 174 milligrams per cup



Of course, I’m just a silly blogger so consult your physician prior to doing anything crazy and if your tongue body starts telling you something – LISTEN!