Dr. Prasanna Menon

Dairy products

Unlike vegans, vegetarians include dairy products in their diets. These foods are naturally high in vitamin b-12. An 8-ounce glass of milk, for example, provides 0.9 micrograms of vitamin b-12. As the dietary reference intake is 2.4 micrograms, a glass of milk provides 37.5 percent of your daily vitamin b-12. An 8-ounce cup of yogurt provides the same amount, while 1 ounce of cheese contains 0.2 micrograms, or 8.3 percent of your daily vitamin b-12.

Yeasts

Yeast extract spreads are a good vegetarian source of vitamin b-12 and are also suitable for vegans. A 1-tablespoon serving of these spreads -- typically served on toast or crackers -- contains 0.09 micrograms of vitamin b-12, or 3.75 percent of your daily intake. Although most brewer's and nutritional yeasts do not naturally contain vitamin b-12, fortified yeasts are another good source of this vitamin. These products are typically labeled as vegan or vegetarian nutritional yeast flakes. Depending on the brand, adding as little as 2 teaspoons to your breakfast cereal or smoothie or with a spread on toast can provide 100 percent of your daily vitamin b-12 intake.

Eggs

Eggs are naturally high in vitamin b-12. One large chicken egg yolk contains 0.33 micrograms of vitamin b-12, or 13.8 percent of your daily intake. In comparison with chicken's eggs, the eggs of other birds contain much more vitamin b-12. For example, a single duck egg contains 3.78 micrograms of vitamin b-12, while a goose egg contains 7.34 micrograms. As there are no known risks of excessive vitamin b-12 intake, it is safe for you to use duck and goose eggs as a daily b-12 source. You can use duck and goose eggs in place of chicken eggs in most dishes. However, goose eggs are three to four times larger than chicken or duck eggs, so you will need to adjust recipes accordingly.

Fortified foods

Fortified foods are a good vegetarian source of vitamin b-12. These include soy products, dairy alternatives and breakfast cereals. For example, a single veggie burger patty contains 1.41 micrograms and a cup of fortified bran flakes contains 1.5 micrograms of the nutrient. Respectively, these amounts account for 58.8 and 62.5 percent of your daily vitamin b-12 intake. Because not all fortified soy products and breakfast cereals contain vitamin b-12, read nutritional information labels before making a purchase.

How to manage delayed Menstrual Cycle?

I'm Dr. Jyotsna Patel, practicing gynecologist and obstetretician at Uma Maternity and Surgical Nursing Home, Andheri East, Mumbai.

Today would like to talk on a topic which I encounter practically everyday in my practice that is young patient in the age group of 18-30yrs coming with the problem of delayed periods.

Now, delayed periods is something which bothers everybody. Again delayed period, first thing we need to rule out pregnancy. I've now encountered a lot of young girls, even unmarried girls who're now sexually active and they come with a history of delayed periods and they're very anxious and panicky. Now, once you've a delayed period first thing you need to see if you're sexually active is rule out pregnancy, and that thing can be done with either urine test or there are blood tests available for that. Once that has been ruled out then comes as to why the periods have been delayed and how often have you been getting this delayed periods.
If it's one of the random episode you're having then you need not bother, you just need to maintain a menstrual calender and see that how often your periods are delayed.

Now mind you in periods, plus or minus 8 days is considered normal. So 3-4 days of delay or 3-4 days of getting early period should not bother you. And once you're sure that the urine pregnancy test is negative and it is becoming a regular pattern that you're getting everytime 10 days delay, then 15 days delay then in that case you need to undergo some investigation or consult a gynecologist as to whta is the reason of delay, because most cmmon reason of delay is hormonal imbalance which we're finding very common because of the lifestyle changes that is happening- lot of stress, lots of junk food, then having obesity, this all is giving rise to hormonal imbalance causing the delayed periods as well as menstrual irregularities. So you'll need to undergo some hormonal tests specially thyroid tests, FHM, LH test and there are a lot of other hormones that you need to check and consult gynecologist. The second as I said, the first thing you need to do is rule out pregnancy, again if the pregnancy test is positive it's mandatory that you consult an obstetrician or gynecologist and don't try t get rid of the pregnancy, specially if you're not married by you know, listening to your friends, or going to quax out of fear.

For anything else you need to know about this you need to contact me on Librate.com .