Dr. Matthew Nagra, ND

10/31/2025

Some vegans are now claiming vitamin B12 doesn’t exist and that we don’t need to supplement. One even wrote a book about it... This is dangerous and their claims could seriously harm or even kill people who follow them.

B12 was isolated in the 1940s after researchers found that feeding liver to people with pernicious anemia (a deadly condition) could save their lives. Deficiency can cause fatigue, numbness, confusion, and even death, because B12 is needed for DNA and nerve function.

Supplementing or consuming fortified foods easily prevents this, and supplements can even reverse symptoms of deficiency (although the longer the nerve-related symptoms are around, the less likely they are to be fully reversed). Avoiding B12 supplements or fortified foods altogether is reckless. The people pushing this message think they’re helping the vegan movement, but this can really only stand to damage our mission. When someone ends up hospitalized because of this misinformation, the headline will say “veganism kills,” when the real issue was following pseudoscience. A vegan diet can be incredibly healthy... just don’t skip your B12.

References:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23183296/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35337628/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30261596/
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMcp1113996
https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminB12-HealthProfessional/
https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminB12-HealthProfessional/
https://ijdrp.org/index.php/ijdrp/article/view/615

10/27/2025

Plant protein can support muscle and strength gains just as well as animal protein while lowering our risk of several of the leading killers, including cardiovascular disease.

References:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33599941/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36822394/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32658243/

10/24/2025

Are you drinking lead powder? According to a new ConsumerReports article, you might be! They tested 23 protein powders and drinks. 16 of them had lead levels above their “level of concern,” with 2 of them having over 10x that level.

The lead cutoff they used of 0.5mcg/day from consumer products comes from the California Prop 65 law. To come up with this value, they took the highest levels that don’t appear cause birth defects/reproductive harm and divided by 1000 as a safety net. So even the protein powders with 10x their cutoff are still be well below the levels that have actually shown harm.

There is debate over these cutoffs. The FDA has interim reference levels of 2.2mcg/day for children and 8.8mcg/day for females of childbearing age, and both of those values also have a 10x safety factor built in. The European cutoff for a 30g scoop of a protein powder is 90mcg, far higher than the FDA’s. Notably, every single protein supplement they tested was well below the European value and below the FDA’s adult female cutoff. However, the two proteins that tested highest would put a child over the FDA’s 2.2mcg limit and could put an adult over 8.8mcg when added to their diet because lead is a naturally occurring element in soil and water, and does make its way into our food.

This isn’t to suggest that we shouldn’t be concerned with the lead content of food or choose options that are lower in lead, but the singling out of a specific food like protein powders isn’t warranted, and the cutoff that is being used by this new report may be too conservative.

References:
https://www.consumerreports.org/lead/protein-powders-and-shakes-contain-high-levels-of-lead-a4206364640/
https://oag.ca.gov/prop65/faqs-view-all
https://www.fda.gov/food/environmental-contaminants-food/lead-food-and-foodwares
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2023/915/oj/eng
https://www.fda.gov/food/fda-total-diet-study-tds/fda-total-diet-study-tds-results
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10693017/

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10/08/2025

I'm pleased to share a new publication by my colleague, David Goldman, and myself where we discuss the asymmetrical application of the "careful planning" caveat to plant-based diets, but not to most other dietary patterns, despite the positive health outcomes associated with plant-based diets.

Asymmetrical Dietary Guidance: Reassessing the “Careful Planning” Caveat in Vegetarian and Vegan Diets Authors David Goldman University of Helsinki; Metabite, Inc. https://orcid.org/0009-0006-2636-9342 Matthew Nagra University of British Columbia https://orcid.org/0009-0005-6123-4577 DOI: https:...

09/28/2025

Register to attend The Great Protein Debate, hosted by !

Registration link: https://event.webinarjam.com/register/24/7y8vzb72