This Afternoon I Turned Into A Tomato

Today as I was making lunch I noticed a hot sensation in my face and began to wonder... So I went over to a mirror and to my dismay my face was beet red and it was spreading in blotches down my body! What could this possibly be!? Well I did buy a different kind of vegetarian multi-vitamins this week, maybe that had something to do with it. On the label, I discovered the answer: "Contains niacin, which may cause harmless and transient flushing and itching". Damn you niacin for temporarily turning me a different colour and making me "flush" uncomfortably!

What's the difference between a standard once-a-day multi-vitamin and a vegetarian multi-vitamin? What's the deal with niacin?

A vegetarian multi-vitamin will usually contain more variations of the B vitamin, especially that of B12 which is the hardest B vitamin to acquire on a veg diet.

Meat-eaters consume B minerals largely in animal products but they are found in many types of food as all vitamins are.

Niacin is also referred to as Vitamin B3, making in a part of the B vitamin category.

Niacin or B3 is also found in a variety of food sources but as I learned on Wellness Blog our body makes the niacin we need from tryptophan, an amino acid obtained from protien. Since veg's eat alternative protiens, niacin is included in some but not all vegetarian multi-vitamins.

The purpose of consuming Niacin in mineral form is rooted in treating various deficiencies

After some investigation I found that what I experienced is an almost always reported side effect of consuming niacin. I knew I should have followed the directions and not taken the 2 capsules on an empty stomach, a factor which severely increases the chances of turning into a tomato. Half an hour later and back in my everyday skin. Since I do not have any singular problem or deficiency which I would need niacin for, I am not going to continue taking this particular multi-vitamin! I can get B vitamins by finding another brand or switching back to the other non-side-effective one I was taking which did not contain B3. I will switch back to the multi-vitamin that I was taking before. Upon looking into it I actually found that it also contains B3 as most veg multi-vitamins do except they have a time release that prevents flushing completely! Goodbye neck and facial flushing!


Check out the Wellness Blog post about finding the right multi-vitamin to learn more about vitamins and why certain kinds of people, such as vegetarians, should be concerned about them more than the average bear.