Protein, B12, & Blood Sugar... OH MY!
- Courtney Somma
- Jun 23
- 5 min read
Have you ever wondered if you were getting enough protein? Enough B12? Enough of everything, really?
Maybe it was a comment at the dinner table or maybe it was your doctor raising an eyebrow at your last appointment. Maybe it was just a quiet voice in your own head at 2am after reading something online.
If you have ever eaten a plant-based meal and felt a flicker of doubt about whether your body was actually getting what it needed, I feel you because I have felt that too.
Everyone wants to know what plant-based eating actually does to your body long term. Not in theory and not in a research study but in a real person's real labs, over real years.
So I got curious myself!
I have four years of bloodwork in front of me. Five blood draws, from April 2022 through June 2026, spanning three completely different ways of eating and today I am showing you all of it.
The Timeline
In April 2022 I was eating a standard omnivore diet with no particular health focus.
December 2022, same story, same diet.
In January 2023 I started seriously educating myself on plant-based nutrition, and over that year I gradually shifted toward more whole plant foods.
In October 2023 I went fully vegan.
December 2024 is the first set of labs I have after more than a year of being fully vegan.
June 2026, right now, I am on day seven of a fruit and leafy greens protocol coming off a Medical Medium 369 cleanse, having shifted to low-fat, high-raw eating toward the end of 2025.
Five draws. Four years. Three dietary phases. Let's go through it.
Normal Versus Optimal
Before I get into the numbers, one thing matters more than any single result: the difference between normal and optimal.
Standard lab reference ranges are built on population averages, and that population is largely eating the Standard American Diet, sitting in chronic low-grade inflammation, often managing conditions they do not even know they have yet. Falling inside that range tells you that you are average but it does not tell you that you are thriving.
Functional medicine practitioners and plant-based researchers like Dr. Garth Davis, Dr. Joel Fuhrman, and Dr. John McDougall work from tighter optimal ranges, the values associated with the lowest disease risk and the best long-term outcomes.
That is the lens I am using today, alongside the standard one.
I also want to name something specific to eating this way. Some values that look unusual against the population average, like a lower BUN or a lower white blood cell count, are not deficiencies. They often reflect a body carrying less inflammatory burden and processing less excess protein. Context changes everything.
And to be clear, I am not a doctor, and nothing here is medical advice. I am a woman with four years of data who believes you deserve to see the whole picture.
The Protein and B12 Question
So let's answer what I opened with.
Am I actually getting enough protein? And how is my B12 holding up without animal products?
Albumin is the marker that tells us the most about whether the body is synthesizing and maintaining protein. Mine has held between 4.3 and 4.5 across every single draw, as an omnivore, as a transitioning eater, as a fully vegan woman, and right now eating primarily fruit and leafy greens.
It has not declined once.
That comparison matters because we are not comparing me to some other vegan. We are comparing me to myself eating chicken, eggs, and dairy. Same body, different fuel, same protein markers. T otal protein has stayed in range at every draw, and my hemoglobin is currently a strong 14.4, slightly higher than my December 2024 reading. No anemia, no deficiency, anywhere in four years of data.
And then there is B12, the one everyone worries about most. My most recent result came back at 752 pg/mL, sitting right in the functional optimal range of 500 to 900, as a fully plant-based eater with zero animal products. B12 does require intentional attention on this way of eating, whether through fortified foods or supplementation, but the fear that it is impossible to maintain simply is not what my labs show. To note, I only supplement B12 occasionally and do not feel the need to supplement year round and my labs reflect this.
Dr. Garth Davis makes this case at length in Proteinaholic: the protein obsession in Western culture is not supported by the clinical evidence. Most people are not protein deficient, they are protein overconsumptive, and the downstream effects on kidney stress and inflammation are well documented. My kidney function, for what it's worth, has been excellent at every single draw across four years.
The Fruit Sugar Myth
The other fear I hear constantly is about fruit and blood sugar.
All that natural sugar surely has to be a problem..... Or does it?
My fasting glucose has been optimal at every draw for four years. My hbA1c was 5.1 in December 2024 while vegan but still eating more cooked food and some more overt fats.
After shifting to low-fat and higher raw, eating more fruit than I ever have in my life, it came down to 4.8.
My insulin in December 2024 was 4.6, which is considered excellent by functional standards.
This tracks with what Cyrus Khambatta and Robbie Barbaro at Mastering Diabetes have documented for years. When you remove excess dietary fat, cells become more insulin sensitive. The fruit and whole food carbohydrates were never the real issue. The fat clogging the cellular receptor was.
Every time someone reads a headline about fructose and pulls their hand back from a mango, they are pulling away from something that, in my body at least, is clearly supporting healthy blood sugar regulation.
The Liver Story
My ALT, a liver inflammation marker, was 23 in April 2022 while still omnivore, already above the functional optimal of under 20. By December 1, 2022, still eating the same way, it had spiked to 43 and was flagged out of range. By December 2024, more than a year fully vegan, it had dropped to 17. Today it sits at 16.
Every draw since I shifted my eating has moved toward optimal. That is not a coincidence, that is a trend, and it lines up with everything Anthony William teaches about the liver carrying decades of accumulated burden that the right foods and protocols can help lighten over time.
Other labs
CBC, CMP, hsCRP, are all fantastic. Nothing noteworthy to discuss.
What This Means For You
Well folks, there ya have it.. Four years of data, five blood draws, and three dietary phases.
Every marker tied to nutritional adequacy has held steady or improved.
Liver markers have moved in the right direction.
Every blood sugar marker says my body is handling this beautifully.
You are allowed to trust this path.
You are allowed to eat the fruit.
You are allowed to release the fear that your body cannot thrive without animal products, because the evidence, at least in this body, says otherwise.
If you are wondering what your own labs might be telling you, or whether a different way of eating could genuinely change how you feel day to day, I would love to talk with you.
Not medical advice. FULL LEGAL DISLCLAIMER CAN BE FOUND HERE.
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