Vegans, Where do you get your Vitamin B12 from?!
Vegans, Where do you get your Vitamin B12 from?
I don't want to eat meat but I have read that Vitamin B12 is only found in animal products. They say that the Vitamin B12 found in Fermented soya products, seaweeds, and algae are unavailable to humans.
Is it better to be a vegetarian than a vegan and include eggs, cheese and milk since these do include Vitamin B12?
Answers:
I really like nutritional yeast. It tastes a bit cheese. I sprinkle it on my spaghetti like Parmesan.
There are also many recipes using nutritional yeast. I like the tofu scramble, meant to taste like scrambled eggs. Or you can use it for macaroni and cheese.
:)
But yeah, most soy milk and things have B12 now, so it isn't much of an issue these days.
http://www.theppk.com/recipes/dbrecipes/...
http://www.exploreveg.org/resources/reci...
Source(s):
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-gxld3h0hc...
I have been a vegan for more then 5 years. So, this said when I went to the doctor for lack of sleep she said " oh, your b12 must be low" sure enough my b12 was 110...so, she said for a vegan it is very hard to eat enough foods that have b12, I was started on shots.. I am now taking b12 orally everyday and monthly shots.
B12 fortified breakfast cereals, nutritional yeast, Marmite/Vegemite spread, tempeh, spirulina are all vegan sources of B12. There are a handful of others in the source I listed. Also, your body stores B12 for quite a while so it's not something you have to worry about getting every day as long as you eat sufficient amounts in the long run. I sprinkle a hearty amount of nutritional yeast or eat Marmite toast about once a week to be on the safe side.
Whatever source you read was not correct - B12 is actually not even created by animals or plants - it is made by bacteria and archaea (another type of single-celled organism).
I take a b12 and a b6 vitamin tablet daily.
It gives me more energy too.
A lot of breads and cereals are fortified with the b vitamins.
And energy drinks have a lot od b vitamins.
Just read labels, they tell you.
Yes, B12. Many people, basically the meat and dairy industry, use such things to scare people into eating their products. But, as the other person said, it's made by bacteria. So, where do these bacteria live and how can someone be deficient of B12?
Well, in the past we got our B12 mostly from the food we ate and the water we drank. The food from our garden coated with dirt containing the B12 and the fruit and berries also with bacteria on the outer skin. Our well water also contained B12. Our mouths, our intestines, our fermented foods, etc. But today many people live in a city where everything is store bought and very much free from dirt. Then they take it home and wash it some more, and even peel the skin. We take medications and eat food and drink beverages that kill the bacteria in our intestines (such as antibiotics, white vinegar, alcohol, etc.). We do not eat fermented foods anymore and those that have been fermented have been pasteurized prior to packaging killing the good bacteria. Perhaps yogurt (soy or milk) is the only live product left on the typical store shelf these days and can help add that good bacteria back into your diet. We use mouthwash and toothpaste and our mouths have never been 'cleaner'. So, make certain you are healthy, eating a good whole foods diet, and you can also add in there some nutritional yeast, and non-pasteurized fermented products such as miso, tempeh, saurkraut, pickles, fermented tofu (stinky tofu I call it, found in Chinese stores), ... just look to all those traditional foods from around the world and you'll find so many interesting things from Iran to China to India to Russia, lots of vegan traditional foods and fermented food too.
I've been vegan for a long time and no problems -- the opposite in fact. I know many old people who have been life long vegans from birth and when asked about vitamins such as B12 they say, 'never thought about it.' In the end, variety is the spice of life, and vitamins are just propaganda. I don't take any vitamins either. Just make sure that when using miso and other live products, that you do not cook (or always cook) them -- but add them at the end of cooking when the food has cooled a little for flavour. Such as making soup, after is has stopped boiling and cooled a little, then add some miso and nutritional yeast for flavour.
"They say that the Vitamin B12 found in Fermented soya products, seaweeds, and algae are unavailable to humans." Who is "they"? They is propaganda.
If this were true, where on earth would all the other animals such as... chimpanzees get their B12? Anyway, humans do not really know how the human body or any body works. We just guess based upon our observations. Remember, B12 and other anti vegetarian propaganda does not exist in other countries, thus people I know from India, for example, have never heard of the B12 and such propaganda and get by fine. Here's a personal story. My wife's father was getting on her for being vegan and saying she's going to waste away or whatever. She had sinus problems from the pollution in Hong Kong and went to the Chinese hospital -- her father burst out during the examination "she's vegan!" expecting that he would agree it was the cause of all her problems, the doctor simply said, "So?" Being vegan/vegetarian in Asia is very common -- they don't take supplements etc. or have deficiencies, no one bugs them for being vegan or asks stupid questions such as "do you eat fish" because everyone knows as it's in their culture for 1000s of years.
In N. America people like to take things to extremes and that includes the meat and dairy, medical, and pharmaceutical industries taking a very offencive stance against vegetarian/veganism/chiropraci... medicines,etc. -- for them it's a war against these radicals who are trying to bring them down. Really crazy paranoid stuff and they spend millions if not billions collectively trying to scare people into using their products.