Why is B12 only in animal products?!
Answers: People always say humans are made to eat meat and vitamin B12 is necessary.how did vegans get it before fortified soymilk,etc? Im vegan and my question is not to be taken too seriously : )
B12 is in vegetation, just to a lesser degree and not really accessible to humans in meaningful amounts.
Vegans would not have got B12 from seaweed or fermented Soya ( the highest vegetable matter with B.12 ), we cannot process it. Generally B.12 fortified products use a synthetic version.
I guess if they didn't have fortified B.12 products but were still sucessful vegans it makes you wonder if B.12 is really that necessary.
The body does have about 30 years store of it, using 5ug a day.
Vitamin B12 is excreted in the bile and is reabsorbed through theintestine wall. This is known as enterohepatic circulation.
Its beleived a veggie and vegan diet allows the body to do this more efficiently and therefore limit any effects on b.12 deficiency.
A adult needs about 1.5ug of b.12 a day to complement the loss by secretion and re-absorbtion.
A slice of veggie chedder cheese gives 5ug - no use for a vegan i know, but it shows how little we need.
The human , eeeerrrr, waste, contains lots of B.12. Research has shown that some vegetarian iranian nomadic groups get their b.12 by eating food prepared with unwashed hands or fertilised with human manure.
I'm not really sugesting you go to the loo and then make a sandwich without washing your hands ;-)
Thats all i know on the subject, sorry
I dunno - why is vitamin C only found in plants?
Blueberries, baby! Tasty smoothies, over cereal...you can buy 'em frozen. :)
There is a small amount of B12 in the soil - if you pull a carrot out of the ground, rinse it off with a hose, and eat it without peeling, there is still some B12 left on it. That's why vegans didn't have B12 issues until the sanitize-to-death movement appeared.
From what I understand, the acutal origin of B12 is in the ground. Cows only have it because they graze on the grass (that has actually been fertalized by the cows before them....go figure that one) and the B12 is absorbed through one of their many stomachs.
Honestly, it's a wonder humans are able to take in ANY traces of B12, seeing how the cows are rarely allowed to freely graze, are fed disgusting and unhealthy diets and are injected with all kinds of hormones.
Any-who. I also found out that B12 can be found in spirulina....a plant!
But our bodies don't need a lot of B12....have you ever heard of someone dying of a B12 deficiency?
:-D
B12 is found in plants but it is either unsable or in such minute quantiies that you have to eat such large servings just to supply your daily requirements (for example, 23 cups of spinach a day and most of it is unusable b12 or analogues). But as Michael H pointed out, b12 is stored and recycled in the body. Vegetarians and vegans who converted as adults rarely have a b12 deficinecy problem (they have enough stored for 20-30 years).The exceptions are pregnant and lactating women who are at a higher risk because of increased use or depletion. The other risk group are vegans/vegetarian from birth or children. But since supplements are available in acceptable form, this should not be a problem either. Vegetarians, children or adults, who consume dairy products get all the b12 that they need. Vegans, again children or adults, can get it from supplements, fortifed vegan foods or from a yeast brand called Red Star somethng (sorry forgot the name). With todays wide array of choices and available products, it should not be a problem at all.
You can get it from yeast extract. The point is, it isn't in many plants. It's in comfrey, but that contains substances which can cause liver damage so it isn't known to be safe to eat. It is produced by some bacteria and other micro-organisms, and in yeast.
B12 is made by a certain type of bacterium which thrives in the guts of the animals that we use for food. In earlier times people were able to get sufficient B12 from vegetation because the soil we grew veggies in also supported the bacteria. We weren't as obsessed with food cleanliness, either, and a little soil left clinging to root veggies gave us a ready source of B12. Much of the soil today has been rendered incapable of supporting the B12-producing bacteria (by chemical pesticides and fertilizers) and we are also more vigilant about eating clean food. Between the two, there is no longer a reliable source of plant-based B12 and vegans must supplement it. Some people tout algae and sea vegetables as sources but they actually have B12 analogs which may block absorption of real B12. It's much better to take a supplement made in a lab (with the same bacteria that manufacture it in Nature) or eat fortified foods than to put your health at the mercy of an unreliable source like sea vegetables.
Breakfast cereals are very popular and most are fortified with B12.
Most of the people that eat them do so with cow's milk and on top of that these people are likely to eat large amounts of meat and other animal products. Exactly how much meat are we supposed to eat to have a healthy B12 profile without supplements or fortified foods?
If animal products are great sources of B12 AND so many people eat fortified cereals, why is it that most omnivores are slightly deficient when they get their blood-work done.
Don't get me wrong, people on vegan diets are more likely to be considered deficient but that doesn't mean that they show symptoms or that they are doing what they should to meet B12 requirements.
http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2007nl/n...