How many veg*ans supplement with B12?!
Our bodies can store B12 for up to 5 years (while regularly consuming meat), but switching to a vegan diet can exhaust those stores within a year. Unless you eat 2-3 meals with B12-enriched foods every day, you're setting yourself up for a deficiency. Same goes for omnivores.
Has anyone ever gotten tested to see exactly what their B12 levels are at? B12 is one of those vitamins that works in conjunction with iron. The non-heme iron from plant foods is not as well-absorbed as the heme from animal foods, so one has to eat twice as much in order to get the right amount of iron. Iron absorption is also inhibited by the phytates in grains and legumes. So if you eat a plant-based diet, you're cancelling out many of the necessary nutrients your body needs to function.
http://www.adajournal.org/article/PIIS00…
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It's remarkable how people will continue to deny the lack of B12 in their veg*n diet.
From DR Jack Norris, VEGAN registered dietitian:
"B12 is generally found in all animal foods (except honey). Contrary to rumors, there are no reliable, unfortified plant sources of vitamin B12, including tempeh, seaweeds, and organic produce. The overwhelming consensus in the mainstream nutrition community, as well as among vegan health professionals, is that plant foods do not provide vitamin B12, and fortified foods or supplements are necessary for the optimal health of vegans, and even vegetarians in many cases...."
More at this link:
http://www.veganhealth.org/articles/vita…
From Ginny Messina, VEGAN Registered Dietitian:
"Here, then, are supplements (or fortified foods) that vegans need:
All vegans:
Vitamin B12. You can’t get enough by eating unwashed organic produce or mushrooms grown in B12-rich soil. The recommended dose is 25 to 100 micrograms per day or 1,000 micrograms 2-3 times per week. If you have not been taking B12 for a while, start out with 2,000 micrograms daily for several weeks. Or get a blood test to see where you are and whether you might need a more therapeutic dose....."
More at this link http://www.theveganrd.com/2010/11/recomm…
The vegan diet is not a healthy diet. People get sick; children sometimes die. And yet there are those who will coninue to deny the need for supplements. Sad.
I drink Kombucha, which is a great source of naturally cultured B12; as B12 is present in bacteria, not animal products.
"So if you eat a plant-based diet, you're cancelling out many of the necessary nutrients your body needs to function."
The link you sourced states the exact opposite:
"Appropriately planned vegan [...] diets satisfy nutrient needs of infants, children, and adolescents and promote normal growth." -ADA
I've been tested several times over the course of my being vegan for five years,
and my doctors agreed that my health is "fantastic",
and several now recommend veganism to other patients interested in embarking on a healthy lifestyle.
Plenty of foods are fortified with B12, so it's not a problem.
Thanks for the lecture, though.
if egg yolk is not absorbed i am not sure how i have survived i do not eat vegean but vegetarian and use organic eggs and if you need more than that i should be sickly dead but as far as i know eggs is the only scorce of b 12 I get unless it is in wheat and legumes and absorbale.
Spirulina, nutritional yeast, some forms of algae, most tempeh, fortified almond/soy/hemp milk, no thanks... B12 can be stored in the liver, etc for up to 5 years
AMAZING! It should be useful. http://cool10.info/animal-foods
http://cool10.info/animal-foods
I found this for you. http://inhut.info/3169/animal-foods
http://inhut.info/3169/animal-foods
there are sooo many vegan sources of b12 youd be surprised. nearly all cereals are fortified with it for example.
Humans are like animals, we all do not MAKE b12 in our bodies.
We, like cows, host bacteria when we eat fermented foods that cause bacteria. When cows do this, just like us humans, they bacteria produces b12 which seeps into the muscles and flesh.
We do the same, it is in our DNA. I do't know why meat eaters refuse to acknowledge this.
Cows only have b12 in their meat because they have so much rotting vegetation in their bodies.
When we humans eat vegetation too, it does the same thing, only a bit less because we do not have intestines the size of cows.
Eating fermented foods gets b12 inside you easily.
As a matter of fact, I have had my B12 level tested, just out of curiosity, not out of necessity. I also have my iron level tested regularly - every 3 months, before I donate blood, which I have been doing for 20 years or more - I just donated tonight, actually. I eat slightly more iron-rich foods for a couple of days leading up to each donation, but certainly nowhere near this magical "twice as much" you mention. You do realise that vitamin C helps with the absorption of iron, don't you? No? Hmmm, sad... time to go back to your research, darlin'.
Vegam!
I don't agree with all of the ADA's conclusions. Research by Fumio Watanabe indicates that there is adequate B12 in certain algal species.
"As bioavailability of the algal vitamin B12 is not clear in humans, my colleagues and I characterized corrinoid compounds to determine whether the dried purple and green lavers and eukaryotic microalgae (Chlorella sp. and Pleurochrysis carterae) used for human food supplements contain vitamin B12 or inactive corrinoids. My colleagues and I found that these edible algae contain a large amount of vitamin B12 without the presence of inactive corrinoids. Rauma et al. also reported that vegans consuming nori and/or chlorella had a serum vitamin B12 concentration twice as high as those not consuming these algae." (WATANABE (2007). Vitamin B12 Sources and Bioavailability. Exp Biol Med 232(10):1266-74.)
This review by Watanabe was published four years after the ADA paper you referenced. So maybe they need to update their position to reflect current research?
EDIT: Why do you not state what they REALLY say about iron?
"Vitamin C and other organic acids found in fruits and vegetables can enhance iron absorption and can help to reduce effects of phytate...It is likely that iron needs will depend on the make up of the overall diet and be significantly lower for some vegetarians than for others... Although vegetarian adults have lower iron stores than nonvegetarians, their serum ferritin levels are usually within the normal range"
A good scientist doesn't cherry pick data, which it seems the ADA didn't do either. That is why they would not agree with your conclusion that "if you eat a plant-based diet, you're cancelling out many of the necessary nutrients your body needs to function." They made this quite clear: "It is the position of the American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada that appropriately planned vegetarian diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases."
I'd give you a C- for ignoring the scientific uncertainty. But at least you know what scientific information is. Maybe some of the trolls here can learn from this lol! Anybody else notice how the source is an academic journal and not a blog?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17959…