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stevio
Raw Newbie
As I am researching my transition to healthier eating, I ran across the following:
“Vitamin B12 deficiency is very uncommon. However, it can develop in strict vegans as vitamin B12 is only found in meat or food derived from animal products, such as dairy products and eggs. No active form of vitamin B12 is found naturally in plant foods (and that includes soya products). Therefore individuals following a vegan diet should include a fortified source of vitamin B12 in the diet such as soyabean milk fortified with vitamin B12 or take a vitamin B12 supplement. However, if you eat dairy products and eggs they will provide you with sufficient amounts of vitamin B12. The current recommended nutrient intake (RNI) is adequate for all requirements apart from cases of malabsorption (impaired absorption of nutrients).”
So what are folks here doing for B-12?
Comments
check out Chris’ forum…. http://goneraw.com/posts?q=vitamin+b-12&commit=...
Anti-vegans like Joseph Mercola claim that vegans who are tested and found to have good levels of B-12, have been tested for the “wrong kind” of B12. What do you think of those claims? I”m interested in knowing.
I read some of that thread of Chris’ when it first popped up and decided that I’m not interested in drinking semen for my vitamin B12:-D Talk about male self-serving information, I could not stop laughing!
Hi stevio, I use to take spirulina, but I haven’t in a while. I’ve been starting to do research on my nutrients and where to get them from. I recently realized that I need to start getting my B12 and zinc, all because my fingernails told me. Allegedly, vertical ridges on your finger nails mean B12 defecient, and white spots mean lack of zinc.
So, I started looking into algae’s. I have noticed that AFA (blue green algae) seems to be the best.
I’m not 100% positive on this information. I am still researching. I figured I could give you a direction to look into.
sorry rawwaytohealth, but hemp is not a source of B12. And the seaweeds and algaes were thought to be a good source but recent research has shown that that it is the wrong type of B12 and actually can damage our body’s ability to absorb good B12. Gabriel Cousens wrote and article about it, just google Gabriel Cousens and B12 and you’ll find it.
yup zoe i’ve heard the same about seaweed not being the right type. i currently take a b-complex vitamin. but my probiotic kombucha has b-12 in it.
Using the methyl malonic acid reduction approach, which is now the gold standard, research showed that when people used dry and raw nori from Japan, the dried nori actually made the methyl malonic acid (MMA) status worse, which means it actually reduced the B-12 status. Therefore it could possibly worsen a B-12 deficiency. Raw nori seemed to keep the methyl malonic acid at the same level, meaning it did not harm the B-12 status, but the research showed it did not particularly help it either. No food in Europe or the U.S. has been tested for lowering methyl malonic acid. Research absolutely has to be done to answer this question fully. There is one exception to this lack of vegetarian B-12 active food, which is that we do produce B-12 from bacteria in our large intestine, but since this B-12 is produced in the area below where B- 12 is reabsorbed, it is really not available for absorption. Some people have argued that a lot of species of lower mammals do not need B-12. The reason why this is true is that a lot of species that are primarily vegetarian animals eat their feces. Human research also has shown if you eat your feces, you will get enough B- 12. Dr. Herbert sponsored research in England where vegan volunteers with a documented B-12 deficiency were fed B-12 extractions made from their own feces. It cured their B-12 deficiency. So, there is a natural vegan way to do it. It may not be the most tasteful way, however.
well there are those who believe that a healthy person creates and is able to absorb their own B12. But as there’s no research on truly healthy people there is no evidence to back that up. And maybe that is just down to those people having an active sex life!
True I forgot about that, I bet having a gf would be more enjoyable than eating feces.
Well, I am not inclined to eat my poop, and though there seems to be nothing to stop me from having the “fruits” of sex with myself, I guess I would prefer either a food source or reasonable supplement in the case that I end up B-12 deficient. I am thinking I will start cutting back on my supplements next week, cutting back to just vitamin D and B-12 for now, and having my doctor take a look at my blood work after a month. I agree with many that doctors are to be relied upon with caution, but I do have some current health problems that require monitoring until I can heal, and so I may as well at least get the numbers from the lab, because if he thinks I’m vitamin deficient, I probably am.
He’s at least a good and open minded doctor, as doctors go, and I am sure he will be willing to monitor my blood levels and help me determine if I can drop the supplement.