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Vegan Nutrition: The Importance of Supplementing Vitamin B12

Posted January 14, 2008 at 12:00 PM by James Flesher

Section: His Health, Physical Health, His Nutrition, Supplements, Vegetarian / Vegan

Vitamin B12 deficiency can cause many serious problems in the human body such as anema, peripheral neuropathy and even memory loss. Unlike getting enough protein or calcium, maintaining healthy blood levels of vitamin B12 is impossible for vegans in a modern society without supplementation, and thus is a very important issue in vegan health. 

First, you need to understand a little background on the vitamin.  According to Nutrition:  Concepts and Controversies, 9th Edition (Sizer & Whitney, 2003) vitamin B12 has two primary functions.  The first is to work in tandem with folate to produce red blood cells. B12’s second function is to maintain the fatty myelin sheath that covers nerves and allows them to efficiently send signals from the central nervous system to the rest of the body and back.  Anemia caused by a B12 deficiency can actually be masked by having an adequate folate intake, making B12 deficiency in vegans a particularly nasty possibility.  If left unchecked, a B12 deficiency can result in irreversible damage to the nerves resulting in numbness, tingling and even paralysis.

Where I part ways with the otherwise objective and informed Sizer and Whitney is that the authors incorrectly state, “B12 is present only in foods of animal origin, not in foods from plants.”
Joanne Stepaniak, M.S.ED. and author of The Vegan Sourcebook correctly states that vitamin B12 is actually from bacterial and not animal origin.  The reason that animal foods are so rich in B12 is that they are, quite simply, mired in bacteria. 

Consider the shocking statistic in Eric Schlosser’s outstanding book, Fast Food Nation . Schlosser explained that over 75% of ground beef in America contains strains the bacteria E. Coli (although not necessarily the disease causing strain).  You might ask yourself how all of that bacteria gets into the meat in the first place.  Simply put, E. Coli and countless other organisms thrive in the digestive systems of every mammal in the planet.  In the fast paced meat processing plants, a bovine colon nicked by a butcher’s knife spilling pounds of fecal matter into meat headed for human consumption is no reason to slow down the line.  It is simply mixed into your hamburger.  Yum!

Unlike other water soluble vitamins which are eliminated daily in the urine, vitamin B12 is stored in the body and can take years to reach deficiency states for new vegans.  Because of this, many vegans may initially fail to be mindful of this vital nutrient.  Additionally, many, including myself, have tried to kid ourselves into thinking that vegans will get enough B12 from the bacteria in our colons or from unwashed produce.

Stepaniak affirms that because so little B12 is needed (one teaspoon full would be a lifetime dose for over one hundred people!), we may have been able to get by on the bacteria in our food and drinking water in primal societies.  However, in a world of thoroughly washed produce and filtered water, vegans ingest insignificant amounts of B12.  Additionally, most B12 producing bacteria reside low in our digestive system, below the point where the vitamin can be absorbed.  Therefore, we must supplement. 

Supplementation is easy.  Pour just about any soymilk on your cereal. Check the label—you can be fairly certain it will be fortified with 30-50% of your daily B12.  Check out recipes with nutritional yeast, which is a great replacement for the cheesy flavor in lasagna, spanakopita, and other dishes.

Finally, you can purchase VegLife vegan vitamins online or in a local health food store and get your daily dose; just don’t skimp on this tiny but vital nutrient!

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