Vegans Deficient

[mage lang="en|el|ja|en" source="flickr"]vegans deficient[/mage]
B12: Bananas or supplements?

I remembered someone mentioning on Y!A that vegetarians & vegans are B12 deficient and take vitamins for it. I thought to myself: “hang on… I’m SURE that when I was a kid I learned that B12 was in bananas”.

First of all, the majority of B12 deficiency cases in N. America are in meat eaters. Did everyone know that? No, apparently not. I don’t even think vegetarian/vegan cases are large enough to fit into the statistic.

Now, B12 is found all over the place. The most important thing about B12 (and all other vitamins) is this “reliable sources”. That is, if a scientist test 100 oranges, and only 20 register as having B12, then this is not a reliable source.

It’s all science and statistics — with are also unreliable.

See, B12 can be found in a person’s mouth and intestines too. But these are also unreliable because every person is different, as is every orange.

Now, B12 is basically found in bacteria poop. Where do you find bacteria? Everywhere. But, as a food source, you’d find it on the outer parts of fruits and veggies. Wash, peel, and cook those, and you are not reducing the B12 content. B12 can be found quite reliably in dirt, but who eats dirt or dirty food these days? Not many people. Everything is clean clean clean. Well water has also been a source in the past.

So, basically, the most “reliable” places one can find B12 are in a healthy digestive tract, and in fermented foods that have not been cooked or pasteurized etc. Some popular products in N. America are miso, tempeh, natto, etc. Real pickles (those not made with vinegar or cooked etc.) or sauerkraut etc. may also be reliable sources. Nutritional yeast is a good thing to add to one’s diet too. Also, so called “probiotic” foods will help with improving ones digestive system.

But, go ahead, and talk to lifetime vegans from other countries and they take no vitamins or supplements etc. I was talking to a live long vegan from India (on the net) the other week and he said that in India a 100% vegetarian (vegan) diet is seen as a complete diet; not lacking in anything — so they don’t need to take any B12 or any other vitamins, and after many years of life this guy is still alive, and so are millions of other life long vegans there. Vegetarianism is an ancient practise in other parts of the world — it’s only seen as some kind of weird hippie thing in N. America.

If you are worried about B12, you can also take some spirulina. It has B12 and is vegan.

But, you should also consider thing that hinder B12 absorptions, and hinder the growth of the good bacteria in the intestinal tract. Antibiotics are notorious for ruining people’s digestive flora and allowing the bad bacteria to flourish. After using antibiotics one must really focus on reestablishing their flora with probiotic supplements and foods etc. It took my wife a year to feel better and perhaps two or more to feel recovered. But, doctors give out antibiotic meds like crazy never telling people of such side effects.

So, I get B12 from what I eat. I take no vitamins. I just try to eat healthy. I do not eat ‘vegetarian’ foods that have been fortified with B12 such as tofu dogs etc. These things are just too expensive. I do include nutritional yeast in my diet and sometimes spirulina, and include miso quite regularly — it’s our favourite item to use to flavour our food with.

So, B12 IS in and ON bananas, it’s just not a reliable source. It’s also mostly on the outer skin, but you would find more B12 on a nicely ripened banana (i.e. brownish skin) than you would on a green or yellow banana that hasn’t started to break down yet. So, are the scientists testing green, yellow, or ripe bananas? Are they testing organic or non-organic bananas? What is the tolerance of their “reliable source” test? These things make a difference.

Iron Deficient Chef Ep #2-The Magic of Mushrooms