B 12
Posted by owalkerjillo on Sep 29, 2007 · Member since Oct 2006 · 428 posts
Mkay so. I know that vitamin b12 is hard to get for us vegans unless we eat it in vitamin or supplement form. But is this a rumor? Is this vaid? And if so, how come all of us aren't falling over dead? How do you get your B 12 either thought vitamins/supplements/injections/foods?
Preferably I'd like to know what foods you all eat. I know of seaweed (actually this started puzzling me as I ate sushi last night) and nutritional yeast but there have to be others, right?
Saskia, thanks for the info :) I'm trying to use more nut yeast in almost everything I make now. But I wonder if the stuff I get in bulk has B12 in it? ??? Gotta check on that.
I have heard that B12 stores don't deplete very fast because much of the B12 is recycled in your system. However, at one point or another (weeks, months or years down the road) you will get deficient if you don't consume B12 or get shots.
I read (maybe in the Vitamin Bible) that it takes two years of not consuming B12 to become deficient in it.
You have to ask what the term "deficient" means. I believe the way they're defining it is - the point at which you start getting sick. At what level of impaired enzymatic function (B12 is a cofactor, a fact that has been mentioned before) are you comfortable? Without the cofactor, the enzyme can't function...
The half-life (according to a 1963 study by Bozian, Ferguson, et al. published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition) is 407-770 days. Sure it means you won't die if you don't get your B12 for a couple months, but it also means that you won't be running on all cylinders.
I was going to post a thread similar to this. owalkerjillo beat me too it. Saby, nice articles, specially the second one. But it's funny how it calls vegans "total vegetarians" LOL. But good info overall.
Hmmm... I've been thinking about this. I feel like calling a vegan a "total vegetarian" is more accurate if you're only talking about their dietary habits, but that's based on my perception that being vegan is an all-encompassing description of lifestyle. On the other hand, I view the term "vegetarian" as a purely dietary thing.
But... vegetarian has come to mean lacto-ovo-vegetarian... or even piscitarian. I think it's because people think of it as not eating meat as opposed to eating a vegetable-based diet. Is that alright? I dunno. I know a couple people who flip out at the "degradation/bastardization of language." They also have a tendency quote Euripides in the original Greek, though.
I was a strict/total vegetarian for the last two years. Not a vegan.
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