Animals Australia Unleashed
Change the World Who Cares? Videos Take Action! The Animals Community Forum Shop Blog Display
1 2 3
Your E-Mail: O Password:
Login Help     |     Join for Free!     |     Hide This

Community » Forum » Food!

Search

Post a Reply

Vitamin B12

1 - 4 of 4 posts


Dracula Dracula SA • Posts: 13
1 20 Jun 2016
Could someone please clarify where Vitamin B12 actually comes from? Since reading the Vegetarian Starter Kit you can access through this site, I've thought it was something you could ONLY get from animal products (since that's what the guide says). However the other day was scrolling through a veg forum and saw a topic all about B12. It said it's actually a bacteria that's found (pretty much) in everything; water, plants, etc.

Apparently a hundred years ago you didn't need to consume animal products (or fortified foods or supplements) to get your daily dosage of B12 because it was found in your drinking water and organically farmed food. Nowadays, thanks to higher cleanliness and chemical farming, the only way we can get ENOUGH of it is through a.products or supplements. But it still exists in vegan forms, (that's where the animals get it from) just not in high enough concentrations.

I thought B12 only came into existence through some process in the animals' guts, but according to this forum that's not the case. So could someone please clarify this for me?

Also, it leads me to discuss another question. Are B12 supplements even vegan? If it can only be gained from a.products, then surely animals are being used to get the vitamins for the supplements, yeah? But if you don't actually need the animals, like the forum posts said, then I suppose the companies just breed the bacteria in a factory or something. Anyone know for sure?

Sorry about my ignorance. ecstatic
ReplyQuote

robert99 robert99 Sweden • Posts: 1360
2 20 Jun 2016
Bacteria are responsible for producing vitamin B12.

See http://www.veganhealth.org/b12/vegansources for a good oversight

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_B12
Only bacteria and archaea have the enzymes needed for its synthesis. Some plant foods are a natural source of B12 because of bacterial symbiosis. B12 is the largest and most structurally complicated vitamin and can be produced industrially only through a bacterial fermentation-synthesis. This synthetic B12 is used to fortify foods and sold as a dietary supplement.

A common synthetic form of the vitamin is cyanocobalamin, produced by chemically modifying bacterial hydroxocobalamin. Because of superior stability and low cost this form is used in many pharmaceuticals and supplements as well as for fortification of foods.

see also Hydroxocobalamin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroxocobalamin

When a 100% certain plant source is found you'll know about it - it'll make some people rich! Otherwise just keep taking a supplement.
ReplyQuote

littleblackcats littleblackcats QLD • Posts: 1
3 2 Jul 2016
Vitamin B12 is produced by bacteria found in soil. That is why it can be found in water from wells and springs - because there are microscopic pieces of soil there. Before when root vegetable were cleaned properly, there would also be B12. Animals get B12 because  they don't clean their food.

You can take a B12 supplement, but it is also added to many soy milks and fortified vegan foods. Though I have  b12 supplements, I don't take them very often, because you don't need much and I drink plenty of soy milk.

I heard from Gary Yourofsky, they vegan activist, that The bacteria is also in the gut of many animals, us included, and therefore we don't need it. He's never taken a supplement for over two decades so I think he's right.
ReplyQuote


www.unleashed.org.au