Cheapest Source of Vitamin B12

Vitamin B12 (cobalamin) supplementation can cost as little as $2 a year.

February 7, 2012
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  • Michael Greger M.D.

    This is the third of a five-part video series this week on B12. For why one might choose supplements and fortified foods see yesterday’s video of the day, Safest Source of B12. Tomorrow I’ll cover various daily regimens. B12 is one of the few Vitamin Supplements Worth Taking. And if you’re new to the issue, please see my blog post Vegan B12 Deficiency: Putting It into Perspective for some background. If you’re that much of a nutrinerd to enjoy these derivations, see my nine-part video series on vitamin D starting with Vitamin D Recommendations Changed. If you’d rather just cut to the chase, see my recommendations here. As always these are just a few of the 1,500 or so topics I have videos about.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/gregmil Greg Milette

    What does the equation look like for fortified soy or rice mik? How many cups a day provide sufficient b12?

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    • Toxins

      Dr. Greger is recommending 250 mcg minimum of b12 per day. Silk original soy milk has approximately 1.2 mcg per cup serving.

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    • Michael Greger M.D.

      The 250 a day is only if you take it in a single dose. Three servings a day of B12 fortified foods like soy milk should be finet. See the next video in the series for details: Daily Source of Vitamin B12

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  • http://twitter.com/MacSmiley MacSmiley

    Please make this…. and EVERY VIDEO… EVERY DAY… visible on your YouTube homepage.

    Asking you to do this every day is getting very tedious.

    For many weeks this wasn’t a problem. So why now?

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    • Toxins

      Mac, I think Dr. Greger wants people to visit the website, not youtube. Posting annoyingly everyday to a video is not a good approach to get your way.

      Furthermore, if people want to ask “Ask the doctor” type questions they can’t do so effectively on youtube, the comments are better controlled on nutritionfacts.org.

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      • http://twitter.com/MacSmiley MacSmiley

        Hello Toxins,

        Thanks for your observations. Please allow me to clarify. I am not whining to “get my way”. I am asking for a reasonable accommodation.

        For the forseeable future, my only web access is an old Palm Centro which accesses YouTube videos by auto-launching the Kinoma player, but only at YouTube.com. The player will not launch at NutritionFacts.org.

        I do not want to comment at YT.com (nor can I due to login issues).

        Funnelling comments to NutritionFacts.org makes sense, and I believe the good doc has the option of closing off commenting at YT if he wants to.

        Thank you for your understanding.

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        • Toxins

          I understand your predicament, I check the comments several times a day so if you happen to post a comment requesting a direct youtube link I can assist you with this.
          http://youtu.be/K13KUpiYSyQ

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        • hcdr

          you are pushing the boundaries of web accessibility :)

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          • http://twitter.com/MacSmiley MacSmiley

            @ hcdr I know, I know. The march of web technology continues on unabated with or without me.

            @toxins Thanks for the link. There’s no substitute for my being able to access at the doc’s YouTube homepage,though, especially for a watching a series of related videos. Since Kinoma player won’t launch here, setting up a playlist is futile.

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        • hcdr

          Also, youtube can take a while to update its feeds, I’ve noticed this with subscriptions I have. It’s nothing to do with Dr Greger… you just need to be patient, that’s all :)
          (or subscribe to email alerts)

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  • Ted

    In the video “Vitamin B12 Recommendation Change,” dietary intakes of 4 to 7 ug dietary B12 were found to reduce the methylmalonic acid and homcysteine to desired levels. It seems to me then that “dietary intake” already accounts for the low absorption rate of B12, and hence I do not see why there is a need to up-adjust the recommended levels. Perhaps in the study the B12 was injected and that’s the reason for up-adjusting the recommended levels?

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  • Meha

    How much time it takes to receptor de-saturate? I take a 2000 pill twice a week. Is iherbs a reliable brand?

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    • Toxins

      It takes 6 hours for the receptors to desaturate. Stay tuned for the next 2 videos on b12.

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  • Kal

    Ted beat me to my question, I suspect the good doctor made a mistake on this one.
    A plasma concentration of 200 pmol/L is typically considered sufficient and <150 pmol/L is typically considered deficient. There is a school of thought that to protect the most people the sufficient level should be raised to 400 pmol/L with under 200 pmol/L being considered morbidly deficient.
    In the Framingham Offspring Study (a source of data for some of the cited papers) it was found that people who consumed an average of 16.3±0.8 µg B12 per day, largely from suppliments, attained an average plasma B12 level of 398.1±7.8 pmol/L.
    In that study, even people who got just 4-5 µg B12 per day from food sources typically had a plasma B12 concentration nearing 300 pmol/L, a level most modern researchers would call sufficient.

    Plasma vitamin B-12 concentrations relate to intake source in the Framingham Offspring Study:
    http://www.ajcn.org/content/71/2/514.full.pdf

    Its true, there are several mechanisms by which some people either do not absorb, can not use, or can not retain B12 well enough and thus manifest symptoms of deficiency and anyone with deficiency symptoms should be tested despite daily intake level, but for the majority it seems somewhere on the order of 16 µg B12 per day should be enough.

    As a strict vegetarian and the grandson of a pharmacist I have the habit of recompounding cyanocobalamin pills into a food ingredient so I can easily add 50 µg B12 into my food each day. There seems to be no harm to using too much B12 but I see no scientifically supported reason to alter my current practices.

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    • Toxins

      Kal,

      Stay tuned for 2 more videos on vitamin b12 following this one.
      “Daily source of b12″
      “New vitamin b12 test”

      hopefully they answer your questions.

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  • BPCveg

    Does anyone have any leads for where you get a 20 year supply of vitamin B12 for $40?

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  • Jessica

    Vitamin B12 is an important topic, and I’m very grateful to Dr. Greger for making this series of videos to shed light on supplementation. My question is: How much do kids need? My kiddo eats fortified foods, but probably only once a day, so I suspect we need to be supplementing weekly. What would an appropriate weekly dose look like for a child? And are there any concerns about overdoses at any age?

    Thanks so much!

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    • Jessica

      I’ve done a little more reading on this topic, and found these recommendations: http://veganhealth.org/articles/dailyrecs Do you agree that a child ages 4-8 should be taking 500 ug twice a week?

      As always, thanks!

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