Safest Source of B12

Since foods are effectively a package deal, what is the best way to get vitamin B12 (cobalamin)?

February 6, 2012
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  • Michael Greger M.D.

    I make a similar “baggage” argument about meat in my video Food Is a Package Deal and about dairy in Plant vs. Cow Calcium. Tomorrow I’m going to get into the nitty-gritty on how much one needs on a weekly basis, and Wednesday’s video-of-the-day will cover daily dosing. Or you can skip to Vitamin B12: How Much, How Often? and for background, see my blog post Vegan B12 Deficiency: Putting It into Perspective. For more on how many eggs would be required for other nutrients, see Egg Industry Blind Spot. And those with a thing for vegan bowel movement studies, see Bristol Stool Scale, Bowels of the Earth, Food Mass Transit, and Bowel Movement Frequency. And there are videos on a thousand or so other topics so please feel free to dig in!

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  • http://twitter.com/MacSmiley MacSmiley

    Please make this and ALL videos available on your YouTube homepage!!

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  • Thea

    It may be a character flaw, but I have to say that I will never be that hard core.

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  • BPCveg

    Is there any risk of toxicity associated with high intakes of vitamin B12?

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    • Toxins

      No, it is water soluble so it easily exits our system. Similarly, vitamin c is water soluble. You can take way over the recommendations and be perfectly fine.

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  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1333777681 Mark Biddy

    What if we were to fast for 24 hours every other day, I wonder of the body would be forced to absorb it’s homegrown B12.

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    • Toxins

      We do in fact produce b12, but it is too low in our intestines to be absorbed. Our stools do contain b12 though.

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  • tduke

    Dr. Greger what is your official recommendation for B12? how much, how often and what kind?

    Thank you!

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  • nsd

    I’m sure this question has been asked before, but it sounds like you can’t be healthy vegan without taking supplements. Is this really a healthy diet then? Shouldn’t we as humans be able to thrive on whole foods alone? I really enjoy your educational videos, Dr. Greger, but I struggle with the idea that we are designed to use supplements. I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic. Thanks!

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    • Toxins

      Vitamin B12 is a byproduct of bacteria, it was once found in our water supply, and on the plant foods we eat. Because we now chlorinate our water (to avoid getting sick from other bugs) and because we dont ground pick our vegetables from the wild without washing them, the only available source is now from animal products. This is of course an unnatural setting. Similarly, iodine is no longer found in plant foods. This is why the government iodized salt, to help Americans get adequate iodine intake. Similarly still, we do not expose ourselves to adequate sunlight, and the UV rays of today are much more potent then they once were in our evolutionary past so vitamin D must be supplemented for optimal health.

      Humans have changed their environment, so sometimes supplements are necessary to achieve optimal health.
      http://nutritionfacts.org/videos/vitamin-supplements-worth-taking/
      http://nutritionfacts.org/videos/vitamin-d-supplements-may-be-necessary/
      http://nutritionfacts.org/videos/avoiding-iodine-deficiency-2/

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      • Thea

        Toxins: For some reason, I didn’t see your reply on screen and it didn’t come to my e-mail account until hours after I had written my reply. Your reply is so good, I would not have bothered if I had seen yours first.

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        • Toxins

          Thanks for the compliment and no problem, your reply below is pretty good too!

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    • Thea

      nsd: This is a good question and one that gets asked often. Dr. Greger may have an answer for you, but I wanted to share my thoughts too.

      I’m aware of two main supplements which Dr. Greger recommends, and they both make sense. Vitamin D is recommended for everyone, whether vegan or not, because we are no longer running around naked at the equator. It doesn’t really have that much to do with your diet.

      Vitamin B12 is needed because our modern society has artificially cleaned up bacteria in water and soil. The cleaning up of the bacteria is generally a good thing since we then avoid the bad bacteria. The problem is that with steralized water and soil, we then loose the good by-product of some bacteria, i.e.: B12. So, where do you get your B12? Well, you could get it from animal products, but that is frought with danger since whole foods are package deals. (See the multitue of videos on this site about the likely cancer and other disease promoting properties of animal products.) Or you can get your B12 from a safe and inexpensive supplement.

      Modern humans no longer live in our native habitat – the environment that we evolved in. Thus it makes perfect sense that finding the healthiest way to live would require adjustments.

      I strongly encourage you to check out the following links from this site. The video shows typical vitamin deficiences (that we know about) in average vegans vs omnivores. I think this is the perfect answer to your question. What is the easiest way to eat healthy? Whole plant foods – supplemented when needed to accommodate our unnatural modern life.
      http://nutritionfacts.org/videos/omnivore-vs-vegan-nutrient-deficiencies-2/
      also check out this blog post where I think that Dr. Greger has at least partially answered your question more directly:
      http://nutritionfacts.org/blog/2011/08/25/vegan-b12-deficiency-putting-it-into-perspective/

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    • http://www.facebook.com/FrozenMermaidN6VEGAN Freya Lynn Reed

      I’ve never had B12 issues, even though I’ve always had a low dietary B12 intake, even when I was a lacto-ovo. I do eat fortified cereals every once in a while, though. About 95% of my food is organic and wild.

      Here’s my post about B12!
      http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=419853161377799&set=a.308248069204976.86189.100000593562775&type=3

      Many of us will never get B12 deficiency. Most of those that get B12 deficiency have absorption problems, which can be caused by many factors, including wrong diets, conditions like pernicious anemia, damaged gut, antibiotics and meds, etc.

      A human that lives a healthy lifestyle and eats a normal diet, does not get B12 deficincy. But most people live in an unnatural environment and eat wrong diets that are high in protein and fat, so it shouldn’t be surprising that they are at high risk of getting deficiencies.

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  • Meha

    A Brazilian Portuguese version:

    http://youtu.be/T_E7CjPUXTk

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    • Michael Greger M.D.

      obrigado!

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  • ElaineV

    Love the “those are some hardcore vegans” comment :D

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