Vitamin B12 deficiency can be life-threatening.
Did a Vegan Diet Kill This Baby?
Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.
“…Vegan couple whose baby died of vitamin deficiency after being fed solely on breast milk…” Uh, isn’t that what you’re supposed to feed babies? Yes, but if you’re not getting enough vitamin B12, then your baby’s not getting enough B12.
“Parents adopted lifestyle after watching TV programme about butchered cows,” and ended up generating headlines like this: “Vegans charged in death…over death…after death…neglect…neglect and death…and baby killing.” “Poll: did a vegan diet kill the baby?”
Why, yes it did. A non-B12-fortified vegan diet killed that little girl, and she’s not the first. And if vegans don’t get their act together and get their B12, she will not be the last.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- Hinton CF, Ojodu JA, Fernhoff PM, Rasmussen SA, Scanlon KS, Hannon WH. Maternal and neonatal vitamin B12 deficiency detected through expanded newborn screening--United States, 2003-2007. J Pediatr. 2010 Jul;157(1):162-3.
- Sarafoglou K, Rodgers J, Hietala A, Matern D, Bentler K. Expanded newborn screening for detection of vitamin B12 deficiency. JAMA. 2011 Mar 23;305(12):1198-200.
- National Center for Health Statistics. U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2011. Table 78. Live Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Divorces: 1960 to 2007.
- Gilsing AM, Crowe FL, Lloyd-Wright Z, Sanders TA, Appleby PN, Allen NE, Key TJ. Serum concentrations of vitamin B12 and folate in British male omnivores, vegetarians and vegans: results from a cross-sectional analysis of the EPIC-Oxford cohort study.Eur J Clin Nutr. 2010 Sep;64(9):933-9.
Images thanks to Leonard John Matthew and Georges Charrières via flickr
Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.
“…Vegan couple whose baby died of vitamin deficiency after being fed solely on breast milk…” Uh, isn’t that what you’re supposed to feed babies? Yes, but if you’re not getting enough vitamin B12, then your baby’s not getting enough B12.
“Parents adopted lifestyle after watching TV programme about butchered cows,” and ended up generating headlines like this: “Vegans charged in death…over death…after death…neglect…neglect and death…and baby killing.” “Poll: did a vegan diet kill the baby?”
Why, yes it did. A non-B12-fortified vegan diet killed that little girl, and she’s not the first. And if vegans don’t get their act together and get their B12, she will not be the last.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- Hinton CF, Ojodu JA, Fernhoff PM, Rasmussen SA, Scanlon KS, Hannon WH. Maternal and neonatal vitamin B12 deficiency detected through expanded newborn screening--United States, 2003-2007. J Pediatr. 2010 Jul;157(1):162-3.
- Sarafoglou K, Rodgers J, Hietala A, Matern D, Bentler K. Expanded newborn screening for detection of vitamin B12 deficiency. JAMA. 2011 Mar 23;305(12):1198-200.
- National Center for Health Statistics. U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2011. Table 78. Live Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Divorces: 1960 to 2007.
- Gilsing AM, Crowe FL, Lloyd-Wright Z, Sanders TA, Appleby PN, Allen NE, Key TJ. Serum concentrations of vitamin B12 and folate in British male omnivores, vegetarians and vegans: results from a cross-sectional analysis of the EPIC-Oxford cohort study.Eur J Clin Nutr. 2010 Sep;64(9):933-9.
Images thanks to Leonard John Matthew and Georges Charrières via flickr
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Did a Vegan Diet Kill This Baby?
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Content URLDoctor's Note
For more on vitamin B12, check out these videos:
Vitamin B12 Necessary for Arterial Health
Daily Source of Vitamin B12
Safest Source of B12
New Vitamin B12 Test
Also check out my blog post, Vegan B12 Deficiency: Putting It into Perspective, for more context on this terrible tragedy.
My video, American Vegans Placing Babies At Risk, addresses how commonly vegans in the United States place their infants at risk by failing to supplement their diet with vitamin B12, based on studies published recently in the Journal of Pediatrics and the Journal of the AMA.
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