Low Vitamin B12 Levels & Veganism

Veganism or a plant-based diet is becoming more and more popular with each passing year. People do it for a variety of reasons from being against animal cruelty and the killing of animals to more recently, worries about both climate change and sustainability. There are two sides to every story and some of the things written about in the press aren’t always true when it comes to the impact on the planet of veganism when compared with meat. For example, a popular food in the vegan and vegetarian world is avocado and avocado is absolutely decimating large parts of the world through drought and gangs. The best way to go about sustainability is to buy locally produced foods, the less they need to travel and the less demand there is from other countries the more sustainable farming will become.

What is Vitamin B12?

There are a total of eight B vitamins in the body of which B12 is one of them. Its main use is to form red blood cells, DNA and helps with the development of brain and nerve cells, so as you can tell it’s pretty important. Due to the types of food vitamin B12 is found in, there are quite a high percentage of vegans and vegetarians that get either insufficient level of it or have a deficiency so it is often an essential supplement to take. Vitamins with B12 have become very popular and sales are increasingly greatly the more people are switching to plant-based diets.

What foods is Vitamin B12 found in?

Typically, it is found in animals and fish which is the reason vegans and vegetarians tend to lack it. Great sources of B12 include beef, tuna, trout, sardines, clams and animal livers/kidneys – in fact any organ meat from animals tend to be high in it. This isn’t to say you can only get B12 from animals, it is just in much higher quantities so you don’t need to eat as much to get the amount your body needs. You can also get B12 from fortified cereals and fortified nutritional yeast.

How much B12 is in different foods?

To show the levels of B12 in different foods, a 100g serving of lamb, beef or veal liver contains 3,571% of your daily recommended amount of vitamin B12, kidneys have 3,000% of your RDA. If we compare this with fortified cereals like bran, then a portion (one cup, 59g) would give you around 62% of the recommended daily amount. So to get your recommended daily amount of B12 you’d need to be having 2 cups of bran each day to get to the 100% level. A far better option is to go with nutritional year which has 733% of your recommended daily amount in only two tablespoons (15g).

To ensure you are getting sufficient levels of Vitamin B12 just ensure you are aware of what you are eating and either keep track of it or purchase one of the tests you can now do from home that assess your levels of vitamins and minerals so you can make sure you’re keeping your body in top condition.