Where to get it: vegans and vitamin B12

In the discussion about how healthy a vegan or vegetarian diet is, meat eaters have one strong argument in particular: vitamin B12, spelled out: cobalamin. It has not been reliably detected in any plant source.

If it is missing, severe deficiency symptoms threaten. If sea buckthorn or algae were considered the answer to the riddle for a while, it later turned out that the laboratory samples were contaminated.

In other cases, the measuring methods had determined substances that are very similar to the vitamin but unfortunately cannot take over its function in the body. So how can a vegan provide themselves with this vital substance?

Cobalamin: The meat vitamin

Meat eaters have it easy: the daily requirement for vitamin B12 is three micrograms. 100g beef contains five micrograms, 100g calf's liver even 60 micrograms. Vegetarians who still have milk and eggs on their menu can cover their needs with cheese, for example, which contains an average of three micrograms per 100g.

Things are different for vegans: 60-90% of them suffer from cobalamin deficiencies. Because vitamin B12 is only produced by microorganisms. The herbivores in the animal kingdom get their food from their intestinal bacteria. In ruminants, it is bacteria in the rumen that produce cobalamin, in all other herbivores it is the colon flora.

Therefore, rabbits, mice, and many other animals occasionally eat their own feces to bring the cobalamin made in the large intestine to the small intestine, where it is absorbed. Humans body also have gut bacteria that produce vitamin B12. However, very few will want to use the mouse strategy.

The only solution: vitamin B12 supplements

In particular, the hygienic conditions in which we live today contribute to the vitamin B12 problem. Besides vitamin D, vitamin B12 is the only vitamin that is not produced by plants but by bacteria. These bacteria are found in the intestines of animals body, but also in the soil and in unpurified water.

However, since we no longer live in a confined space with farm animals, drink purified water and wash vegetables thoroughly, we absorb little vitamin B12. Although not as severe as vegans, this also affects people who eat animal products.

Since our liver can store enough cobalamin for almost three years, an undersupply is not initially noticeable. But then there are severe deficiency symptoms. Those who do not want to eat meat or other animal products are dependent on dietary supplements. These are obtained from bacteria, some of which are cultivated in purely plant-based nutrient solutions.