Are vegans deficient in B12?

Question

I was reading in medical journal and it said a deoxyuridine suppression test showed B12 deficiency in a clinical study on vegans. I was shocked to say the least when I read this article. I wish there was a way I could scan and upload it to the internet to show you.

Here is an exact quote from the medical journal, "The most common cause of vitamin B12 deficiency is a vegan diet. A diet lacking in B12 causes tachycardia and heart murmurs."

I don't know about you, but this vegan diet sure seems kind of risky to me.

Avery, I know what you mean. I have a neighbor who is really pale also. When we have outdoor activities, like volleyball or something, he always gets tired real easy. I told him to include a little meat in his diet so he wouldn't be tired all the time.

Answer 1

are half of all the omnivores in America overweight and obese?

what is the biggest killer in America?

An animal-based diet is invariably high in cholesterol,
animal protein (see #13), and saturated fat, which combine to raise the level of cholesterol in the blood--the warning signal for heart disease and stroke. Due mainly to the meat-centered diet of most Americans, these two diseases account for nearly 50% of all deaths in the US.

By concealing a hidden camera on his body, an employee of a Rapid City, SD slaughterhouse was able to obtain a videotape for CBS-TV's 48 Hours. The tape showed how a plant with over 300 employees that processes an average of 50 cows per hour with only 4 USDA inspectors "keeps the line moving." It showed workers taking dangerous shortcuts in cleaning up fluid that had broken out of an abscess from a piece of chuck beef, a severe violation of USDA rules that would require an extended clean-up procedure. Comments from a seasoned USDA veterinarian: "I can say from my experience of nine years and in talking to other food inspectors around the country, this probably goes on on a daily basis."

The National Cancer Research Institute found that women who eat meat on a daily basis are almost 4 times more likely to get breast cancer than those women who eat little or no meat.

Of all the antibiotics administered in the US to people or farm animals, farm animals receive over 95% of them--not so much to treat infection, but to make the animals grow faster on less feed

A US Congressional committee report, published in 1985, charged that there were 20-30 thousand animal drugs in use at the time, and that as many as 90% had not been approved by the FDA

At least 95% of all toxic chemical residues in the American diet come from meat, fish, dairy products and eggs. This is because such residues are stored in fat. Each step up the food chain serves to amplify the consumption of toxins. Fish, especially, have very long food chains. Avoiding fish to avoid toxic residue may not be a sufficient preventative measure, however, as one third of the world's fish catch is fed to livestock. Due to the excessive use of pesticides, insecticides and petrochemical fertilizers on cropland, the injection of hormones and antibiotics into farm animals, and the abundance of PCBs and mercury in our oceans, there is toxicity in the flesh of all animals people eat. More than ever, it is wise to eat "low on the food chain," with plant food being the lowest and safest.

According to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, cardiovascular diseases caused 954,000 deaths (42% of all deaths) in 1993. Total direct cost to sufferers added up to $126.4 billion. Seventy-two percent of the deaths were due to atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), a disease strongly linked to a meat-based diet
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At Yale, Professor Irving Fisher designed a series of tests to compare the stamina and strength of meat-eaters against that of vegetarians. He selected men from three groups: meat-eating athletes, vegetarian athletes, and vegetarian sedentary subjects. Fisher reported the results of his study in the Yale Medical Journal.25 His findings do not seem to lend a great deal of credibility to the popular prejudices that hold meat to be a builder of strength.

"Of the three groups compared, the...flesh-eaters showed far less endurance than the abstainers (vegetarians), even when the latter were leading a sedentary life."26
Overall, the average score of the vegetarians was over double the average score of the meat-eaters, even though half of the vegetarians were sedentary people, while all of the meat-eaters tested were athletes. After analyzing all the factors that might have been involved in the results, Fisher concluded that:

"...the difference in endurance between the flesh-eaters and the abstainers (was due) entirely to the difference in their diet.... There is strong evidence that a...non-flesh...diet is conducive to endurance."27
A comparable study was done by Dr. J. Ioteyko of the Academie de Medicine of Paris.28 Dr. Ioteyko compared the endurance of vegetarian and meat-eaters from all walks of life in a variety of tests. The vegetarians averaged two to three times more stamina than the meat-eaters. Even more remarkably, they took only one-fifth the time to recover from exhaustion compared to their meat-eating rivals.

In 1968, a Danish team of researchers tested a group of men on a variety of diets, using a stationary bicycle to measure their strength and endurance. The men were fed a mixed diet of meat and vegetables for a period of time, and then tested on the bicycle. The average time they could pedal before muscle failure was 114 minutes. These same men at a later date were fed a diet high in meat, milk and eggs for a similar period and then re-tested on the bicycles. On the high meat diet, their pedaling time before muscle failure dropped dramatically--to an average of only 57 minutes. Later, these same men were switched to a strictly vegetarian diet, composed of grains, vegetables and fruits, and then tested on the bicycles. The lack f animal products didn't seem to hurt their performance--they pedaled an average of 167 minutes.29

Wherever and whenever tests of this nature have been done, the results have been similar. This does not lend a lot of support to the supposed association of meat with strength and stamina.

Doctors in Belgium systematically compared the number of times vegetarians and meat-eaters could squeeze a grip-meter. The vegetarians won handily with an average of 69, whilst the meat-eaters averaged only 38. As in all other studies which have measured muscle recovery time, here, too, the vegetarians bounced back from fatigue far more rapidly than did the meat-eaters.30

I know of many other studies in the medical literature which report similar findings. But I know of not a single one that has arrived at different results. As a result, I confess, it has gotten rather difficult for me to listen seriously to the meat industry proudly proclaiming "meat gives strength" in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Answer 2

Are you medically qualified? Macrocytic anaemia related to diet is common in vegetarians. Heart disease is common in human carnivores. I eat meat but I dont have to prove myself by querying this stuff provocatively. I've also been vegan and vegetarian. B12 deficiency is commonest in so called vegetarians who eat just as poor quality a diet as the average western world obese malnourished lard butt. (IE beans on toast all the time or big fat macs all the time)
Alcoholics suffer with B vitamin deficiency. AND???
B12 deficiency causes worse things than tachycardia, how about central nervous system damage? And since it now is regarded as likely that about half the population of the western world is likely to have cardiac problems of one kind or another, why the fuss about diet? What about smoking? pollution? what an absolute waste of space and oxygen. Are you from the deep south??? Or just the deep? Are you the guy who wanked into his CD drive?

Answer 3

I am very healthy and strong and I'm a vegetarian.. I use to be weak when I was a meat eater.. the meat was clogging my arteries. There's something much more important than B12.. it's potassium.. that's in bananas, potatos. B12 is in many foods and in brown honey, brown sugar. Also many grains and cereals have B12 in them. I feel fine and healthy but my Doctor says my thyroid level is too low. So I take thyroid pills and when I take that I feel weak and sleepy.. yet they are suppose to do the opposite. I asked my doctor what the thyroid pills are from and he told me they are extract from a pigs something ( I didn't get the last word as it was the end of my check). He told me to continue taking the thyroid pills but at night instead of morning! I find I sleep far too much when I take those thyroid pills! I suspect the low thyroid level is probably normal for me but that
my doctor doesn't see how that can be!
If it wasn't for a required regular check up for Food Safe reasons my being a cook... I wouldn't need to see doctor much cause I'm not just a cook... I'm also a herbalist!
Vegetarianism works 4 me. It's not 4 everyone!

Answer 4

When is 'foxhunter_guy' going to stop his scaremongering?

The following answers sum it all up for me.

‘erased_citizen’ saying “I've been vegan 2 years, I don't take supplements and after unrelated bloodtests (giving blood) surprise surprise, I'm deficient in nothing. Including B12 and iron.”

Seriously, all this hysteria about veganism, it's unfounded. It's the healthiest diet when done properly, and with the way animals are treated to feed omnivores there's really no other ethical way.”

‘Gus’ saying “I took B12 supplements for a while, but stopped about a year ago and haven't noticed any difference at all, and I'm not pasty or anaemic the way that a lot of people assume vegans should be. We're not odd, we're just people that don't eat crap.”

‘bethybug’ saying “You can get B12 from seaweed and sea vegetables, nutritional yeast, fortified cereal, fortified soy milk, B12 supplements and tempeh”

Answer 5

This IS the biggest risk of being Vegan. B12 can only be gotten from non-vegan sources, and lack of B12 can lead to "Pernicious Anemia", which is fatal. Look it up.

If yu want to be a Vegan, supplement with the correct RDA of B12.

Answer 6

Very true.

For a healthy vegan diet, it is adviced to take additional B12 tablets (health store), because B12 is hard to eat in sufficiant proportions through a vegan diet.

Answer 7

I've been vegan 2 years, I don't take supplements and after unrelated bloodtests (giving blood) surprise surprise, I'm deficient in nothing. Including B12 and iron.

Seriously, all this hysteria about veganism, it's unfounded. It's the healthiest diet when done properly, and with the way animals are treated to feed omnivores there's really no other ethical way.

Answer 8

The vitamin B12 used to occur naturally in soil and therefore be taken up by plants. Due to to the increase in pesticide and chemical use, we can't rely upon this vitamin being found in the soil anymore, so it's recommended that vegans take a supplement. It doesn't have any bearing on whether or not a vegan diet is healthy, it's simply due to the modern way our food is tampered with and the goodness removed. A vegan diet is the healthiest diet there is, IF it is done correctly. There can be very unhealthy vegans and veggies because they don't know how to eat properly, and get the right nutrients. Any diet as to be followed correctly to ensure it's balanced -vegan, meat-eating or whatever it happens to be.

Answer 9

Most educated vegans take supplements. A meat rich diet is much more risky but you already know that.

Answer 10

Many people say that the only foods which contain vitamin B12 are animal-derived foods. This also is untrue. No foods naturally contain vitamin B12 - neither animal or plant foods. Vitamin B12 is a microbe - a bacteria - it is produced by microorganisms. Vitamin B12 is the only vitamin that contains a trace element - cobalt - which gives this vitamin its chemical name - cobalamin - which is at the centre of its molecular structure. Humans and all vertebrates require cobalt, although it is assimilated only in the form of vitamin B12.



B12 synthesis is known to occur naturally in the human small intestine (in the ileum), which is the primary site of B12 absorption. As long as gut bacteria have cobalt and certain other nutrients, they produce vitamin B12. Dr Michael Klaper argues that vitamin B12 is present in the mouth as well and intestines. Furthermore, Dr Virginia Vetrano states that active Vitamin B12 coenzymes are found in bacteria in the mouth, around the teeth, in the nasopharynx, around the tonsils and in the tonsilar crypts, in the folds at the base of the tongue, and in the upper bronchial tree. Absorption of the natural B12 coenzymes can take place in the mouth, throat, oesophagus, bronchial tubes and even in the upper small intestines, as well as all along the intestinal tract. This does not involve the complex enzyme mechanism for absorption (Intrinsic Factor) in the small intestine as required by cyanocobalamin. The coenzymes are absorbed by diffusion from mucous membranes.

According to Marieb's 'Human Anatomy and Physiology', vitamin B12 can be destroyed by highly alkaline and highly acid conditions. This assumes that the B12 in meat would be easily destroyed because the hydrochloric acid in our stomachs during the digestion of meat is highly acidic. This may explain why meat-eaters are just as likely to have a B12 deficiency as vegans - even though their diet contains vitamin B12. Also, as mentioned earlier, another problem for meat-eaters is that there are normally antiobiotics in meat plus the fact that many meat-eaters destroy their friendly bacteria in their intestines by constant putrefaction and the putrefactive bacteria naturally present in meat will give the body a hard time. So, the damaged intestines may not function well enough to enable adequate vitamin B12 levels to be asborbed.

Early deficiency symptoms include unusual fatigue, faulty digestion, no appetite, nausea, or loss of menstruation.

I am a vegetarian who eat very little to no dairy and eggs and now going vegan and I do not have any deficiency symptoms.

Even if vegetarians had a big concern over vitamin B12 all you have to do it take a supliment. There are alot of meat eating related problems that I should not have to bring up cause they are very well known. The health risks of a vegetarian are far less than that of a person who eats meat.

Answer 11

vegans are not deficient in b12. miso.a fermented soya bean paste has b12.this is the only nonmeat source of b12. when the soya beans are been fermated it creates b12.miso is also high in protein,all the vitamins and minerals that your body needs.please F.H.G.research facts correctly and research both sides.as any good researcher does before presenting.