Vitamin B12: Vegan🌱Must Intake Adequately
【Vitamin B12: Vegan🌱 Must Intake Adequately】
If you're vegan, you may have heard about the importance of supplementing yourself with vitamin B12 through supplements and/or diet.
Yes.
We, all vegan, need to intake vitamin B12 because simply we can't synthesize B12 sufficiently in our body and we can't also absorb B12 from plants which contain little amount of B12. It's just how human body works.
Especially WOMEN who are thinking to have a baby, are pregnant or feeding breast milk to their baby, are all required to take B12.
💡Where does B12 come from?
It's true that animal products contain B12. But where exactly do animals like cows get b12 from? B12 actually comes from microbes in soil, not the plants itself that animals consume.
💡Why do we need vitamin B12?
As I mentioned above, plants aren't a reliable source of B12 since we can hardly absorb unfortunately, unlike animals who can absorb B12 in their digestive process after being fed plants.
FUNCTIONS
- Metabolism of Nerve tissues
- Support for methylation which maintains neurological function
- Formation of DNA/RNA
- Formation of RBCs along with iron, folate, copper, protein, vitaminC and B6
- Promotion of appetite and growth in children
- Maintenance of brain tissues and neurotransmittters
- Production of melatonin
DEFICIENCIES
- Pernicious Anemia
- Depression and other mental issues ( moodiness and confusion)
- Fatigue
- Memory loss
- Neural Tube Defects*
*The most common neural tube defects are Spina Bifida and Anencephaly. When pregnant women are deficient in B12, there'd be higher risk of neural tube defects in their babies since their brain, spine and spinal cord can't be developed enough which occur in the first month of pregnant. That's why all women who are planning to have babies and are already pregnant must take B12 from supplements which are the most reliable.
💡Where can we obtain B12 from?
1. Fortified Nutritional Yeast
The most known product with B12 is, I think, nutritional yeast for their cheesy taste so you can easily imitate the cheese flavor for your dishes. And it really works well!
Toss some nutrietioanl yeast directly into your favorite salad or make some cashew crumbles made of nutritional yeast and mix together with greens🌿
Here is a recipe that I created with nutritional yeast.
https://www.bobsredmill.com/nutritional-yeast.html
2. Fortified Plant-based Milk
Most plant-based milk are also fortified with B12 and other nutrients that vegan might be deficient, such as vitamin A, vitamin B2 and zinc to name a few.
Make and drink a glass of smoothie with non-dairy milk that you like. It might help you to increase the intake of B12🍹
3. Fortified Plant-based Yogurt
Some non-dairy yogurt is fortified with B12 as well.
Eat with some granola topped with fresh fruits🍊
4. Supplements
Supplements are the most reliable source of B12 because you can actually see exactly how much you take B12.
Choose the good quality of B12!
It's always better pick a liquid or capsule form than tablets. The reason is that it takes longer for tablets to be absorbed into our body, than for liquids and capsules.
If any questions, please feel free to leave a comment or directly contact me anytime! I'm happy to help you out as much as I can ☺
－piggyinkitchen－
Reference:
- Sarah, M.Teresa, R. (2018, April 25). Effect of supplementation with methyl-donor nutrients on neurodevelopment and cogniton: considerarions for future research. Nutrition Reviews. Volme 76, Issue 7, July 2018, Pages 497-511 https://academic.oup.com/nutritionreviews/article/76/7/497/4985873
