This article is about B-12, and features my new best friend: the concept of bio-availability.
Quote:
Absorption — bioavailability — of B12 can vary, depending on the source. About 50% of B12 from meat and fish is absorbed into the bloodstream. However, only around 9% of B12 in eggs is bioavailable. Milk contains surprisingly little B12.
|
We often discuss the -- well --
fanaticism of vegans. Their drive to eliminate the Cycle of Life via a twisted form of ethics is baffling. Especially to low carbers who have discovered how much better their health becomes while eating a lot of animal foods.
I believe this is a belief system, not anything based in science, no matter what propaganda they churn out. In addition, I believe a lot of them are suffering from a lack of B vitamins in general, and B-12 in particular.
Quote:
Thinking of going vegan? Read this first.
itamin B12 is the largest and most complex of all vitamins, found only in animal-based foods. Plants do not make, use, or contain this vitamin. Even so, many people make the conscious decision to avoid all foods containing natural B12. It is vital that they supplement their diets, and monitor their B12 status, because deficiency can have devastating consequences.
|
I've seen a lot of plant-based pushback against the statistic which states 84% of vegans go back to eating meat, but then, both vegans and vegetarians have mental gymnastics associated with their dietary habits. In a favorite article,
We Must Reclaim Human Health, Sustainability, Environmental Justice, And Morality From The Birdseed Brigade, J Stanton shares the results of a paper:
Quote:
I’ll save time and give you the punchline right away: Of self-defined vegetarians, nearly 2/3 (214/334, or 64%) ate a significant quantity of meat on at least one of the two days for which their dietary intake was surveyed!
|
Which fits right in with my own dietary discussion, both in person and online, where "healthy eaters" like to tell me, "I'm practically vegetarian!" Well, in actual practice, that means they do a lot of grains and beans and dry chicken breasts. They avoid slabs of
the deadly red meat. Just as they have been told. The kind of people who never say "fat" as a foodstuff, they say "artery-clogging fat."
Quote:
The four stages of vitamin B12 deficiency
Deficiency occurs in four stages. In stages 1 and 2, stores become depleted. In stage 3, blood levels of an amino acid called homocysteine start to rise.
It is only at stage four that clinical signs start to manifest.
...
Shortage of this vitamin can take several years to become apparent. That is because the adult body stores around 2–5mg of B12, half of which is in the liver. That is enough B12 to last 3–5 years, although deficiency can arise within just a year if stores are low to start with.
|
Fatigue, memory problems, and the depression/anxiety cycle can come from low B-12. I find this ironic because this is often when people decide "I gotta get healthy" and
go vegan. As discussed in another post, where I
read a memoir of a woman who did just that, and had to go for radical, experimental treatment, for a severe worsening of her chronic depression.
Such a link!
Quote:
Severe deficiency causes irreversible damage to the brain and nervous system and can lead to dementia. Low levels of B12 are also associated with the development of Parkinson’s disease.
...
Vitamin B12 deficiency was once thought to be rare in vegetarians, but is now known to be common among people on all the different vegetarian variations. Researchers have observed stage 3 vitamin B12 deficiency in over 60% of vegetarians.
|
Of course they can supplement! Of course they should! But B-12 can ONLY come from animal sources.
So if they want to live: they aren't really vegans at all.