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Comment by tathougies | Hacker News Reader

Yeah, so I have always eaten both meats and veggies. My blood results still showed a vitamin B12 deficiency. I was already noticing symptoms like anemia, mental fog, lack of energy, etc. I upped my meat intake to mainly grass-fed, fatty beef, and my latest tests show a normal level. You cannot get B12 from plants, period.

Meat is necessary for human life. Saying otherwise is dangerous. After seeing my experience, my wife (vegetarian for almost a decade) has started eating meat again. This isn't something worth dying over.

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Ummm... I've been a strict vegetarian for more than three decades now. I was an extreme endurance athlete, consuming in excess of 12,000 calories a day in my 20's with a vegetarian diet. I've never had a B12 or any other vitamin deficiency and the last time I saw a doctor was in my early 40's due to chest pain after a swimming workout which ultimately was the result of over-developed lungs getting caught on my rib-cage. After running numerous tests, the cardiologist was laughing at me when I walked into his office on my follow-up. He said my physical age was in-line with a 20 year old, not a 40 year old and that he'd seen maybe one other person in his years of practice in as good of physical conditioning. It sucks you had a vitamin deficiency but, you can get all the nutrients you need from a vegetarian diet.

It's not true that "you cannot get B12 from plants, period" [1]. You can get trace amounts from various edible land plants, but dietarily significant quantities from some algae. Also fermentation of some plants can provide B12-rich foods.

It's fair to say that vegans need to take particular care that they get sufficient B12.

1: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4042564/

B12 deficiency can also occur due to a digestive disorder in the stomach. Some people benefit from supplemental B12, taken e.g. as lozenge (absorbed through the mucus membrane of the mouth) or injection. Some people even inhale it: [1].

[1] https://vitaminvape.co/science/

That is super relevant to my interests! ;) Last time I got checked, I had a serious deficiency and got injections. Definitely looking into that. Thanks for the link!

Here is a link with even more options: [1]

[1] http://forums.phoenixrising.me/index.php?threads/alternative...

Do you know there have been millions or billions of healthy vegetarians living on this planet? Maybe some people do need supplements, or even meat, but that doesn't make it "a necessity for human life", proof is in the human lifes that are vegetarians from birth and didn't die from B12 def.

B12 isn't made by animals nor plants. The safest way to consume B12 is via supplements and fortified foods.

Watch this video by Dr. Greger for more info https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA3XjalOkXM

It takes a long time to become b12 deficient, especially so if you're eating meat. Maybe consider that you may have an absorption issue, like Celiac disease.

That is kind of surprising. I had to go on a low protein mostly vegetarian diet due to failing kidneys and have tested my vitamin B12 levels multiple times and they were perfectly within range. I still did go on low dose supplements as a precaution. But there are a few food products like cereal that are fortified with various vitamins anyway.

Just supplement it? B12 isn't meat or animal product specific at all. It's created by bacteria in soil and our species becoming overly hygenic is the reason for us not getting enough B12. The only reason why meat contains it, is because livestock is getting it supplemented as well. I just like to skip the middleman.

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