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Comment by theprotocol | Hacker News Reader

I find it sad that we eat so many intelligent creatures, including octopus. Alas, B12 and certain other nutrients are only gotten from meat.

I find it reasonable to limit meat consumption to animals that were bred for that purpose, and I am satisfied with few types of meat and have no need for the more capricious varieties (eating things like horse is unnecessary. I'll stick with chicken).

This video is what triggered this thought process for me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqAmR1lEN0I (EDIT: I'd linked the wrong video)

I will certainly never eat octopus.

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Just a tangent, but it might make your life easier (and other being's lives, too): You get B12s not only from meat, fish, eggs and milk but also from fermented food like sauerkraut, kimchi, tempeh, kombucha, some seaweeds and fermented tea.

You're right about animal products like milk, eggs, etc, it slipped my mind because I've unfortunately been unable to eat those things for a long time (food intolerances).

I'm skeptical about the B12 in fermented foods - whether it's bioavailable and a usable form.

There's no reason to believe vegetarian B12 supplements don't provide the necessary health benefits.

>Alas, B12 and certain other nutrients are only gotten from meat.

There are alternative sources of B12 and every other nutrient we're aware of. Even if you doubt plant-derived/synthetic analogues, that still leaves dairy and eggs. There is very clearly no requirement for humans to consume meat.

>I find it reasonable to limit meat consumption to animals that were bred for that purpose[...]

Why is that? Is seems much more reasonable to me that, if you are going to eat animals, you would eat the ones that are not raised specifically for that purpose. Animals raised specifically for consumption have absurdly short lifespans (chickens for instance go from egg to slaughter in about 7 weeks) with most of them having little to no chance to lead anything resembling a normal, stimulating life. Is it not more reasonable to eat hunted animals who had the opportunity to experience real lives?

"Vitamin B12 is not made by plants or animals but by microbes that blanket the earth."

From: https://nutritionfacts.org/topics/vitamin-b12/

I eat food that is fortified with B12 and sometimes I take supplements. Blood work came back positive - not B12 deficient.

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