N22?
Ah, yes!
G4?
G4? Oh Yes!
B12?
Oh, come on!
Hi it’s Emily from Bite Size Vegan and welcome to another vegan nugget. Today’s video is
the sixth in the, 'Where Do You Get Your___?' Vegan Nutrition Concerns series with the nutritionally
sound Dr. Michael Greger of Nutritionfacts.org. If there’s one nutrient that every vegan
is interrogated about, it’s most likely protein. But after protein, it’s vitamin B12.
Today, I’m going to let Dr. Greger answer this quandary and then I’ll come back in to wrap it up.
Another one of the nutrients that is just harped on, or vitamins is
Vitamin-B12. We get this all the time as vegans. Can we talk a little bit about that?
As we should because some vegans aren’t taking their vitamin-B12, which is
critical. So, there’s only 2 vitamins that one can’t get, you know, in the produce
aisle where we should get all our vitamins and minerals. The exception to, one is Vitamin
D which we already talked about which is not...I mean, it comes from the sun. Only is it artificially
added, for example, to the dairy supply...or in very other rare sources. In Vitamin B-12,
so Vitamin B-12 is not made by plants, not made by animals either, made by little microbes
that blanket the earth. So, we, you know, used to get all our B-12 we needed presumably
from drinking out of well water or mountain streams, but now in chlorinated water supply
to kill off any bacteria. So, we don’t get a lot of B-12 in our water anymore, don’t
get a lot of cholera either, that’s a good thing. But now that we live in a sanitized
world, again, a good thing, and we’re not like our primate cousins, eating bugs...feces
all day, we got to get B-12 from somewhere. And so, the hygienic source, the safest source,
the healthiest source, the cheapest source is Vitamin B-12 supplements. You can also
use Vitamin B-12 fortified foods in, you know, soy milks, meat analogues, in things that
had B-12 added to them. But, probably the simplest things is to take one 2,500 microgram
tablet of B-12, you know the chewable sublingual once a week...cost you $5 a year, share a
bottle with your friends; super easy, and you’ll actually have better B-12 status
than everybody else around you. But is something that it’s serious not getting enough of, particularly
for infants, vegan infants who don’t start out, who may start out with low levels if
the Mom has already had low levels and just go downhill from there. Where as many people
who go start eating vegan later in life, start out with pretty high levels and so, may take
them awhile to show deficiency. But even then everybody needs to ensure regular, reliable
source of Vitamin B-12, and that’s including those people who eat meat. Yes they get it
from meat but that’s not where you want to get your nutrients, right—it’s lacking in all these
wonderful things we want like fiber, and has things we don’t want like the saturated, trans fats, cholesterol, etc.
You know people get really tied up with…is sublingual, I mean, do I need to get shots?
is that more effective than doing the sublingual verses all these other forms?
No, the only reason they do sublingual is...just how doctors reimburse in this country.
The reason people get shots in this country and sublingual everywhere else in the world
is because a doctor's salary in everywhere else in the world, they don’t get paid by
the visit. And so, if you just take sublinguals, do you have to go back and see your doctor?, No!
But if you get shots you have to go back and see your doctor, and you have to pay them
more, and you have to get your insurance to pay them more. So, that’s the only reason,
and that studies shown sublingual is just as effective. So, for example taking, if you
were deficient, you can take 2,000 micrograms once a day for 2 weeks and basically restore
your levels as good as if you had a B-12 shot. The stuff is really pretty, it’s this ruby
red kind of mad scientist looking fluid, has this great placebo effect but...no need to get shots.
And then the final question I had about B-12. There’s also some, you know,
some research and some camps out there that say depending on genetic makeup determines
whether you need methylcobalamin, you know hydroxocobalamin. Which form do you think
is the best and is it specific to genetics or is it just a blank…?
Cyanocobalamin is the best, it’s the cheapest, it’s the most widely available
and convenient to get. And the reason I say cyanocobalamin because that’s what the research
is on. The vast majority of research is on cyanocobalamin and you take vegans who are
so, um...who have B-12 deficiencies, give them cyanocobalamin and they get better.
We don’t have similar studies with some of these others and the dosages are all different.
People get confused and if people wanted to take methyl then you would have to take like
a 1,000 a day, not 2,500 once a week. With the exception that people who are heavy smokers
or people that subsist off of cassava, or have kidney function problems, cyanocobalamin
is the best, cheapest, most convenient source.
That’s really interesting because I’ve always...I’ve always read and heard
that ‘oh, methylcobalamin is like, the one that’s already activated' and so it’s the most...
...Well, because it is cheap. That’s why there’s coral calcium, right? What is
calcium, it’s chalk, so if someone’s selling a chalk supplement, how do you get someone
to pay $20 a bottle? You say it’s coral calcium, right, some fancy little thing. Same
thing with B-12. B-12, it’s not that it’s dirt cheap but you use literally millionths
of a gram. It’s measured in micrograms, so look, if your whole bottle just says, that
you know, it has one milligram of B-12 in it, how are you gonna make any money off of it?
Well, you’re gonna have to say it’s like some fantasy B-12. Our B-12 is better
than your B-12...but buy the cheapest and you should be fine.
I hope you enjoyed hearing Dr. Greger’s take on B12. One thing I mention in my other
B12 video is that the reason that animal products contain B12 is because animals eat from
the ground and drink from natural water sources and thus ingest B12. But today with our horrific
farming practices having virtually sterilized our soil and, as Dr. Greger stated, literally
sterilized our water, even our farm animals aren’t getting their B12.
Believe it or not, farmers give their animals B12 shots to be able to market their products
as containing B12. Another way to look at this is- if a vegan diet is the reason we’re
not getting B12 and meat is the only source, then how did the meat get B12 from eating
a vegan diet? Of course we all do generate our own B12 to a small degree, but not a sufficient amount.
B12 deficiency is a humanity-induced problem, not a vegan problem. And it is a serious medical issue.
If you enjoyed this shot of vegan B12, give the video a big thumbs up and share it around
to spread the nutritional truth. If you’re new here, be sure to hit that big red subscribe
button down there for more awesome vegan content every Monday, Wednesday, and some Fridays.
And not to miss out on the rest of the videos with Dr. Greger. You can find the playlist
with all the videos so far in the infocard sidebar and in the video description below.
If you want to help keep Bite Size Vegan educating, check out either of the support links in the
video description below and for perks and rewards for your support, just click the Nugget
Army icon there or the link in the video description for more info on joining up.
You can also find it in the info card sidebar. And hey, check out some of the related videos while
you’re here. Now go live vegan, get your B12 in, and I’ll see you soon.
B9?
I hate this game...
This is the production quality that I've reached now.
I have two Masters in Art.
Cantcha tell?