Sources Of B12 – Whole Food Options For Vegans

Vegan Sources of B12

Sources of B12 have been an issue for a very long time especially for vegans. Putting aside the whole “meat eating” debate there are a lot of whole foods that contain B12. Sprouts are a great source as are strawberries (supposedly) and nutritional yeast. Nutritional yeast is an especially good source of B12 which is great sprinkled over seaweed crackers as a snack. Seaweed (nori wraps) are a great source of B12 as well and have been shown to improve animals deficient in b12 by adding it into the diet.

B12 from Nori (seaweed):  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/11430774/

Eating Dirt

B12 is found naturally in the soil so this is seriously a great source which has been utilised for thousands of years. As a kid I remembering regularly going to a farm with my family to pick carrots. We’d wipe the dirt off on our jeans and eat the carrot straight away. I know a lot people might be a afraid that there could be poo particles or contamination inside the soil, but on an organic farm if you have a good immune system it’s not such a worry. It’s actually the bacterium in the soil that supplies the B12.

The current trend of being caught up in antibacterial soaps, being clean all the time, and using apple cider vinegar to wash every vegetable, is not necessarily always a good thing. Of course if your food is not organic care must be taken, but if I’m out in the wild or growing my own foods then I’ll eat those foods directly from mother nature.

Did I Just Say the ’S’ Word?

If you are vegan and you’re not willing to eat out of the ground and grow your own food then I would recommend you have some B12 rich foods like nutritional yeast or seaweed nori wraps shredded in salad or with vegetable sushi, but also have a blood test to see what your levels are like. If don’t have sufficient levels then maybe you should go for a supplement. Yes, I just said the ‘S’ word! Now you know I almost never recommend supplements, but if you are eating well and fully nourished except super low in B12 and it’s causing you concern, then go out and find a liquid form (known as cobalamin). If you need it, take it. Don’t stress about it. Live healthy, be happy and forget about it. Move on and just keep eating lots of plants.

Secret Source of B12

Now to let you in on a little secret, humans do produce B12 in the digestive system, but it’s thought our body doesn’t reabsorb this B12. That means when you go to the bathroom there will be a lot of B12 coming out (another potential source?!) I’m not saying to eat your own poo, that is disgusting! But sometimes when partners get together and hang out in certain areas that can be enjoyable for each other they might just happen to get a little B12 hit… #justsaying

Thanks for reading!