Actually, vitamin B-12 is not found in meat at all, but is rather produced by bacteria that happen to grow well in & on meat and other animal products. Interestingly enough, most of those people deficient in vitamin B12 are actually meat eaters — probably due to the fact that B12 tends t lose its viability when heated, and very few people eat their meat raw.

Indeed, in reality it is extremely rare (less than one chance in one million) for a vegan eating a sensible diet to develop a disease from a B12 deficiency. This is possibly so because we humans actually need a surprisingly small amount of vitamin B12 to live healthy lives (less than 3 micrograms a day), and that a roughly three-year supply of B12 is constantly stored in every healthy human liver (with normal body-conservation of B12 – with the vast majority of ingested B12 being eventually reabsorbed in the lower intestines – actually boosting the effectiveness of this normal supply tenfold) .

And for those of you who are still worried about your B12 intake, there are quite a few readily available plant-based sources of B12 (e.g. fortified soy milk & wheat grass, organic & water-washed vegetables & fruits, and kelp/seaweed). And even if these sources aren’t available to you, an inexpensive, plant-based & cruelty-free B12 supplement most certainly is.

So let’s think about it objectively for a moment – you can indeed choose to eat lots B12-rich animal products (raw, of course, otherwise the B12 gets destroyed in the cooking/pasteurization process) and avoid a literally one-in-a-million chance of developing reversible anemia. Of course, doing so also gives you a 50% greater risk chance of dying prematurely from heart attack, a 20% greater risk of dying from prostate or breast cancer – with the same thinking also often resulting in obesity, diabetes, osteoporosis, constipation, indigestion and arthritis before you die … OR you can relax, eat a balanced vegan diet, and live a longer and healthier life.

Current status of this Myth: Denounced
Justification it provides for eating animals: NONE

Filed under: Minimizing the Myths of Meat by Scaughdt