Never knew that meat is a source of Vitamin B-12. Must research this further.
Are veggietarians B-12 deficient?
“Are veggietarians B-12 deficient?”
They have to supplement B12. If they don’t they are in big trouble after about 3 years, and have to be injected with it. They lose the enzymes necessary to metabolise it.
“Never knew that meat is a source of Vitamin B-12. Must research this further.”
B-12 is the result of cobalt being fixed in nature by certain bacteria. That is the only way B-12 is made in nature. B-12 enters the animal food chain via ruminant or other animals with cobalt-fixing bacteria as part of their digestion or diet. All other animals must consume one of THOSE animals (or their products such as milk or eggs) to obtain their B-12 from nature.
It’s a truly amazing synergy when you think about it, namely, to live, animals MUST have a VERY tiny amount of a certain organic form of elemental cobalt (B-12), and they are ultimately dependent upon certain bacteria to make it for them.
BTW, humans can absorb B-12 only if their gastric parietal cells are capable of making intrinsic factor and they have also sufficient stomach acid. Absent either of those, people can’t absorb B-12 and will die. Pernicious anemia is an autoimmune disease in which the gastric parietal cells are attacked and killed and/or an allergy to intrinsic factor itself develops. In either case, someone with pernicious anemia (like myself) will die without periodic B-12 injections. (If you have to have a fatal illness, pernicious anemia is probably the best one to have.)
Here’s a Q&D source of info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_B12
“Are veggietarians B-12 deficient?”
Vegans will die without artificial supplementation, but an adult liver of a person who eats meat will hold a 7-10 year supply; stupid vegans will think all is fine until they start to die from the absence of B-12, but of course they won’t know why they’re dying, you know, because they eat such a “healthy” diet and all. BTW, it should be considered child abuse to feed a young child a vegan diet because they don’t have a built-up liver supply of B-12 like a meat-eating adult.