But Where Do You Get Your… B-12?
What‘s B-12? What does it do? Where can you get it? Three questions that are so much more useful than ‘Where do you get your protein?’
Vitamin B-12 is an important nutrient that you may lack if you’re a vegan or vegetarian. Fortunately, a lot of food products come fortified with B-12, so it’s getting easier to supplement. But what is B-12? What are the risks of not getting enough? Are all supplements equal?
The dirt on vitamin B-12
B-12 is an essential vitamin, which means that you need it to survive, but your body does not make it in sufficient quantities on its own. So you need to get it from an external source.
B-12 facilitates red blood cell production, helps maintain the central nervous system, and even helps make DNA.The good news is that your body can store B-12 in the liver for up to three years. However, if you are vegan, you should probably supplement with B-12 vitamins to keep those stores from depleting.
B-12 is made in the intestines of animals, including humans, but it is not readily absorbed in its natural state. Micro-organisms in the soil also make B-12. However, in the highly-controlled, ultra-sterilized soil we use for our crops, the vitamin-B-12 produced by…
