What Is B12 and Do Vegans Really Need to Supplement?

When people are vegan-bashing, they love to talk about protein, "but protein though", "where do you get your protein", on and on. You can tell them that there is protein in everything, that gorillas, cows, and even giraffes get enough protein from plants. But one thing that vegans really do need to make sure that they get is vitamin B12. But what is it, and how do you make sure that you're getting enough?

What is Vitamin B12

B12 is a vitamin and is also known as cobalamin, and is used by every cell of the human body. B12 is also really important in the normal working of the brain and in the process of making red blood cells to carry oxygen around your body. In food, vitamin B12 isn’t made by animals; it is made by certain bacteria, which can be found in soil and water that isn’t clean. When animals eat the plants that grow in the soil and drink the water, they take in the bacteria, which then live inside the gut of the animal and carry on making the vitamin, but humans can't do this. When the bacteria go into the gut of a human, it travels down to the part of the gut that doesn't absorb nutrients, so we don't get any vitamin B12 from the bacteria.

The easy way to make sure you get enough B12 is to use a supplement

What Happens If You Don't Get Enough?

When you don't have enough of something that your body needs, it's called a deficiency, and a B12 deficiency can be incredibly bad for your health if it's not spotted and dealt with quickly enough. Anaemia is when you don't have enough red blood cells or haemoglobin, which is inside red blood cells.

This can cause:

• Extreme tiredness (fatigue)

• Lack of energy (lethargy)

• Breathlessness, feeling faint, headaches

• Pale skin, noticeable heartbeats (palpitations)

• Hearing sounds coming from inside the body, rather than from an outside source (tinnitus)

• Loss of appetite and weight loss

Other symptoms that you could get that are hard to live with and can also become dangerous are:

• A pale yellow tinge to your skin, a sore and red tongue (glossitis)

• Mouth ulcers

• Pins and needles (paraesthesia)

• Changes in the way that you walk and move around

• Disturbed vision

• Irritability

• Depression

• Changes in the way you think, feel and having problems like being forgetful

Getting Vitamin B12 From Food

Plants can't make B12, just as animals can't, and so plant foods are not a way to get it. For people who eat animal products, meat, dairy and eggs all contain some B12, so most of them will not have to worry about it. Most people who have low levels of vitamin B12, to the point that it makes them ill, are not vegan; they are meat eaters. For vegans and people who can't easily absorb the vitamin, more care is needed to make sure that their levels don't drop too low.

One way to get B12 is to use fortified foods; these are foods and drinks with vitamin B12 added to them. These foods can include breakfast cereals, plant milks and plant-based cheeses, even meat substitutes. These products are made so that one portion will not give you all of your vitamin B12 for the day, so you need to make sure that you're eating lots of different fortified foods to keep your levels up if you want to get B12 in this way.

Plant milks are often fortified with vitamins and minerals

Another way to get B12 when you are vegan is to use a supplement. Vitamin B12 supplements can be a tablet or a spray, and B12 is almost always included in multivitamins; however, multivitamins are not a good way to get your nutrients. Using a B12-only supplement is much better for you. The UK Vegan Society, the Vegetarian Resource Group, and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine recommend that every vegan who is not eating enough B12 from fortified foods should take supplements.

How do you get your B12? I get mine from a tablet once a day, but some people prefer the sprays because they are so much easier to swallow. However, you get your B12, make sure you have enough.

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