Myth # 19 : " But I need to eat animals to get my B12 ."
Myth # 19 : " But I need to eat animals to get my B12 ."
Actually , vitamin B-12 is not found in meat at all , but is rather produced by bacteria that just happen to grow well in & on meat and other animal products . Interestingly enough , most of those people who truly are deficient in vitamin B12 are meat eaters – probably due to the fact that vitamin B12 tends to lose its viability when cooked … and very few people eat their meat raw .
Indeed , in reality it is extremely rare ( literally 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 bodyconservation of B12 – the vast majority of ingested B12 being regularly reabsorbed in the lower intestines – actually boosting the effectiveness of this innate supply tenfold ).
And yet , for those of you who are sincerely still worried about your B12 intake , there are quite a few plant-based sources of B12 readily available ( e . g . fortified soy milk & wheat grass , organic & hand-washed vegetables & fruits , and kelp ). And even if these or similar sources aren ' t available to you , an inexpensive , plantbased & cruelty-free B12 supplement almost certainly is .
So , thinking about it objectively – you can indeed choose to eat lots B12-rich animal products ( raw , of course , otherwise the B12 gets destroyed during cooking &/ or pasteurization ) and thereby avoid a literally one-in-a-million chance of developing reversible anemia . Of course , doing so will also give you a 50 % greater risk chance of dying prematurely from heart attack and a 20 % greater risk of dying from prostate or breast cancer – and an almost guaranteed likelihood of experiencing obesity , diabetes , osteoporosis , constipation , indigestion &/ or arthritis before you die … OR you can relax , eat a balanced vegan diet , and live a decidedly longer and dramatically healthier life ... As always , the choice is yours – so please choose wisely !
Current status of this Myth : Denounced Justification it provides for eating animals : NONE
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