Vegetarians and vitamin B12

Here is part of a letter I sent last year to Plum Village concerning vitamin B12 for vegetarians - at the time they decided to become 100% vegan, and I wanted to share with them what Paul Pitchford has to say about B12...

"One of the important messages of the book(1) is that a well balanced vegetarian diet of whole, organic foods supplies the body with all the nutrients it needs, and makes whatever supplements unnecesary - even somewhat harmful. (...) There is however a chapter about vitamin B12 in which the author warns against possible vitamin B12 deficiency in vegetarians (especially in vegan children and pregnant and lactating women), and proposes B12 supplements as a margin of safety. This need not interfere with being vegetarian or vegan, because good quality B12 supplements are readily available which are vegan (produced from bacteria).

The subject of B12 is a very complicated and controversial one. It is in depth discussed in the book (pp. 136-142) and I will not go into details here. I will only mention that apparently there is evidence that many vegetarian foods thought earlier to contain B12 have proved inefficient in countering B12 deficiency, and that in our modern highly sterilized kitchens and food factories even fermented foods (traditional sources of B12) may in reality contain very few or no B12.

Here are the author's conclusions:
"A margin of safety for vegetarians.
In India, Indonesia, and most other Third World areas, vegetarians obtain B12 from bacterial cultures and tiny organisms which populate their food, especially the fermented foods. In the more technologically advanced areas of the West, the vegetarian choices for B12 sources are minimal, so the one supplement we generally recommend to the pure vegetarian is B12. (...)

Idealists who use no animal products and believe that their vitamin B12 needs will be supplied by the flora of their intestines and by minute amounts found in certain organic vegetables and ferments are sometimes right. However, there have been enough instances of B12 deficiency among strict vegetarians - particularly vegan children - to warrant caution."

"Vitamin B12 during pregnancy and lactation.
(...) (V)itamin B12 is one of the most commonly deficient vitamins during pregnancy and lactation. Pregnant and lactating vegetarians in particular need to be certain they are getting enough. Children born to mothers low in the vitamin run a high risk of retarded mental and physical development and weakened immunity. Mothers who only occasionaly consume B12 put their breast-feeding infants at risk of becoming deficient. The mother can recycle B12 stored in her body for her own purposes; she may feel healthy and so (falsely) assume that her milk is completely nourishing. Unfortunately, there are indications that only vitamin B12 ingested DURING the formation of milk will go into the mother's milk; B12 stored in the mother's body does not. This means that for a nursing infant to receive B12 in its milk regularly, the lactating mother must take in B12 regularly."

"The current adult Recommended Dietary Allowance for B12 is 2 mcg. daily; the RDA for young infants is 0.3 mcg. per day, and for children, 0.05 mcg. per kilogram of body weight until they reach the adult RDA of 2 mcg.; the standard for pregnant and lactating women is 2.2 and 2.6 mcg. per day, respectively. (...) For convenience, one 50 mcg. supplement can be taken each week. (...) Multiple vitamin and mineral supplements which contain B12 may not be a good source of this nutrient, since the combination of minerals in them can cause B12 analogues (a sort of "false B12", bva) to form."

"Nearly all B12 supplements are non-synthetic and not derived from higher animal sources; they are produced from bacteria."

"Excess levels of B12 are not thought to be a problem (...) and a dangerous amount of the vitamin has never been established."(2)

Maybe it is important to diffuse this information about B12 amongst vegetarians, especially those in transition from animal-based diets. It is equally important however, I think, to do so without creating a panic or aversion towards vegetarian food. A vegetarian diet of whole, healthy foods is without a doubt the wisest and healthiest choice one can make regarding food! It would be a great pity if concern about B12 deficiency would make people reluctant to become vegetarians (...). But it would even be a greater pity if children would suffer from illness and retardation because of the lack of (information about) B12, especially if a tiny vegan supplement once a week is more than sufficient to be safe."
(end of my letter)

Footnotes:
(1) Paul Pitchford, "Healing with Whole Foods: Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition", North Atlantic Books, 3rd edition (2002)
(2) id., p.140-142