your take on the issue?

No system has ever as yet existed which did not in some form involve the exploitation of some human beings for the advantage of others. John Dewey 1921.

Sunshine is the best source of Vitamin D, but be careful not to burn.

I started to take a B12 supplement about 5 years ago after 15 years 100% vegan.

I'd always believed the creator would NOT have made us require vitamin B12 if the only "natural" way we could get it was to kill some other creature or make some other creature suffer. But I was open-minded enough about it to educate myself somewhat about the symptoms of B12 deficiency. When I started getting some of those symptoms (tingling in hands and feet), I started taking B12, and the symptoms went away.

I'm still open-minded that there might be some natural way to obtain B12, even for a person who might have lost some ability to make their own, perhaps some kind of sprout or natural mold or whatever, but I don't know yet what that is.

According to the Vegan Society, so far there is no known natural vegan food that provides absorbable B12 in sufficient amounts (which are minute).

Even the bonobos chimps that are our closest primate genetic partner eat termite clay and occasional small mammals (though they don't hunt), and they are considered omnivorous, though they are PRIMARILY vegetarian and frugivorous.

I take the methylcobalamin B12.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/21/2007 09:19PM by suncloud.

Search this site for B12. There have been various postings on various threads regarding this. Seems to me there are people saying it's not necessary to supplement. But when we're having what we understand to be symptoms of B12 deficiency, then take a supplement and see those symptoms fade away, that's pretty compelling isn't it?

One "natural" source, apparently, is from unwashed vegetables. So I don't wash the vegetables from my garden. But of course, if you don't grow it yourself, you ought to wash it because of bacteria that could be there that doesn't get knocked off by our body's defenses.



This way is not compatible with Zen practice. This way IS Zen practice. - Dr. Doug Graham

Nothing whatsoever should be attached to. - Buddha

Based upon my recent experience this winter with lack-of-sun depression, I would say that DEFINITELY a vitamin D supplement can be hugely beneficial for alleviating such symptoms. I was back to feeling terrific instantly, within an hour of taking a vitamin D supplement.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/21/2007 11:01PM by sunshine79.

The issue, as I understand it, is getting cobalt into your system. If there is no cobalt in the soil that grew your vegetables, there will be none in your vegetables and their bit of dirt from being unwashed, and no B-12 can be synthesized without the cobalt. Even then, some people lack the "intrinsic factor", a substance that ideally should be in your stomach, but in some people it is not, perhaps due to insufficient hydrochloric acid...oh, it gets complicated, doesn't it! I just take B12 and am done with it.