mslyda585,

The B12 fortified nutritional yeast is called Red Star Veget Support Formula.

Unfortunately, if you're buying your nutritional yeast from the bulk bins at the health food store, it's often hard to tell if you're getting the Red Star Veget Support Formula or the Red Star unfortified nutritional yeast. Both the Red Star Veget Support Formula AND the Red Star unfortified nutritional yeast are available in the large and the mini flakes.

The only way to know what's in the bulk bins is if you ask the manager if the stuff in the bin is the Veget Support Formula nutritional yeast or the unfortified nutritional yeast.

Many health food stores sell only the unfortified nutrional yeast because it costs them less, and most people buying nutritional yeast from the bin think it's all fortified anyway.

If your health food store doesn't carry the Veget Support Formula, most stores will special order it for you. You can get a 6 lb. quantity of the Large Flake Yeast T-6635 Veget Support Formula, or a 10 lb. quantity of the Mini Flake Yeast T-6335 Veget Support Formula.

If you depend on nutritional yeast for your B12, you might keep in mind that the B12 in the nutritional yeast is the same as the B12 in the supplements. Nutritional yeast is neither raw nor organic, and it can cause fungal problems for some people.

Nutritional yeast CAN supply your B12 needs, but ONLY if you buy the Red Star Veget Support Formula, and ONLY if you eat enough of it, since portions of B12 may vary from batch to batch.

Wow lotta posts.

Mrs. Vivian is cool...but she is spacy too. I had a consult (no offense vivian...I liked you!)...so I don't know.

I have heard of the negative effects of cyanocobalamin supplements so I always take the methylcobalamin form instead. The other form (adenosylcobalamin) is very hard for me to find.

As for animals getting enogh B12 I have read that grazing animanl have become anemic from eating from cobalt deficient pastures. In those cases the farmer has to either provide cobalt or B12 supplement the grazing animals or supplement the grass the animals feed on.

Vegan or not, there is no guarantee that there is B12 in the food you get so I a supplement.

As for yeast, it is pasturized i thinkk and then vitamins, including B12 (in the cyanocobalamin form AFAIK) is added back to it.

Thanks for sharing all this great info everyone. I had a question about the sea vegetable Dulse which says it has 23% vitamin B12 per 1/3 cup serving. Might this be able to supply our B12 vitamin needs without having to take supplementation as well or would it be too difficult to eat enough of it. Thanks in advance

JEN

Hi rubyjewel,

It seems that although the percentage of B12 claimed on the label is probably inaccurate (due to faulty and outdated testing methods that are somehow still accepted by the federal govt.), there's a possibility that dulse could contain active B12.

According to VeganHealth.org:

"Inactive B12 analogues in plant foods compromise the accuracy of traditional methods used to determine the vitamin B12 amounts and activity of a food.

"...many laboratories, especially those of private companies who want to market their product as containing B12, still use the less reliable of these methods when measuring the B12 content of plant foods and seaweeds.

"The only seaweed in this list (arame, dulse, hijik, kelp, kombu, wakami) that warrants further study is dulse...Unless dulse is eventually shown to lower MMA levels, it should not be considered a source of active B12."

So there seems to be some possibility there, but no solid evidence yet.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/13/2007 09:05PM by suncloud.