Why my vegetarian grandmother has never been B12 deficient
And 3 changes that she has inspired me to make
Compared to your grandparents:
Your food has less Vitamin B12 / gram
You probably absorb less Vitamin B12 / meal
Your body needs more Vitamin B12 / year
The result: serious deficiency.
If you want to maintain great levels of B12 without relying on supplements, you need to focus on all three.
In this article, I’ll break each of them down for you.
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Get natural B12 from each meal
My dadi never had fish, meat or fish oil.
Yet her B12 was 500+.
How?
She gets her B12 from nearly every fruit and vegetable she eats.
Humans and plants do not make B12.
Bacteria do.
Some of these bacteria live in the gut of humans and other animals.
This is why even if you don’t eat B12, your poop will likely contain trace amounts of B12.
Unfortunately, you can’t use most of it.
Our bodies are trained to absorb B12 in the small intestine…
…but our gut bacteria makes B12 in the large intestine.
This is why so many animals(Rabbits, chimps, domestic dogs) eat their own poop - to get minerals and vitamins that they may have missed from their food. While humans cannot get their B12 from their own gut bacteria, we have historically relied on gut bacteria of another animal.
Cows.
Just like humans, cow manure or cow dung is very, very rich in B12.
When soil is fertilized using this cow manure, almost every plant which grows in that soil absorbs the B12.
Several studies show that plants like spinach, garden cress and even soybean can absorb and maintain B12, provided it is present in their soil.
In fact, a Japanese study using hydroponic lettuce confirmed this.
They added some B12 to the water in which lettuce was growing.
The result: Enough B12 was absorbed that two lettuce leaves could meet the RDA of 2.4 µg!
In my Dadi’s time, the ‘green revolution’ was not as widespread as it is today.
In her time, grass-fed cows grazed fields, fertilized crops in season and allowed local, seasonal plants to grow in extremely rich and microbially diverse soils.
Today, corn-fed cows are given antibiotics (zero gut bacteria), are kept in sheds in farms where topsoil quality is very, very poor.
This suggests that our biggest source of B12 has become zero today.
But it doesn’t stop here.
Absorbing B12 well
Today, even non-vegetarians and fish-eaters are B12 deficient.
Why?
Very poor B12 absorption.
Vitamin B12 has to be transformed by your body before it can be used by a cell.
The first place of transformation happens in your stomach.
Vitamin B12 binds to a protein called IF, and this prepares B12 for absorption in the small intestine.
IF only works properly when your stomach makes acid properly.
For most people, this is no longer the case.
Why?
Pills like metformin or antacids affect stomach acid, and there is rampant overuse.
Zinc is needed to make stomach acid, and nearly 1 out of 2 Indians is zinc-deficient.
Eating while stressed is known to affect how much acid your stomach makes.
We use too much B12
B12 has an antioxidant property.
This means that when you have more free radicals running about in your system, you use more B12 to neutralize it.
Today, we don’t ground.
We eat inflammatory foods and trace quantities of transfats.
Our food macros are horribly imbalanced.
So it’s natural for B12 usage to increase.
This acts as the final nail in the coffin.
We get less B12.
We absorb less B12.
We use more B12.
The result: B12 deficiency.
So, what should you change?
Personally, I’ve made 3 changes.
Change 1
I started by getting to know my farmers i.e. people who grow the food I eat.
I travel to my factory in Daman every week, and have managed to find a few traditional, organic farms near Valsad and Vapi from where I source my food.
I’m comfortable with what they grow, what they believe and how carefully they maintain their farms.
This step alone is helping me bring more nutritious food to my plate.
I recommend you start here, too.
Change 2
Eating has become meditation for me.
I start eat meal with a digestive bitter.
I don’t talk to anyone.
I try to keep my mind clear.
And I budget a generous 30 minutes per meal.
How you eat is just as important as what you eat.
Change 3
I’ve eliminated most common inflammatory food from my diet.
90% of my meals are home (lightly) cooked.
I’m working on increasing the diversity of what I eat (wider variety of nuts, seeds, fruits and vegetables).
Are these 3 enough to maintain my B12 levels? Probably not.
But it’s the right place to start.
If you have any questions around B12, or just want to know more about me, feel free to write to me on harsh.doshi@hatabevtech.com.
Hope this helps!
Excellent information
Informative