Category:
Nutrition
On Vitamin B12
Some vegetarians go to great lengths to provide themselves with a few micrograms of this substance by eating processed blue-green algae,* notably from the genus Nostoc, but the relatively small amount of ‘cyan and cobalt’ stuff contained therein is probably only due to contamination of the product by a commensal bacterial colony. Bacteria may be just barely animals, but plants cannot produce this vitamin. The effects of deficiency can be appreciated in three or four months, but the body can recycle what it already has, and there is the possibility that intestinal bacteria may be manufacturing some for their host’s use.
Absorption depends on the availability of the ‘intrinsic factor,’ a mucoprotein enzyme. Calcium must be present. As usual, ability to assimilate the vitamin decreases with age. Take a supplement and hope that all's well.
For the rest of the essential nutrients; as the wallahs tell us, a balanced diet containing fresh items will supply all of them to one degree or another.
Notes:
*These are primitive bacteria to other researchers.Many old-style, 'health food' vegetarians eat various strains of flaked or powdered Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the common domesticated yeast, as a dietary supplement.
I believe that most of the nutritional yeasts are grown on molasses or other bagasse (cane residue) products. Unfortunately, these yeasts do not really provide a lot of cyanocobalamin. There are problems assaying the actual content of the vitamin, but many edible yeast products probably contain way far less than a microgram per gram.
Of course the edible yeast products are valuable for many other nutrients that they contain; too bad they don't taste great.
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