Vitamin B12 Vegetarian
Are you a vegetarian or vegan? Then you definitely need to read my story about vitamin B12…
My Story
I’ve been a vegetarian since the age of four. Yes, it’s very unusual, especially considering that no one in my family is vegetarian. So why did I become one so early on? Well in head start, my teacher said something about the negative effects of meat on our health. I don’t recall exactly what it was, but from that day forward I never ate meat. Of course my mom thought it would just be a brief phase considering how young I was, but it wasn’t… from that day forward I didn’t eat any meat. With the exception of eggs, I did eat dairy products though. Surprisingly, I didn’t take any vitamins or supplements growing up. Yet I had a comprehensive and complete blood panel done when I was 18 and everything was normal, including my vitamin B12 levels.
Going Vegan
When I was 24, I decided to go vegan and completely cut out my dairy intake (which I had drastically scaled back in recent years anyway). Around this time, I was fortunate enough to stumble across an article about vitamin B12 benefits. As it turns out, there is absolutely zero B12 in plant based diets! So that means while I was growing up, I was getting it through my dairy intake (good thing since I didn’t take supplements!) but now that I’m no longer eating those animal-based foods, I will have a vitamin B12 deficiency unless I take vegetarian vitamins.
In my opinion, cutting out meat and dairy is the best dietary decision you could make. Fortunately, almost every nutrient we can get naturally through plant-derived ingredients. However this is just one of those things that there is no way to get it through our food alone. That being said, there are vitamin B12 vegetarian supplements which use use non-animal substances in their creation.
What’s The Best Vegan Vitamin?
Just in the last decade alone, we have seen a wide array of supplements hit the market that are geared towards us, so there are plenty to choose from. Unfortunately, we can rarely get the ones we need at the local drugstore. I buy vitamin supplements for myself online; not only is the selection better, but the prices are insanely cheaper than the outrageous markups we see at the stores.
So I don’t think there is a best, per say. But if you’re vegan, you obviously want one without gelatin (because that’s made from the joint tissue of cows… yuck!). You also want one that is taken 2-3 different times throughout the day, because there are many vitamins that only stay in your bloodstream for hours before your body expels them. Last but not least, although almost all of them contain vitamin B12, many of the big store brands skip on the pricier (yet important) nutrients, so you will want vegetarian multi vitamins that includes things like CoQ10 and omega fatty acids. Fortunately, the best vegetarian supplements don’t have to cost you an arm and a leg.
