By Andreas Moritz
Hi, my name is Andreas Moritz and today I would like to debunk some of the myths surrounding the vitamin, the important vitamin B12.
Many people believe that we are as a society, modern society; we are suffering from severe vitamin B12 deficiencies. And there is some truth to that but not because we are not eating enough vitamin B12 in our food, but because we are not absorbing enough of that vitamin B12. And this can have a number of reasons and these reasons are responsible for the vitamin B12 deficiency that often ends up causing a form of anemia where the red blood cell count diminishes.
Now, we need B12 for basically every function in the body, every single cell requires B12 and if there is a B12 deficiency, we can experience as I said, anemia, we can have pins and needles in our hands, we can have brain and nervous system disorders, the bone marrow doesn’t function properly, we don’t produce enough red blood cells as mentioned, and we can have severe gastrointestinal problems.
Now one of the main reasons why there is such a strong vitamin B deficiency in our society today is because many people have stomach problems, and the reason for that is because we are eating a diet that is no longer in harmony with our body’s requirement for nutrients and for proper digestion. In fact many of the processed refined factory-produced foods are virtually indigestible. They cannot be properly broken down and they interfere with the secretions of digestive juices such as hydrochloric acid in the stomach.
There is a particular organic substance in the stomach, it’s called intrinsic factor, and in order to absorb, to digest and assimilate B12, the vitamin B12, then we need to have that intrinsic factor in larger quantities. If we have a diminished amount of that intrinsic factor, the B12 that we may eat, doesn’t matter through whatever source, including ingested supplements, then we are not going to absorb it, and its going to be useless.
So, the most important thing is to make sure our intrinsic factor in our stomach is produced in the right amounts and that is regulated by what we eat, how well we chew or masticate our food and also a second factor, whether we digest the food in our small intestine.
And that is a very, very important point because when we eat, for example, a very high concentrated protein meal such as lot of eggs or meat or fish and chicken, because we have only the capacity to digest up to 20 % of these foods, the majority of them will become putrefied in our intestines. So when we have undigested protein lingering in our intestinal tract for longer than even a couple of hours, then that disturbs the probiotic bacteria population in our gut, and probiotic bacteria are the principle source of B12 that is typically absorbed at the end of the small intestine in the terminal ileum, and in that part that’s where the B12 gets absorbed into the blood stream and carried to the liver, and the liver is in charge of keeping B12 there, and when required by the cells in the body it will put that into the circulation, into the blood stream, the cells will take it up and it’s going to be recycled in most cases. So most of the B12 is recycled and used for up to 6 or 7 years.
The amount of B12 that we need in our entire lifetime is just as much as a tip of the pinkie, this nail, it’s a very, very small amount, and its quite difficult to get B12 deficiency unless of course we have trouble in utilizing it, and once again that has a lot to do with what’s happening in our digestive system and not necessarily to do with the food that we eat, whether it contains enough B12 or not.
Since the principal source of B12 bacteria, and these are probiotic bacteria, when they die, they release the B12 and it’s been absorbed and utilized, which again is used by the brain and nervous system, the digestive system and the bone marrow, for most of all in order to keep our body healthy, vital and strong.
Now when a person eats a lot of junk food, uses medication, most medication particularly antibiotics destroy the probiotic bacteria population, and eating foods like meat, lot of meat which contains B12 but it cannot really be absorbed properly when the digestion is not working very well, particularly the intrinsic factor in the stomach has been diminished, which does happen when you eat too much protein foods. So there is a lot of to be said about meat being a source of B12, or eggs being a source of B12, or dairy products being a source of B12, that it doesn’t mean that you are going to absorb that.
Many, many vegetables are actually capable of releasing B12 as well and so there are smaller amounts of B12 in these foods such as bananas, green, leafy vegetables, sunflower seeds or leeks, dates, dates are rich in B12, they grown on palm trees, there are beans, there are green beans, oats, carrots, peas and so on.
These are small amounts, but that’s all we need, we don’t need large amounts of B12 that is prevalent in more meat products, but if we don’t digest these meat products up to more than 10 – 15 % then there is just no advantage eating meat products over eating vegetarian foods.
If you are, if you do want to have a higher source of B12, then butter is a good source of that, and I do recommend butter for most people, so that would be an alternative if you are non-vegetarian.
However, once again, the misunderstanding about B12 deficiency comes because we don’t understand how the body produces its own B12, just like cows for example, they don’t have to eat meat or drink other species’ milk in order to produce B12, they derive it from the plant foods, and they are, they don’t have a deficiency. Humans, as long as they eat natural foods, we will also not develop a B12 deficiency.
I personally had severe anemia when I grew up, when I was a child, and my B12 deficiencies stemmed from eating too many dairy products and animal proteins that eventually lead to severe gastrointestinal distress, and rheumatoid arthritis, and arrhythmia, and when I stopped eating these foods, my anemia disappeared, so my face started becoming colorful again, whereas before I was as white as snow in my face and I never had any color in my face. So that shows that the anemia is not necessarily removed by eating animal products. On the contrary, animal products can contribute greatly to a B12 deficiency.
Another misunderstanding surrounding B12 is that when you take a supplement, you think that you are going to absorb it and utilize it, but that is not necessarily so. B12 never comes alone, it always in nature combined with other B vitamins. So when a person just takes a B12 vitamin supplement, it is very, very, very difficult to absorb and utilize because nature didn’t built B12 on its own, or by itself, it always combines it with other B vitamins and other vitamins and minerals and other substances that allow the B12 to be utilized.
So once again, B12 deficiency has nothing really too with vegetarianism. Many, most people who are B12 deficient actually are meat eaters, and not vegetarians. However vegetarians can also suffer from B12 deficiency, it depends on what else they do, if they take medication or if they have used antibiotics in the past, the probiotic bacteria population can be disturbed for many years, and according to new study, actually can cause disruption for an entire lifetime.
One of the best things to do to improve the digestive process is to clean out the liver bile ducts so any accumulation of stones, intra-hepatic gallstones in the bile ducts of the liver inhibit the ability to digest food properly, it interferes with the probiotic bacterial population. Undigested food, putrefying, fermenting food doesn’t matter whether its vegetables or meat products, will lead to diminished absorption of B12 because of the lack of probiotic bacteria which is the major source of B12 in the body.
So I hope that this clarifies the issue, and I can only suggest eat naturally, live in a natural way, expose your body to the sun, B12 absorption also depends on how much vitamin D you have available to keep the digestive system strong and vital, and so when you expose your whole body to the sun on a regular basis, you will also have a higher level of healthy bacteria populations in the gut and have a stronger digestive absorption of nutrients available to you and therefore it is very difficult to actually develop B12 deficiency.
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