photo credit: norwichnuts
A balanced diet is essential for everyone. In the same way, vegan or not, vitamin B12 is crucial to your good health. That is why you should make sure that you get sufficient vitamin B12 daily. To make yourself committed on taking sufficient vitamin B12 though, it would be better to understand how important vitamin B12 is to your body.
Vitamin B12 and How the Body Absorb and Use It
Vitamin B12 is essential for turning carbohydrates, proteins and fats into usable energy. It’s also responsible for keeping red blood cells healthy. And when vitamin B12 is functioning at its optimal level, it helps you boost your immune system.
Among these uses the most important is the ability of vitamin B12 to form red blood cells and to keep them healthy. In turn, white blood cells need vitamin B12 too to maintain a healthy immune system.
Vitamin B12 is also essential in forming protective fatty layers in the nerves. What’s even more important is it also forms a protective layer around the brain. With sufficient vitamin B12 you provide your brain this protective layer. Again this is essential because without this protective layer the brain will not be able to function properly.
Your body basically just needs small amounts of vitamin B12 at a time. But the problem is it needs a regular dosage of vitamin B12. What even adds to the problem is the body cannot absorb the vitamin B12 on its own. It needs the assistance of the intrinsic factor from stomach to be able to absorb the vitamin B12 better. Still, only half of the vitamin B12 is generally absorbed. The body can recycle vitamin B12 though so this somehow minimizes the problem.
With deficiency of vitamin B12 you can develop anemia since you would not be able to form red blood cells properly. So you really must ensure that you take sufficient amounts of vitamin B12 daily. But then anemia could also be caused by deficiency of the intrinsic factor since it would in turn cause less absorption of vitamin B12 too.
Issues Vegetarians Face with Vitamin B12
Liver, fish, eggs and meat are great sources of vitamin B12. But then as a vegan, you don’t eat these types of food. Instead you can eat Tempeh, miso and sea vegetables to supply your body with vitamin B12. It’s quite hard to measure the amount of vitamin B12 in these foods though. So to ensure that you get sufficient dosage of vitamin B12 daily, you can eat foods and products fortified with vitamin B12. Cereals like the Nature’s Path Optimum Power are an ideal food for vegans who want to ensure of getting sufficient vitamin B12. With just a half cup of this brand of cereals you immediately get 2.4 micrograms of vitamin B12. Your favorite brands may also contain the vitamin B12 so you should start checking various brands the next time you go to the grocery.
Of course, you can easily take vitamin B12 supplements like the Red Star T-6635+. It is actually a nutritional yeast product which you can take to boost the vitamin B12 levels in your body. A 2 rounded teaspoons of the Red Star T-6635+ gives you the adult daily requirement of 2.4 micrograms vitamin B12 quite easily.
So in the end, maintaining your health is made easy today. Even vegans who have limitations in terms of their kind of food intake can take what they need more conveniently. So, today being healthy is very much possible too.