I was curious about the destination of manufactured supplemental B12 (I am vegan).
In several books promoting vegan or plant-based diets I had come across the claim that 90% of B12 supplements are fed to livestock. This figure seemed quite high to me. The usual reference for this claim is not a scientific paper, research study or industry analysis but is a quote from one Dr. Jennifer Rooke in a local newspaper. Rooke is an "Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Health and Preventive Medicine at Morehouse School of Medicine. ". It is clear from reading her other articles on the site that she promotes plant-based diets, so we can understand where she will be coming from on the issue and need to be particularly wary of bias in that respect.
The statement reads:
"In order to maintain meat a source of B12 the meat industry now adds it to animal feed, 90% of B12 supplements produced in the world are fed to livestock."
The claim is not referenced and I found no source which corroborated it. Organisations promoting ruminant agriculture strongly reject the claim and say that such supplementation is rare and it is Cobalt which is added to the soil (only when needed) to allow natural ruminant manufacture of B12 in their stomachs.
Another animal agriculture source had this to say:
"In animal nutrition, cobalt plays a central role as the core of vitamin B12. Thus, as plants do not provide sufficient vitamin B12 or cobalt, we routinely supply monogastric animals (poultry and pigs) with vitamin B12 as part of their regular vitamin and trace mineral premix."
"Ruminants are routinely supplied with cobalt to aid synthesis of vitamin B12, by bacteria in the rumen. This is needed for bacterial growth per se because these bacteria are central in ruminant nutrition physiology. Later on, such bacterial B12 is absorbed by the animal, covering its needs"
"Cobalt compounds used in animal nutrition are known biohazard materials at high concentrations, such as those used in premix plants. Thus, they should be handled with protective equipment because cobalt is a skin irritant and carcinogenic through inhalation. The use of cobalt, however, is still allowed in the European Union for ruminants, horses and rabbits, but in restricted concentrations. The same is true for the rest of the world, where cobalt is supplied often 10 times higher than requirements in all feeds for ruminants."
I dug around further and found this resource which seems fairly neutral (an encyclopedia with no "skin in the game", so to speak):
Vitamins. Ullmann’s Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry.
With reference to the pure substance, the total sales of vitamin B12 amount to more than 10 t/a and the market volume is ca. 77×106. The feed sector accounts for ca. 55 % of the sales, and the food/pharmaceutical sector for ca. 45 %.
So it seems the 90% claim for B12 supplementation to animals is bunk and the real figure is closer to 55% of supplemental B12 going to livestock, not an insignificant amount to be sure, but much less than that claimed by many vegan sources. However, it appears cobalt supplementation is quite widespread in animal agriculture, with the "feed strategy" animal agriculture source above claiming that supplemental cobalt is supplied in significant quantities in "all feeds for ruminants".
So my takeaway is that many farmed animals receive supplementation in their feed that enables them to produce adequate B12, but in many cases this supplement is Cobalt rather than direct supplemental B12, although most manufactured supplemental B12 (~ 55%) does go to farmed animals.
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Technoid
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Thanks Technoid. I love reading your posts, always enlightening.
As I am still a meat eater however not in great quantities. No more then 4 times a week and no more then fits in the cup of my hand/ portion 80gr perhaps. This has been my measure as long as I know, my mother told me. I do the same with every portion of vegetables and fresh fruit etc. I read that a lot of nutrients are being lost in the soil as result of large scale farming. It needs to be carefully put back into it after each harvest so soil is ready for the next crop. Before, animal manure was a way to secure that but spraying manure in Europe has been curtailed as it is affecting the drinking water. Also perhaps it might be an idea to ask vets , my dog received regular B12 injections when I brought her in being lethargic and not her bouncy self. Vets treat animals regularly with B12 and found it not to be a problem as a lot of our GP’s when you ask for more.
takeaway about unprocessed red meat consumption is at 8:15. Less than 100 grams per day of unprocessed red meat in the context of an overall healthy diet does not seem to show very much evidence of increased risk. Processed meat, on the other hand, has much clearer evidence of increasing risk at anything over 50 grams per day.
Alan uses a lot of nutritional jargon but he's very clued up on what the evidence shows when he does make a statement on it.
Sigma Nutrition's full statement (targeted at nutrition professionals so fairly jargon packed and nuanced) is here:
I can’t eat anything processed ) as it usually contains Ascorbic Acid or any E numbers between E300 and E330, also anything prepared with citric fruits , they trigger migraines in my case. So it will always be an organic fresh piece of meat. It’s more expensive but it keeps me in balance together with the rest, B12/ injections, B9/B/11/methyl folate , I take a tincture for each of the rest of the B vitamins. I annually take a blood test .bloedwaardentest.nl/vitamin...
Ascorbic Acid is another name for vitamin C. If you completely remove it from your diet you will become deficient which would lead to scurvy if untreated. I posted a video "mystery illness" on a case of scurvy recently. Scurvy is of course also fatal if vitamin C intake is not corrected. If you are restricting vitamin C in your diet for any reason I would check with a registered dietician and/or with cronometer or a similar tool to ensure you do not lead yourself into a deficiency by so doing.
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MD Anderson have a good page defining and giving some examples of processed meats:
"Any meat that has been preserved by smoking, curing or salting is processed. And meats with added chemical preservatives are also processed.
I can have vitamin C from onions, peppers, apples, grapes lots of vegetables only not from citrus fruits like lemons/ oranges, tangerines, limes also not as chemical form added to food. It’s strange but since I don’t eat it I don’t get migraines. When I eat at family and they didn’t check for it or even told me it didn’t have lemon juice in and the next day checked E nummers and we knew why I had a migraine.
Not enough time to evolve. That takes hundreds of thousands if not millions of years. We can see the cases of SIBO, IBD, Celiac disease, leaky gut, autoimmune diseases are dramatically on the rise. Most can be attributed to poor diet. That has changed dramatically over a relatively short period ~17,000 years versus the million years for our digestive system to evolve with noticable changes to compensate.
I am in the US and am prescribed cyanocobalamin. Quite a while back I tried to find information on cyanocobalamin, and saw that it's made in France (that was my general take), and saw the 55/45 livestock/humans percentages, or something close to that, that you mentioned. I have the recollection that sheep receive a good share of livestock cyanocobalamin. I wondered why livestock need to supplement B12 but grew tired of searching before finding an answer; my hypothesis is related to monoculture and a resulting restricted diet for livestock that poorly supports microbiome, including the potions that produce B12. But that's my guess, not findings.
I question whether animals supplemented with b12 or ruminants grazing land treated with cobalt are a reliable source of b12 for humans.
Could it be that altering the natural uptake and metabolism of b12 in animals (degradation of soil and little to no grazing) results somehow in less bioavailability of b12 to people who eat meat? We constantly discuss how test levels are a poor indicator of what is metabolised and maybe this is true of the animals we consume, contributing to widespread b12 deficiency in the population in addition to AMAG.
This is an excellent informative, well referenced post Technoid. Thank you. Absolutely most of our animal foods, beef, chicken, pork, lamb come from feedlots where natural nutritional sources for B12 and other nutrients are non existent excepting for supplementation.
One solution is to buy free range cattle, chickens (cage free. Where they roam natural grasslands.
Also microwaving meat destroys the B12. So don't reheat meat in a microwave, ever.
On a similar note we humans consuming mostly a Western diet have the similar nutrition issue to feedlot cattle. Most all of calories consumed in a highly processed western diet ~70% come from just three domesticated plant sources, wheat, corn, and potato. In addition these plants are grown on heavily farmed (nutritionally and carbon dead soil). So, may not be necessarily B12 related but certainly other nutrients. There is even some discussion or concern that the human microbiome is going to become extinct as the mere ~10,000 to 5,000 years BC since the Egyptians first starting farming dimesticated wheat the human body has not had time to evolve to this new diet. Remember hunter gatherers, our ancestors? That diet is what our digestion system is designed for. A hugely diverse diet if nuts, fruits (many fermented on the ground), vegetables, meat. Also all naturally grown. So by design we're not supposed to be eating this way of the mono diet if the same foods over and over again day in and day out. To save the human microbiome they've started studying the microbiome of indigenous tribes in the Amazon that have had limited contact with western civilization and a diverse natural diet. They found these people's to have a rich and diverse microbiome consistent with what a hunter gatherer microbiome might look like. They are now collecting, cataloging, and storing their feces for future use. Even the US FDA has recently, earlier this year, approved fecal transplants for humans.
Anyway I am probably way off topic here so I apologize just I could write a book on this and you struck a nerve Technoid! When that happens my B12 def mind runs open loop and I can't find the off button! 😂
Oh one last thing...humans like other animals, do have bacteria in our digestive system that produces B12. Just by some fluke of evolution or if you're a creationist God made a mistake, our B12 producing bacteria resides in our colon which is, unfortunately, after the terminal Ileum where uptake of B12 occurs.
I think a key problem (leaving ethics to one side) with free range cattle is, to quote oxford researcher, Tara Garnett, from an environmental perspective:
"Currents trends in meat and dairy demand are not sustainable"
and
"Current consumption patterns + also switching to grassfed would be catastrophic"
The full talk:
'Grazed and Confused? Ruminating on cattle, grazing systems, methane, nitrous oxide, the soil carbon sequestration question – and what it all means for greenhouse gas emissions.'
So although changing one's personal consumption pattern to favor more grass-fed meat might be helpful in terms of getting more dietary B12 or other nutrients (although I'm not 100% sure that would be the case since feedlot cattle are virtually certainly being supplemented anyhow), it would be a disaster from an environmental perspective if preferences for grass-fed beef/dairy were to became more popular.
Yes, I agree wholeheartedly with you. The issue truly is quantity over quality. Regarding supplementation of feedlot livestock...one can only supplement so much and only those known nutrients. Grass fed of a variety of free range grass is not replicated by supplement. The ruminant gut is designed to extract these nutrients from grasses where the human body cannot. So our bodies are truly designed to eat some meat although a small amount of course. That said I absolutely respect vegans. I have gotten meat from Hearst Ranch. It's much more expensive than feedlot beef so you're right, from a selfish point of view I hope more people don't start ordering it! 🙂 My price would go way up or we just couldn't get it at all. We should keep it a secret. 😇
Thank you for sending that link as I've a keen interest in all points regarding this subject.
As always like reading your posts. I was looking into the condition of our local soils ( Gloucestershire UK ) through a geological soil survey website . Gloucestershire and Herefordshire / Wales are supposedly known to have extremely low cobalamin levels and livestock farmers round here have been supplementing for years and years. Something to do with limestone hills around where I am ? This would also have ramifications on the soil properties in general. It used to be a big farming community , not intensive just good old fashioned grass fed. etc . B12 deficiency is very common round here. I wonder how the community coped before cobalamin supplementation in livestock if all this were true? I may do some more digging ! Excuse the pun
"Experts say it’s important to keep these declines in perspective and not let this news deter you from eating a variety of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains to maintain your health."
"For the most part, though, the healthiest thing the average shopper can do is keep eating an array of produce. “We’re not talking about a 50 percent decline in nutrient density, so if you’re getting a variety of different-coloured fruits and vegetables, you’ll still meet your nutritional needs,” says Kristi Crowe-White, an associate professor of nutrition at the University of Alabama and a member expert for the Institute of Food Technologists."
"“Across the board, people should be eating more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains to optimise the effects on human health,” Montgomery adds. In this instance, variety isn’t just the spice of life—it may help you reap and harvest better health."
One of the cited papers:
"Changes in USDA Food Composition Data for 43 Garden Crops, 1950 to 1999"
Interesting article. I had been reading about regenerative farming methods that were happening in parts of France too. No tillage etc . The Agricultural revolution wasn’t the wonderful thing it has been portrayed to be through history. But modern farming methods . Oh dear
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Can vitamin B12 become addictive? Can you become dependent on them?
Received email and concerned about their statement re Vitamin B9 and B12
