Vitamin B12 Deficiency Signs
Deficiency of B12 is extremely dangerous to health and can lead to dementia and even death if not rectified.
While early symptoms include paleness and overall weakness and fatigue, as the anemia caused by B12 deficiency progresses, symptoms can mimic aging and so can easily be dismissed as a somehow natural or “normal” occurrence
Common signs include shaky hands or spastic movement in general, sleeping disorders, unsteady gait, incontinence, and memory loss.
Easy bruising is one of the most visible signs. For those trying to lose weight and using fascia blasting devices to help reduce the appearance of fat, severe bruising can unexpectedly occur.
Nervous system, reproductive, and digestive problems such as depression, tingling hands/feet, stomach upset, constipation (or diarrhea), and difficulties getting pregnant are also warning signs of low B12 status.
Children with B12 deficiency are particularly at risk with permanent damage to development a very real possibility. Growth retardation, delay in motor skill development, and significantly reduced problem-solving, spatial ability, and overall ability to learn are the consequences of low B12 in the developing years.
The real culprit in the B12 deficiency epidemic (by some estimates, about 40% of people are deficient and most are completely unaware of the situation), is the demonization and consequent avoidance of B12 rich foods by a duped public.
B12 Rich Foods ALL of Animal Origin
The very foods highest in B12 – particularly organ meats and eggs, are the very same ones erroneously labeled as unhealthy by conventional nutritional circles. Ironically, these very same foods were revered by Traditional Societies as they imparted vibrant health, vitality, fertility and healthy babies and children to those that consumed them:
- liver
- kidney
- meat (cooking meat only destroys B12 on the surface, not the interior of the meat)
- fish
- shellfish
- dairy products (raw dairy has more B12 than pasteurized and the milk proteins that assist with absorbing the B12 are not denatured like happens when milk is pasteurized)
- egg yolks
Gut Bacteria Do Not Produce a Usable Form of B12
Because the original source of B12 in nature is bacteria, some nutritional sources confuse the issue by maintaining that beneficial B12 is synthesized by gut flora in the colon of humans.
While this may be true, the B12 that is produced this way is not in a usable form as very little if any of this B12 is able to be absorbed across the walls of the large intestine or colon. The reason is that the bacteria produced B12 in the gut is not attached to the “intrinsic factor” (IF), a special protein that is secreted in the stomach.
B12 must attach to an intrinsic factor protein to be absorbed effectively. This happens when B12 that is consumed binds with the intrinsic factor that has been broken down by pancreatic enzymes in the small intestine. The tightly bound B12-intrinsic factor complex then moves through the gut to the Ileum or lower portion of the small intestine and attaches to cell receptors for absorption.
B12 Not Available in ANY Plant Foods
Contrary to claims by the vegan community, usable B12 is not available in algae like spirulina or tempeh (a fermented soy product). The B12 found in these foods is similar to true B12 but not exactly the same thing. The B12 in brewers yeast also called nutritional yeast, is due to factory fortification. In other words, it is a synthetic source and not naturally occurring in the food.
Studies have indicated that the B12 analogs in algae and tempeh are not bioavailable to the human body – blood levels of the nutrient did not change even after algae or tempeh were added to the diet.
Even worse, these B12 imposters can actually inhibit the absorption of true vitamin B12 as the result of a competitive situation in the digestive system. This puts those that avoid animal foods at an even greater risk for deficiency!
What About Hindu Vegans Who Have No B12 Deficiency?
Proponents of the B12 in plant foods myth like to point out that Hindus from India do not seem to suffer from any B12 deficiency despite their diet which includes no animal foods.
However, what is conveniently left out of the discussion is that vegan Hindus that move to England quickly develop B12 deficiency symptoms with no change in diet.
Why?
This is because, in India, the plant foods consumed by vegans include many insects and insect larvae due to the lack of pesticide use and inefficient cleaning methods. In England, insects and their residues are completely removed from plant foods before they are consumed, thus removing the tiny and yet plentiful animal foods that were serving to preserve the Hindu vegans’ health in their homeland.
What About B12 Supplements?
It is always best to seek nutrients from whole food sources first. However, in the case of B12, there are many ways absorption can be inhibited and so sometimes supplementation becomes necessary.
The pathways for the uptake of this critical nutrient are very complicated and very common physical issues such as reduced stomach acid, compromised protein digestion, lack of pancreatic enzymes and autoimmune disorders can cause disruption in the absorption process.
Supplementation with either the crystalline form of B12 or even better, plentiful servings of foods rich in B12 such as liver and eggs can typically resolve the situation.
References
(1) Myths of Vegetarianism
(2) Vegetarian Myths
(3) Vitamin B12 Food Sources
(3) Vitamin B12 from Algae Appears Not to be Bioavailable
(4) Vitamin B12: Plant Sources, Requirements, and Assay
(5) B12 Deficiency
Sarah Pope has been a Health and Nutrition Educator since 2002. Her work is dedicated to helping families effectively incorporate the principles of ancestral diets within the modern household. She is a sought after lecturer around the world for conferences, summits, and podcasts.
Her work has been covered by major media including USA Today, ABC, NBC, and many others.
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Does liver have to be eaten raw to get B12 from it?
There is still plenty of B12 in cooked liver … but raw is awesome .. I would recommend the raw desiccated liver powder from grassfed cows here on my Resources page. A very painless and nutrient dense way to get your B12 (especially for your children if they won’t eat organ meats).
https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/resources/#supplements
Thanks for your quick reply! I tried a little chunk of raw grassfed liver yesterday (it had been frozen for well over 14 days). It didn’t really taste that bad. I know I could easily stomach frozen raw liver ‘pills’ !! Love you Sarah! Keep up the good work. I really appreciate your honesty even though you get so much persecution. I have watched all your videos and read your blog every day. You have taught me so much! God bless.
That is a great way to get your liver too. I only like liver as pate … can’t handle beef liver. Just too strong tasting but you can take the frozen liver chunks as you describe or the desiccated powder no problem. There is no reason to not incorporate liver into the diet and B12 is so very very important to health. A missing link for many searching for optimal wellness.
i also like to put the liver in my beef or pork patties and cook the former medium rare, so that some of the liver is still on the less cooked side 😉
and thank you for linking to the arguments that vegans made here about B12–i find that i’m less articulate when i’m being challenged and it’s my goal to have studies and info like this at my fingertips so that i can take people on!
oh! the vegans! i worry for them…
Thanks for the info. I had wondered about the B12 produced by bacteria and that found in algae. Vegans are so convinced these are viable sources of B12 that it does make one wonder.
I wonder if you could answer a question for me, though. Liver is so high in B12, is it possible to overdose if you have liver every day? Like if I was taking liver capsules or something? I don’t want to do anything that would stress my kidneys.
Does eating a diet high in B12 help clear up acne? Any ideas on foods that might help clear up acne?
Thanks
Fermented cod liver oil does wonders for the skin! My teenager swears by it 🙂
I am interested in trying FCLO to help with my skin. I’ve never had acne in my life and at age 25 started having a lot of skin problems. I’m almost 30 and still having problems. Anyway, I’m wondering if FCLO replaces fish oil supplements? I take krill oil everyday. Would I stop taking this if I start taking FCLO?
Thanks for the reply Sarah, I was trying to cod liver oil from Green pastures but the order did not go through on the website.
I don’t know about B12 to clear acne but fclo does help clear up acne. My daughter has had terrible acne but when we started taking the cod liver oil she cleared right up. When she forgets to take it her acne comes back but as soon as she takes it again she clears within a couple of days.
My husband, who is a pharmacist, thinks it is the Vitamin A in the FCLO. I never wanted her on the “fake” A products like RetinA because of the scary side effects so I’m happy this works so well for her.
I can also attest to Fermented Cod Liver Oil clearing up my skin problems. It only took 2-3 months to really start working for me and now 1 year + later I haven’t had any problems. Also, I went for a facial the other day (a Christmas gift) and the technician (not sure what her title was) said she had never seen such healthy skin- after she looked at it under her special lights- whatever they were… (Hoping she doesn’t say that to all of her clients 🙂 ). She then asked me what I did and was convinced of the Vitamin A healing my skin and said- well, whatever you’re doing – don’t stop!
We use Cod Liver Oil but not fermented – do you think this makes a difference?
Getting off all processed foods, especially pasteurized dairy, cleared up my son’s acne before we even started taking the cod liver oil.
My kids had really outstanding results by taking vitamin B5 for acne. Also known as Pantothenic Acid. Five hundred milligrams was the largest pill I could find. You will need 1000 to 2000 mg per day. You should notice a difference in your skin after about a month, and then ongoing as you keep taking it.
Animal liver is full of toxins, right? So if you consume the liver then are you also consuming the leftover toxins from the animal?
Also, I know it’s preferable to get bio-available food sources of vitamins, but might it be beneficial to supplement with methycobalamin B12?
Liver is NOT a storage organ for toxins, it merely filters them so getting liver from clean,
grassfed cattle is a healthy choice.
Thanks for the clarification Sarah. I think it’s also important to mention that “grassfed” doesn’t necessarily mean that the animal was fed grass from start to finish in its life, it could have been fed grass once and then put onto a diet of grains from my understanding. The animal should be “Grass-Finished” — fed grass through its entire life.
Great article, I supplement with Jarrow Formula’s Methylcobalamin B12 5000 mcg at least once per day because I don’t get enough from dietary sources. I did notice a difference in my energy levels and ability to focus after a few weeks of consistent use. When I can budget the grass-finished liver I may drop the supplementation.
Yes, some are warping the grassfed term and claiming that all beef is grassfed. Cattle that are finished on the feedlot on GMO corn/soy feed are not grassfed, even if they grazed before they got to the feedlot!
Can you explain this further? Or link to a source which explains it? I often cite liver as a healthy food, but really have no explanation when people argue that liver can’t be healthy because it filters toxins. Air filters, water filters, vacuum filters….all get filthy after a while of filtering out pollutants. I know the liver is much more complex, but how does it remain clean after all the years filtering toxins?
Fabulous article! I did not know about the insects and insect larvae on plant foods in India accounting for the lack of B12 deficiency. So interesting!
It’s also my understanding that many Hindus eat ghee, yogurt and paneer.
Yes, I’m referring in this post to the vegan ones. There are plenty that are vegetarian, not vegan too.
I take a sublingual methyl B12. Is the absorption of the sublingual better?
yes as it goes right into blood stream. if it goes thro gut i will not all go where it needs to. some is distroyed. however there is one b12 that comes from animal sourse .adenosylcobalamin find it there are some supplaments. I notice my hair grew thicker in 2 months with this. hair has always been thin even back when i was a kid and ate meat. I only eat eggs now. no other animal products as I can’t do even raw milk products becuas eof casin. Bee sting alergy shot which are under vacc messed me up as kid and then adult when I got them again with milk products. I know cleanse…can’t right now Im nursing. someday i will and hpope I can do raw milk then.
I have an autoimmune disorder compounded by extreme heavy metal poisoning and have been rebuilding and healing my gut with the GAPS diet and intramuscular injections of adenosylcobalamin daily when my ND and I discerned I was not absorbing the sublingual B12 supplements. It was amazing how my hair became so thick and actually started showing body and curl! Something I never ever knew it had. My energy level is much much better as well. It is a bit of an extra step to do the injections but I have been able to continue the injections even when I travel. By car I lug my coolers packed with frozen broth and soups too. 🙂 We usually rent through RBO so there is a kitchen to prepare our food and keep as close to a GAPS diet as I possibly can.
I’m ashamed to admit that when we butchered our grass fed steer I gave most of the liver to the dog. I saved some of it but it’s frozen in big chunks. (I was surprised to find that a cow’s liver is HUGE.) I’d like to know more about eating fozen liver pills. How many would be good to eat? Would you eat one a day or do you just choke down a handful once a year? I hate the taste of liver. Haven’t found a good way to disguise it either.
Vicki, you might try this:
– chop liver into small 1/2 inch pieces and soak overnight in lemon juice with a little water to help neutralize the taste
– freeze in a pyrex bowl or jar between layers of natural parchment paper to keep them from sticking to each other
– partially thaw 3-5 pieces at a time every morning; liver thaws very quickly so this takes only a few minutes
– put them on the back of your tongue and swallow with your favorite beverage – quick down the hatch!
Another thought: my husband despises liver as well, but he loves the pate I make because I use lots of other yummy ingredients like sauteed mushrooms, fresh basil and rosemary, bacon and bacon fat, butter, onions, garlic, sea salt, etc.
LOL I did the exact same thing, except from two steers. The dogs sure ate good! Now I wish I would have at least tried it. I’m not a liver person but I could probably do the pills.
Thanks, I liked the part about “insects and insect larvae”, Now it makes sense. I suppose primates consume insects along with their fruit. I wonder if cows also eat insects when eating grass. What about Adam and Eve, if their fruit wasn’t sprayed, did they also consume insects?
Another great post, Sarah. In an effort to get more organ meats for my daughter who is healing well from rheumatoid arthritis, I scored an awful lot of offal from a grassfed beef farmer. We got pancreas, kidney, brain, heart, oxtail, tongue….
So. Okay. How do I now prepare these foods in such a way that my family will eat and swallow? Do you have recipes for sausage, haggis type stuff, or other ideas?
There are some great cookbooks for this, like Odd Bits by Jennifer McLagan and the series of Whole Beast nose-to-tail books by Fergus Henderson. Many old cookbooks have organ recipes — even my 1964 edition of Joy of Cooking is loaded with them. Or just Google by ingredient and see what you get.
I live in India and most vegetarians here consume dairy and eggs, there are no insects on the produce here unless it’s from an organic farm which is rare. The use of pesticides is way over the top ridiculous. Non organic produce is completely unsafe. The farmers have no idea how to read instructions for pesticides and so sometimes use wrong amounts and even the wrong pesticide… A friend of mine is a mango farmer and when I asked him does he use pesticides he answered ‘of course!!, it’s a commercial venture and everyone does it!’ Pesticides banned in other countries like the USA are used liberally here. They even spray bananas just for the heck of it.
My (Indian) friends Auntie however is vegetarian but consumed a litre of raw milk a day. She’s still alive at 106 and is in the guiness book of records for still having all her teeth in tact at 100 or 103… Anyway she’s the oldest known living person with all her teeth.
Gut bacteria I think does play a role in proper absorption of B12 from animal foods, though.
My daughter was seriously B12 deficient as a toddler, despite that she ate lots of grass-fed beef and eggs. We knew from blood tests that her body was unable to absorb or make use of the B12.
We did GAPS with her and have been working on fermented foods since then. She is no longer deficient, to my knowledge. She made huge developmental leaps that her doctor felt were related to B12 after GAPS. I have read that another early sign of B12 deficiency is not remembering your dreams…and she now tells me about vivid ones she has had (she is almost 5).
So if your gut flora is disturbed you may not be able to benefit from the animal foods…both are important.
Also, if you have the MTHFR mutation as I do, you need to take a methyl version of B12 for it to absorb. I am new to this so cannot explain well, but you can google MTHFR and B12 to read more about it. More and more people are testing positive for this mutation which can be very bad if left undiagnosed. I also have to take a methyl version of folate as well, for life.
Hi Sarah, Thanks for this post. Do you have any information about how well we absorb the b vitamins from kombucha? The store bought version I buy lists a pretty significant amount of b, including b 12. I drink quite a bit of it and assume it’s a good back up when I am not eating much in the way of organs. What do you think, is this a usable form for my body? Thanks very much!
Vitamin D is another classic example of a deficiently that (in general) has to be addressed via animal protein. It can be obtained from the sun, however in Northern climates in the winter it becomes a big problem. For African Americans such as myself, and even bigger issue, since we can’t get it from the sun. Nonetheless, Wild Caught Alaskan Salmon is the most practical way to consistently get it into your diet. Another way is cod liver oil, but it has a horrible taste, although they are making flavored cod liver oil now. I have optimal vitamin d levels of 46.5, whereas most African Americans score in the teens or even single digits, and lighter skinned Americans often score in the low 20’s. When you get below 20 you are in that danger zone. I wrote a blog article on it : http://www.gaiahealthblog.com/2012/03/06/a-case-for-quality-animal-protein-optimal-vitamin-d-levels-from-salmon/
Hi Sarah
we have been bone brothing and as we live in Greece we have pretty healthy food, and we can get very fresh, wild goat and naturally raised sheep. However all the beef comes from Holland and it is probably not grass fed, they are exporting huge quantities of beef at lower prices to big supermarkets. These are the bones we have been making broth with. Our dilemma, better not eat broth at all or use these beef bones anyway, we do ozone them first.
the bones we get for free, no one else uses them here. The goat does not have bones that we can buy for bones only cuts which have bones but they are very expensive.
Thank you
How do you ozone bones??
We have an ozonator, they are quite common and reasonably cheap here in Europe. it is a little box that when plugged in produces ozone, it has a plastic tube with a stone diffuser on the end. this you put in your water and it cleans the water of microbes, parasites, viruses, and changes some metals, it gets rid of chlorine in the water too. After about 5 mins the ozone diminishes in the water, which is now purified, but if you are doing ozone therapy you have to drink the water right away.
SO, getting to your question, when you want to clean vegetables or chicken , meat bones etc you put them in a basin of water and ozone it for 5 to 10 mins and voila!! everything is clean!! Debatable how much it removes of antibiotics, hormones in meat which is why I want to know how safe it is to make bone broth from cows that come from who knows where and are fed who know what??!!!etc
however the bruise shown can be low vit c. i bruise easy if I don’t take 2000 of c everyday.
I have to respectfully disagree with some of your info. I believe yes there is a good deal of b12 deficiency going on but Come on the Hindu Indians eat enough bugs unbeknownst to them to keep levels up? That to me is completely ubsurd. Thank you but I will continue on my journey in vegetarianism and keep taking my b12 and using my nutritional yeast with no problems and no deficiencies unlike some of my meat eating friends and family 🙂