By: Arthur Anderson

Mother Nature has an interesting way of linking us all together.  No, I’m not talking about you and me, I’m talking about man, animals, plants, insects and bacteria.

Humans rely on bacteria in so many different ways.  We’ve talked about the gut biome, but did you know that bacteria are responsible for the production of Vitamin B₁₂.  And only bacteria have the enzymes needed to produce Vitamin B₁₂.

Okay, “So what” you say.  Vitamin B₁₂ is a key vitamin needed for brain and nervous system development in infants and unborn children.  Lack of Vitamin B₁₂ can lead to learning orders in young children.  Vitamin B₁₂ is involved in the metabolism in every cell in the human body.  Deficiency symptoms can include fatigue, poor memory and autoimmune issues.  B₁₂ is absorbed through the stomach and small intestine so adults who have intestinal disorders and adults over 60 have difficulty absorbing B₁₂.

Here’s the good news, Vitamin B₁₂ is readily available in organ meat, seafood and muscle meat.  To meet the minimum RDA requirements for Vitamin B₁₂ you only need to eat about an ounce of shellfish, or about 3 ounces of Pate (organ meat), or 3-4 ounces of fish, or about 5-8 ounces of red meat.

The challenge comes to those who choose to follow strict vegetarian or vegan diets.  For vegetarians who don’t eat fish they would need about 4-7 eggs per day or 16 ounces of cheese per day.  For vegans, your left with eating certain mushrooms at 11 ounces per day.  Most vegetarians, up to 80%, are deficient in Vitamin B₁₂.

There is one other very good source of Vitamin B₁₂, insects, yes insects.  While most, maybe all, of us don’t have the stomach to cook up a batch of crickets or meal worms there are other ways to eat our insects, through flour and premade snacks.  Cricket flour, for example, contains your RDA requirement of Vitamin B₁₂ in one ounce and its packed with protein too.  If you feel adventurous do some web searches you may be surprised how easy it is to get insect products in an edible form and how nutritious they are.

It’s very easy to have Vitamin B₁₂ tested, just ask to add it to your annual blood testing, especially if you follow strict vegetarian or vegan diets.

There you go guys, everything you wanted to know about Vitamin B₁₂ and more.