Vegans and B12 - the facts and the folly.

Do not answer a fool according to his folly. I have had a practical lesson in this proverb. do not argue with vegans. Rationality is like meat in their diet. I have always held veganism is a folly as in any diet that requires supplements. Tell this to the vegans and you will be told it is not so. B12 is bacterial. All diets require supplements. I was tweeted with this nonsense after I gave a quote from an NHS site on B12.

Here are the facts.' Vitamin B₁₂ is one of eight B vitamins; it is the largest and most structurally complicated vitamin. It consists of a class of chemically related compounds (vitamers), all of which show physiological activity. It contains the biochemically rare element cobalt (chemical symbol Co) positioned in the center of a planar tetra-pyrrole ring called a corrin ring. The vitamer is produced by bacteria as hydroxocobalamin, but conversion among different forms of the vitamin occurs in the body after consumption. Only bacteria and archaea have the enzymes needed for synthesizing vitamin B₁₂; no fungi, plants, or animals (including humans) have this capability.

The overwhelming majority of individuals in developed countries obtain adequate dietary vitamin B₁₂ by eating meat from ruminants (eg cows), whose muscle tissue is replete with the vitamin due to their normal gut bacteria synthesizing the vitamin, which they then absorb. Other sources are foods with the vitamin artificially added ("fortified"), intramuscular injection, and vitamin B₁₂ tablets ("supplements") taken either orally or sublingually.'

So it is not a bacterium and those of us with balanced diets do not need supplements.

Vegetarianism I tolerate as an inconvenient fad only requesting the faddists to inform me if they want to enjoy our hospitality. I will not cater for vegans.  It has been pointed out to me that a carnivorous diet was commended to the apostle Peter by heavenly vision which told him all foods are clean.  

I will not answer posts from vegans.