[197] in Vegetarian_Support_Group
Re: more B-12
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Richard D. Hamlin)
Fri Oct 7 19:01:51 1994
To: wendymas@acs.bu.edu
Cc: vsg@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 06 Oct 1994 22:27:58 EDT."
<199410070227.WAA121774@acs4.bu.edu>
Date: Fri, 07 Oct 1994 19:03:56 -0400
From: "Richard D. Hamlin" <rdhamlin@solar-energy.mit.edu>
>O yeah I remembered. There seems to be some study indicating that in
>some group of people B-12 was manufactured in the small intestine.
B12 is produced by the E. Coli bacteria which live in a symbiotic
relationship in the intestines. But researchers say that most of
absorbortion of B12 occurs upstream of where most E. Coli are, so you
can not depend of getting B12 this way.
>In addition, something about the more you give yourself B-12 the more you
>need it and changing to a veg diet reduces the need for B-12 becuase
>it has something to do with the meat.
It has been along time since I read about B12, so I might not have
this just right, but I believe that some researcher theorized that
animal products messes things up some how, so that the E. Coli are
located further along than in vegans. And that vegans may be able to
able to absorb a sufficient quantity of the B12 produced by those
E. Coli. I also remember something about that it may matter whether
you are a life-time vegan or not; that is, someone that used to
consume animal products may not completely recover by becoming vegan.
Anyway, that was the hypothesis, but at the time that I read about it,
it had not been varified experimentally. If anyone knows more about
this or if I happened to recall something incorrectly, let me know.
I have been a vegan for a little less that 3 years now. I have not
worried about dietary B12 yet since I figure I have enough stored up,
but I should consider supplementing my B12 consumption soon.
-Richard
