What are the best green-light (whole food plant-based) sources of vitamin B12?
The reason you have to take most B12-fortified foods three times a day is because it takes your B12 receptors at least about 4 hours to unload their cargo and be ready for the next tiny dose. At huge doses, like in the supplements and Leafside you actually end up largely bypassing the receptor system so you can do once a day (and for big enough supplemental doses once a week), but for the tiny amounts found in most fortified foods, like the nutritional yeast, and breakfast cereals, and plant-based meats and milks you have to get that 190% in three separate servings throughout the day.<
I mentioned a few nutritional yeast brands in the video. Here are a few more with their serving sizes for B12 content:
• Lotus (Australia & New Zealand): 1 tsp 3x/day
• Marigold Engevita (UK): 2 tsp 3x/day
• Anthony’s Premium (Canada): 1 tsp 3x/day
• Hoosier Hill Farm (Canada): 1 tsp 3x/day
This is the third in a five-part video series on B12. Check out:
• The Symptoms of Vitamin B21 Deficiency (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/the-symptoms-of-vitamin-B12-deficiency)
• The Optimal Vitamin B12 Dosage for Adults (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/the-symptoms-of-vitamin-B12-deficiency)
• The Optimal Vitamin B12 Dosage for Kids, Pregnancy, and Seniors (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/the-optimal-vitamin-B12-dosage-for-children-pregnancy-and-seniors)
• The Best Type of Vitamin B12: Cyanocobalamin or Methylcobalamin? (http://nutritionfacts.org/video/the-best-type-of-vitamin-B12-cyanocobalamin-or-methylcobalamin)
You can find all of these videos in a digital download here (https://drgreger.org/collections/downloads/products/b12-recommendations-digital), along with Do Vitamin B12 Supplements Cause Acne? (https://nutritionfacts.org/video/do-vitamin-b12-supplements-cause-acne/) and Do Vitamin B12 Supplements Cause Bone Fractures and Lung Cancer? (https://nutritionfacts.org/video/do-vitamin-b12-supplements-cause-bone-fractures-and-lung-cancer/). And my recommendations are on my Optimum Nutrition (https://nutritionfacts.org/optimum-nutrient-recommendations/) page.
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Want to get a list of links to all the scientific sources used in this video? Click on Sources Cited at https://nutritionfacts.org/video/friday-favorites-the-healthiest-food-sources-of-vitamin-b12. You’ll also find a transcript and acknowledgements for the video, my blog and speaking tour schedule, and an easy way to search (by translated language even) through our videos spanning more than 2,000 health topics.
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-Michael Greger, MD FACLM
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Cyanocobalamine Hydroxocobalamine Adrenosolcobalamine Methylcobalamine
"the 4 types of B12, their absorbsion, and storage outside and inside your body, dont care your feeling about b12 tho" i like saying it that way to carnist lol
droping the 4 b12 type to carnit then "im not serious about nutritions im vellly defichienzy"
alot of carnist dont even know what b12 they get (often cyanocobalamine from the suplement they give to cattle : the cheapest possible)
These brands are no available in the UK, so I'll stick to my vegan supplement each morning.
I wonder if home grown microgreens grow those beneficial B12 producing bacteria.
Wow, ive been taking a 2000 mcg daily for the past 6 months, i miss read the recommendation… wont hurt i guess.
Not good for IBD right?
Thank you for listing and comparing different brands. I have tried several of these. Also, I never knew what "unfortified" meant as I always assumed all nooch contained Vit B12. Thank you.
I will stick to vit B12 liquid from vimergy. I understand it’s not in our foods….I’m healed now … I don’t listen to this internet stuff…especially studies
Hah, people who eat a diverse diet without pointless restrictions don’t have to worry about B12.
What about buying 100mcg tablets and take 1/4th of the tablet once a day? It's going to be 25mcg per day, should cover it and just 10 times the RDA. Thank you for the video!
I have never understood the appeal of fortified foods. Just take a supplement. It is cheap and convenient and you don't have to think about it every time you buy new foods.
What bout duckweed?
I only buy unfortified nutritional yeast because I don't want the folic acid.
Surprising Fuhrman’s brand wouldn’t be fortified
Chlorella has methalcabalamin.
Very useful information. Thank you.
Goddamnit, eat a small piece of beef liver once a month
beef liver, salmon, tuna.
B12 is also said to be in "dirt". Meaning to me, if I eat from my own garden without washing first, I also get B12. Weeds are often undervalued. I like f.e. dandilion leaves, stinging nettle leaves, goutweed….
Thanks Dr gregor. I have shifted to vegan diet but not consuming any b12 supplement yet. Now will start. ❤
Hi Doc. Your website on Ads. for this video has an ERROR. It says symptoms for B21 deficiency vice B12 deficiency. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Too bad that stuff is fkn inedible disgustingness.
Very useful. I think, since B12 is water soluble, I'll resume taking a sublingual supplement as insurance, because I'm not diligent about checking fortifications of foods I buy and don't use nutritional yeast daily, as required by Vegan Law, LOL. Thanks for posting!
Meta-analysis don't show benefit in take b12 for prevention supplements at risk popolation. Like animal products aslo no low dose supplements can increase cancers.
Case report that have giant bias risk are NOT a valid scientific evidence for general popolation.
Good information Dr. Greger
I just found out a few days ago my nooch doesn't contain any b12. Bummer. Thankfully I also take unsweetened fortified soy milk and the occasional b12 supplement. I guess i'll make sure to take my supplement for now. Thank you.
Your vids are amazing❤
Cow meat
My dad is 81 and have never been a big meat eater, and even quit dairy a couple years ago, so I’ve been little concerned lately since I heard that elderly need even more B12. So was Happy when his doctor after a blood test said he needed a concentrated b12 supplement. Good to know for the day I (hopefully) get to that age myself. 🙂
Walmart's own "Great Value" store brand of nutritional yeast claims to have 2.2 mcg of B12 per tablespoon. Considering the ubiquity of Walmart stores, this might be the most commonly available nooch of all. I love the stuff on my salad, so I get way more than enough this way.
Unfortunately that food company is not organic so it's full of pesticides and herbicides.
I would add that a B12 supplement or B12-fortified foods are needed by anyone on a vegan diet OR anyone 50 years of age or older. The body's ability to absorb B12 declines with age, so older people need a supplement regardless of their diet.
Thank you, I use braggs on my 5 grain cereal. I didn't know I needed a supliment too since I am 66. Thanks for all the great info.
Honest question, because I never understood the hesitancy to take a B12 supplement: whats the difference between taking a supplement yourself and eating a food where the manufacturer has presumably added some B12 powder? Just sounds like you don’t want to personally confront or handle the supplement yourself. I personally take 2000 mcg of B12 once per week, and regularly eat nutritional yeast and B12-fortified soymilk
50 mcg a day is ALOT of b12
Uh-Ohhhh. Another deficiency highlighted when you are vegan/vegetarian and your wonderful 'healthy" that diet leaves you high and dry on the B12 side – not to mention the other shortages you will experience. Because the main sources of B12 are fish, meat, poultry, eggs and dairy – funny that…
I have the Frontier Brand and it does not show it has fortified ingredients added yet it has multiple B vitamins in the nutritional panel. Are those naturally occurring? Confused a bit on that. I haven’t developed a fondness for the taste when I sprinkle it on pasta etc.
Love the side by side comparisons of the nutritional yeast! We could see eating a teaspoon or tablespoon of nutritional yeast a few times daily, however not sure how you would use 1/4 cup functionally… Its so salty!
Is that all spirulina that blocks b12 uptake, or just certain ones? 😮
Didn't Braggs nootch get a recall? I swear the search engines are gaslighting me.
Thank you <3
How about fermented rice? Why no one talks about it? It will be natural rather than taking supplements. We can make it ourselves by soaking cooked rice in water overnight.
Just eat more meat. Stop believing the bullshit about meat being dangerous. So many people, including myself, are getting incredibly healthy on a meat based diet.
Or you can continue eating grass and taking 10 supplements pills a day and pretend that's a healthy sustainable diet, it's up to you.
One tablespoon of nutritional yeast , three times a day. thats EVERY meal, tasting of nutritional yeast, EVERY day. OR two tiny pills once a week… seems a no brainer, the cost alone would make the yeast completely uncompetitive against the supplement. what am i missing?
Thanks
I tried following your advice on eating, and it nearly killed me. I switched to keto 3 years ago, and I feel fantastic.
b12 are in eggs meat fish
I have had low B12 to the point of tingling in my feet. I have been on injections, and oral supplements. ALL of them have made my skin and scalp break out with painful sores. I have had the cyanocobalamin & adenosylcobalamin. Why is this happening? Obviously I need B12, I am not vegetarian or vegan. I am at a loss. My Drs have no answers, or want to help me figure it out.
TIA
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Hi Dr. Gregor. I wish you would recommend a vitamin company that has the certifications you recommend. I cannot find any that are certified.
what about seaweed and mushrooms?
Why would any nooch not be fortified nowadays? Given who mostly eats it.
😂
I had a severe B12 deficiency that caused sarchopenia, and also recurrent pharyngo-amygdalitis, due severe intestinal malabsorption. When taking B12 i improved only when taking C vitamin or lemon juice. Recent studies show it was because B12 absorption increased exponentially due stomach acidity because it works as a catalyst for "intrinsic factor" that bonds with B12 vitamin and makes it absorbable.
B complex with lemon juice, salad with vinaigrette or lemonette, will be enough in most of the cases unless intestinal malabsorption. In that case B12 with acid catalyst with be retired, a sweet acid glass of lemon water will suffice.
From the internet:
There are two types of nutritional yeast: unfortified and fortified. Unfortified yeast contains natural B vitamins that the yeast cells produce as they grow but yeast cannot produce B12. Fortified nutritional yeast has synthetic B vitamins (including B12, commonly cyanocobalamin) added to it.
The methyl version of b12 is naturally occurring and thus the recommended version vs the cyano b12 which is synthetic and contains trace amounts of cyanide which some bodies cannot break down/detoxify efficiently. This is outlined in Dr. Berg June 2023 YouTube video about the types of B12.
Why do most people recommending B12 say not to take the Fortified B12?