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I just don't get this whole B-12 thing. Vegans are supposed to be universally woefully deficient in it, which means that non-vegans are fine, which means that we are supposed to eat animal-related products to obtain it. Well, where do these animals get their B-12 from? Other animals? Nope. Vegetation and the like. I'm not sure if, say, a deer has ever been tested on its B-12 levels, but considering the animal is healthy, I'm sure the levels are fine. So what gives? Why are humans so apparently condemned to have to take B-12 supplements? And what exactly is in these supplements, anyway? How did humans survive millennia ago without B-12 supplements?
I have a really hard time digesting the thinking that even with eating what is (believed to be) the optimal way of eating, vegan raw foods, something as important as B-12 is missing. I hate having my non-raw-vegan friends saying I need to eat animal to be healthy and get enough B-12. It just doesn't add up in my nutritional philosophy.
So, assuming animals are not B-12 deficient, and that humans were not B-12 deficient back in 'the old days', what is going on? Does a human have to start out raw vegan from birth to be able to have optimal B-12 levels in the body, which remain through life, and that starting off SAD depletes these levels and reaches a point of no return where we have to supplement? I just can't easily accept that the healthiest eater in the world still has to supplement on something because the body can't get it from the food. This just doesn't make sense, at least not to my (admittedly limited) nutritional knowledge.
As MysticTree said, most meat eaters are deficient too. The problem isn't that we can't get sources of b12 to eat, it's that we can't absorb it because our health is compromised. I don't pretend to know everything about the b12 debate, but I'm betting that the problem is our abused digestive tract. It's even possible that people with optimally functioning digestive tracts and good levels of gut flora can produce all the b12 they need. Animals aren't b12 deficient because they never put the crap in their bodies that most of us have done since birth and messed up the inner workings. Cleaning up your digestive tract is the first step towards fixing b12 deficiency.