Hi Folks!!
    Here is something that just got posted on another list.  Goes contrary
to what I have beleived (and seen!) among vegans and meat eaters.  Any
thoughts?


> << The New England Journal of Medicine (12/7/78, Page 1319) notes that
> Vitamin B-12 is manufactured by microorganisms, making it possible to
> obtain vitamin B-12 from certain seeds and nuts, and from soybean
> products.

> Also vitamin B-12 can be synthesized in the colon. The myth that plants
>do not contain vitamin B-12 has been perpetrated and fostered by vested
>interests. Some plants and fruits that contain amounts of B-12 (cobalt
>containing coordination compound, produced in the normal growth of certain
>microorganisms), are bananas, dates, greens, peanuts, and particularly
>sprouts and raw sunflower seeds.

> A deficiency of vitamin B-12, which is a forerunner of pernicious anemia,
>is not necessarily due to dietary inadequacy. A report released from a
>Vitamin B-12 conference stated, "Pernicious anemia appears to arise not
>from shortage in the diet, but from impairment of the ability to absorb
>the vitamin.
>(Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 71st Scientific Meeting, London
>School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Jan.5, 1952, page 295).

>In conclusion, we do not need animal products to obtain vitamin B-12.The
>bacteria of our intestines create vitamin B-12. The body can store from
>two to eight years of this vitamin. Under one microgram (a millionth of
>a gram) is needed daily. Some studies indicate less.

>Almost all cases of anemia and B-12 deficiency occur in meat-eaters, not
>vegetarians or frugivores.

>The body has many substances that are engaged in active transport of
>nutrients from one medium to another through separating membranes. The
>transport mechanism for vitamin B-12 is called intrinsic factor (a
>chemical secreted by the stomach.) It is a loss of this factor that
>accounts for most B-12 deficiency and anemia.

>Stomach disease interferes with the production of the intrinsic factor,
>and kidney or liver disease may increase the interference of normal
>absorption.

>PS: Vitamin B-12 is made so abundantly that is hard not to get enough
>from "contamination" alone! Actually, we can meet our needs ample for
>this vitamin from bacterial by-products in our lower intestines just as
>most other animals meet their needs.

>One milligram of B-12 will last us over two years, and healthy individuals
>usually carry around a five year supply. Our needs are so minute they are
>measured in picograms (billionths of a gram) and micrograms (millionths
>of a gram). Don't worry -- be happy!
>Cordially -- H >>

And Cordially From Me, Too!!!    ~~ Liza May