Vitamin B12 (supplements vs. natural food)??
 

Hello everyone,

I'm wondering about the vitamin b12 supplements I believe that that anything processed like that and shoved into a pill is bad for you vs. just getting it from a natural source such as food (shitake mushrooms).

I have recently read that shitake mushrooms have higher ammounts of vitamin b12 than milk and fish.. So I assume it is good to eat raw shitakes in your diet weekly?

Any input would be appreciated

Thanks

Adamanto75

YES, eat real food

I take sublingual B12 supplements when I go mountain climbing -- mostly just for a quick energy boost at high altitude.

But, yes, eat real food -- and, I love this site:
Top 10 Foods Highest in Vitamin B12 (Cobalamin)
GREAT list of Top 10s!

Top 10 for B12:
1: Clams, Oysters, Mussles
2: Liver
3: Caviar
4: Octopus
5: Fish
6: Crab and Lobster
7: Beef
8: Lamb
9: Cheese
10: Eggs

My understanding has been that B12 is animal-exclusive.
I'm actually working on a B12 deficiency -- dangerously low levels.
I was curious so I've been pounding around a bit after reading your post and I find this:
Link to First Site: Mushrooms cultivated on manure enriched compost will contain vitamin B12. If the mushrooms are not over washed before use they will contain some B12. (Yeah. Sounds to me like this is because they still have "animal shiitake" on them...) There is 0.26ug of vitamin B12 in 100g of mushrooms. A serving of 4-6 mushrooms weighs 75g.
Link to Second Site: Assuming that the B12 is an active analogue, it would take anywhere from 7 to 326 cups of mushrooms to meet the RDA. (Sounds like a shiitake-load of mushrooms! And nobody likes a recycled joke...)
Link to Third Site: If they are Inactive Analogues they are worse than useless, possibly harmful.
Link to Fourth Site: Inactive B12 analogues in plant foods compromise the accuracy of traditional methods used to determine the vitamin B12 amounts and activity of a food. Bacterial contamination of a food can create the false impression that all such foods contain B12 analogues. The only reliable way to determine if a food is a source of active B12 is to test various batches of that food to see if it reduces methyl malonic acid (MMA) levels in humans. (It appears that no such study has been done...)

Personally, I love me a good siitake but I'm guessing you might wanna bail them -- at least as a plan for a source of B12.

Are you vegetarian/vegan? If not, start pounding the clams!

Personally I think the supplements only work on those people who exercise daily and not on those who exercise once or twice a fortnight because the supplements give extra protein which is use for generating energy during exercise and for those people who do not exercise daily the natural food is best because it do not have any chemical or added preservatives in it, foods like skim milk, honey with milk or bread, egg.

That list of top ten sources of B-12 is nice. But it looks like fortified breakfast cereal is a good deal, and it's also vegetarian!