Vegetarianism: Concerns over Vitamin B12

I am a vegetarian (specifically an lacto-ovo vegetarian, LOV) since birth because my parents are vegetarians, and now by choice by choice.

Under the Vegetarianism sub-header is where I will blog about anything related to vegetarianism, such as health-related readings, recipes, local eateries which I have tried, etc. As for overseas eateries, they will be shared under Travel.

Some quick background first. There are many types of vegetarian diets [1]:

Today's reading is on vitamin B12, triggered by my dinner conversation with my husband. First, he mentioned that vitamin B12 are only found naturally in animal products. Then, he shared his concerns over the lack of vitamin B12 due to our diet, especially more so for our little girl. Although people has raised this concern to me umpteen times during my years as a LOV, I was never concerned enough to read up on it seriously since I felt nothing out of sorts.

Out of concern, I did a web search on vitamin B12 and found a couple of useful resources.  I will share some of the links under the References section of this post. The gist which I gathered is that animals, plants and fungi are incapable of producing vitamin B12. Deficiency of it results in damages to brain and nervous system. It can be found in food because of bacterial symbiosis, since only bacteria and archaea have the enzymes to synthesise it [2][3]. Food sources with vitamin B12 available to vegetarians are fermented food, food fortified with vitamin B12, eggs and diary products [4][5][6].

Conclusion? The effects of deficiency in vitamin B12 is not to be belittled (It concerns the brain and nervous system! That sounds serious enough for me!) Since I am an LOV, I am getting some vitamin B12 (albeit lower than non-vegetarians). Hence, our little girl would probably be getting her vitamin B12 from my breastmilk then. Just got to remind myself to consciously eat food containing vitamin B12 and supplement with multivitamins.

References:

1. Wikipedia - Vegetarianism
2. Wikipedia - Vitamin B12
3. VeganHealth - Vitamin B12: Are you getting it?
4. Healthaliciousness - Top 5 Natural Vegetarian sources of Vitamin B12 (Cobalamin)
5. Healthaliciousness - Vegan Sources of Vitamin B12 (Cobalamin)
6. Vegan Health - More vegan vitamin B12 food sources