Vitamin B12 is extremely important for your body. It is an essential vitamin for the cells. Vitamin B 12 is also important for keeping your cells, nerves and DNA healthy. It is also known for improving your energy, mood and memory. Animals products contain this vitamin naturally. But that doesn’t mean that being a non vegetarian you can’t be deficient of this vitamin.
Facts about vitamin B 12
- All seeds contain B 12 since it is necessary for their survival
- B 12 is made by bacteria in soil and is absorbed by plants. This means all plants at a certain growth stage have it
- Animals like cows and sheep have B 12 because they eat plants
- There are a number of other plant based sources of vitamin B 12
- There are even researches which suggest if you have a clean and healthy gut, your body can itself produce enough B 12
Recommended amount of B 12
| Age / life stages | Recommended amount |
| Infant – till ten years of age | 0.5-1.5 mcg |
| Teenagers | 1.8-2.4 mcg |
| Adults | 2.4 mcg |
| Pregnant women | 2.6 mcg |
| Nursing mothers | 2.8 mcg |
Good sources of vitamin B 12
- Freshly set curd
- Is a good source of vitamin 12
- Churn it with a hand blender to get the maximum benefits
- One cup curd has 1.2 mcg vitamin B 12
- The rough absorption of freshly set curd is around 50-70 %
- Homemade paneer
- One cup homemade paneer has 1.1 mcg vitamin B 12
- Fermented millets
- Cooked millets left overnight
- Also called ambli
- One cup fermented contains 0.7 mcg vitamin B 12
- Probiotics
- Probiotics support a heathly gut
- It helps in improving absorption
- Germinated food
- Sprouts are a great source of vitamin B 12
- Sprouts should be added to the diet on a regular basis to ensure sufficient quantity of B 12 in the body
- Nutritional yeast
- One tbsp nutritional yeast contains 4 mcg vitamin B 12
- Spirulina, chlorella, green and purple laver etc are excellent source of vitamin B 12
- Sundried mushrooms
- 50 g sun dried mushrooms contains 100 % RDI
- Fermented vegetables
- Fermented vegetables and tea (kambucha) are an excellent source of vitamin B 12
- Fermented veggies
- 100 g fermented veggies contain 0.8 mcg vitamin B 12
- Green juice
- Wheat grass, barley grass
- One serving of green juice has 0.4 – 0.6 mcg of vitamin B 12