"One of the biggest issues plaguing vegans today, is the issue on Vitamin B12 (or the lack thereof) in a vegan diet. This is an issue that surfaces more and more in the media lately and [uninformed] people use this as an excuse not to go vegan. They claim that if humans were meant to be total vegetarians, then why can B12 not be obtained from plants and only from meats. Such statements spread from ignorance and cause disinformation that often leads to heated debates. So what is the truth?
Without too long a penning, world experts today claim that B12 is needed for blood formation and cell division, but neither plants nor animals make it and that bacteria are responsible for producing this vitamin. With a little bit of effort and research, one can easily find independent, peer-reviewed rese
arch outcomes that confirm this claim.
So why then are there so many differing articles and “finds” on the matter. Well, simply because not all plants everywhere are exposed to this bacteria and the only way animals can “have” this vitamin, is if they have eaten something that contained this bacteria. This explains the various results of research conducted under different circumstances, places, etc.
Research also indicates that organically grown plants are a higher and more constant source of Vitamin B12 than fruits and veggies produced commercially. The same goes for animals, even though research has also shown that the commercial meat industry supplies zero B12 due to the animals NOT being exposed to this bacteria. This is nothing new, as this kind of research goes all the way back to 1926.
Therefore, the claim that B12 deficiency is evidence for humans to be omnivores have no foundation and holds no water. The B12 present in plants are totally reliant on how freely the micro fauna and –flora in the ground is allowed to flourish. When these microorganisms are killed off with herbicides and pesticides, the plants will contain very little or no B12." [Quote: Paul J Nel ]
Our body is not designed for eating animals.
The Creator did not give us the right to take the life of our Creator's sentient beings with a soul; and He did NOT design us for this. Just because a person states this is in "holy book", doen't mean it is true. I actually assumed this for 10+ years, but eventually I was willing to question my premise.
Some evidence re. how the body of the human is designed:
"Since we are primates, designed best for a plant predominant diet, many people have a limited capacity to digest animal proteins efficiently. When we eat a diet rich in animal protein, our ability to efficiently cleave all the amino acid bonds may be limited. All the protein may not be totally broken down into its amino acid building blocks. There is evidence that when animal peptides (pieces of partially broken-down proteins) are absorbed. They can lead to the formation of antibodies against themselves. Our immune system will not only attack these foreign proteins, but it can also cross-react, attacking human proteins in the body that resemble the amino acid sequences found on dietary animal proteins.
In other words, because animal proteins closely resemble the amino acid sequences of human body proteins, our own reaction (antibodies) against inadequately broken down proteins (peptides) can also attack our own tissues. Plant proteins are less likely to cause this reaction, even if their peptides pass into the bloodstream, because they bear little resemblance to human proteins. Because we cannot efficiently dissolve animal proteins in the digestive tract and, frequently, consumption exceeds the digestive capacity, more incompletely digested peptides are apt to be absorbed. These peptides also results in the stimulation of unhealthy bacterial flora and the absorption of toxic bacterial by-products, which can create an inflammatory environment and, hence, immune dysfunction." [Quote: http://www.drfuhrman.com/disease/arthritis.aspx ]
