"Light Cutter" > wrote in message
...
> Vitamin B-12 (Cobalamin) is not bioavailable in plant form.
Actually, it is...
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Mozafar, A.
Enrichment of some B-vitamins in plants with application of organic
fertilizers.
Plant and Soil 167:305-311, 1994.
Organic food suppliers often claim that organic foods grown on soils with
natural fertilizers have a better nutritional value than foods grown with
inorganic fertilizers. Although past studies, such as those published by
Gray and Daniel in 1959 or by Leclerc and colleagues in 1991, have shown
that organically grown produce had more vitamins, it was unclear if the
plants synthesized them or got them from the soil. In order to test the
origins of vitamins in plants, this researcher selected vitamin B12 for
study. This was because plants cannot manufacture it but microorganisms can.
In addition, large amounts of B12 are found in animal manure, a commonly
used organic fertilizer. This study looked at whether plants, specifically
soybeans, barley, and spinach, grown on soils amended with pure B12 or B12
in manure would have a higher B12 content than plants grown with inorganic
fertilizers. All plants contained a minimal amount of B12 in the
inorganically fertilized soil. Barley showed a threefold increase of B12 in
the harvested grain in both the pure B12 treatment (10.8 ng/g dry weight)
and the manure treatment (9.1 ng/g dry weight). In spinach leaves, B12
increased twofold in the manure treatment (17.8 ng/g dry weight) and 34-fold
in the pure B12 treatment (235 ng/g dry weight). Soybeans had a similar, but
not as dramatic trend. In addition, soil samples in fields receiving manure
over several years contained more B12 than those only receiving inorganic
fertilizers. These results show that B12 levels can be increased in
organically grown food through the use of manure fertilizers. This is good
news for vegetarians, who often have trouble getting enough B12 in their
diets. It is also good news for consumers who buy organic food because of
its better nutritional value. While this preliminary trial does seem to
indicate that vitamins can be absorbed from the soil, more studies should be
done with other vitamins to confirm these observations.

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> The best way to get B-12 is from Meat.
http://www.ecologos.org/B-12.htm


A study I found while doing some research:
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/72/3/762

> ... who consumed macrobiotic (vegan type) diets ...
The macrochaotic diet is a particularly horrific diet, consisting of
cooked grains and beans, essentially nothing raw, and no fruit.
It is not representative of a "vegan" diet.

> Results: The control subjects performed better on most psychological tests
> than did macrobiotic subjects with low or normal [sic] cobalamin status.
Then, "normal", i.e. meatarian, cobalamin status did -not- support
better performance.

Laurie