From: KPJ (kpj@sics.se)
Date: Thu May 16 2002 - 06:00:39 MDT
It appears as if Harvey Newstrom <mail@HarveyNewstrom.com> wrote:
|
|Historically, tempeh, femented veggies, tofu, seaweed and processed
|cheeses (or soy cheeses for the vegans) all contain bacteria or yeasts
|that produce vitamin B12. (B12 deficiency is what causes anemia.) In
|former times, vegetarian monks or buddhists or just plain poor people
|who didn't have meat got plenty of vitamin B12. It is only with modern
|sanitation that we have eliminated bacteria and yeasts in foods. The
|foods are now so sterile that they don't contain any contaminants that
|produce vitamin B12. As such, it is now no longer possible to get
|vitamin B12 from perfectly sterile food. This only affects full vegans,
|by the way. Vegetarians who eat dairy products or eggs get plenty of
|animal B12 that way.
Vitamin B12 is also important in maintaining the nervous system. Nerves are
surrounded by an insulating fatty sheath comprised of a complex protein called
myelin. B12 plays a vital role in the metabolism of fatty acids essential for
the maintainence of myelin. Prolonged B12 deficiency can lead to nerve
degeneration and irreversible neurological damage.
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