I don’t need to explain why this is huge!
I don’t need to explain why this is huge!
You don’t need to, but it would be nice if you did.
Plants literally just don’t have B12 vitamin. You can’t have a steady pure-vegan diet without supplements.
Or at least you could not before. Now, once this becomes commercialized, you will be able to just buy a complete diet!
If you get your food from factory farming, you can’t have any diet without B12 supplements.
We killed the bacteria that make B12 in the soil.
The only difference with meat is, the livestock gets the B12-fortified feed. It’s supplementation with extra steps.
There’s nothing natural about it.Is there an advantage of buying ‘artificial’ plants rather than straight up buying vitamins? For me buying special B12 algae would be quite similar to ‘regular’ supplements.
The algae are natural, except they are modified so you can actually absorb the B12 vitamin from them. B12 pills are less appealing within a soup than an algae.
Also, you absorb the vitamins in a natural way, instead of all at once. So it is better for your health.
Supplements are the option you choose only when you have no other, and there is research showing how it is bad for your health.
I’m guessing easier to produce than vitamin pills as well.
If you don’t like pills, there’s also powder, drops etc. that you can take instead and which you can also add to your food or drinks. There’s also vegan milk alternatives and convenience food that already has B12 included.
If I wanted to supply my needs with algae only, I’d probably also want them in a powdered form or similar as fresh algae - even if refrigerated - turn bad pretty quickly.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy if they invented another vegan source for B12, I just don’t see the huge difference or advantage compared to status quo.
The main argument that vegans can’t survive on just a vegan diet, is now moot. Though with the caveat that this is technologically intensive. Also, vegans could technically survive with certain plants like Chlorella.
From my perspective that argument is pretty stupid in the first place and just a smokescreen to object a vegan diet. Those people will either not listen to facts at all or find new reasons to justify an omnivore diet.
A 100% vegan diet shouldn’t be the goal.
Converting 10 people to a 90% vegan diet is more achievable than making 9 people 100% vegan.
you already answered so well, I could’ve saved some time had I noticed it before :)
Anyways, chlorella (to my knowledge) does naturally contain vitamin B12 produced by bacteria in chlorella’s habitats. So even seems completely natural to me.
in short: I assume chlorella is more cost-effective for you and producers, and more aligned with our environment.
When you want to, I can recommend to further look into it, and there probably is a lot I did not mention: Chlorella, in natural circumstances, contains vitamin B12 — seemingly synthesized by bacteriae in chlorella’s habitat — and according to the publication (I linked below) even contains precursors to, ánd vitamin D(2) itself.
It has an outstanding nutrient profile — as mentioned in a previous comment 3g of it fulfills the Reference Daily Intake (RDI) of B12.
I will follow up with a few assumptions mixed with references and a quote from the study regarding advantages of chlorella:
- I see the more natural way of chlorella production as an advantage.
- I assume it grows cost-effective as it “can be mass-cultured” (according to the linked publication).
- It contains a super dense and rich nutrient profile, covering a wide variety of micronutrients as the publication shows — a more convenient view on the (micro-)nutrients and how they relate to RDI can easily get accessed with a (Brave) Leo Community Intelligence prompt (yes, I refer to ‘AI’ that way) or any other Community Intelligence prompt.
- I (not knowing the prices of fabricated supplements) assume it costs less for the consumer to add 3g of algae to the diet than a plethora of pills to cover all the nutrients chlorella provides.
Bonus: As also mentioned in the publication: shiitake and other mushrooms can contain Vitamin D after Sun (or other UV-light exposure). I see a complete plant-based, natural, and vegan diet as perfectly possible and eat that way myself, pretty happily so.
I hope I provided valuable assistance in any way.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7551956/
[1](Bito T, Okumura E, Fujishima M, Watanabe F. Potential of Chlorella as a Dietary Supplement to Promote Human Health. Nutrients. 2020 Aug 20;12(9):2524. doi: 10.3390/nu12092524. PMID: 32825362; PMCID: PMC7551956.)
seemingly synthesized by bacteriae in chlorella’s habitat
Isn’t bacteria (e.g. Propionibacterium freudenreichii) also how vegan B12 is produced already today? So for me personally it’s pretty much the same process as we know it for years without involvement of algae.
Thank you kindly for sharing, I hadn’t considered that! That makes complete sense.
I assume bioavailability might favor the ancient practice of natural symbiosis of bacteria with plants in their natural habitat anyways, and acknowledge we can certainly recreate such environment well to farm vitamin B12 specifically.
The large range of nutrients accounts to me favoring chlorella over other options.
As alluded to in further comments, certain plants do naturally contain vitamin B12 (seemingly produced by bacteria in their environment).
Yeah, I hear that the B12 vitamin amount for mushrooms is unreliable. I am not certain about other plants, or if there is another reliable source.
Fun fact: mushrooms are closer related to animals than to plants.
Man…
Anecdotally:
I have watched a ~3 minute video on B12 availability somewhere within the past 6 months.
It entailed that B12 gets mainly produced by symbiotic plants and used to naturally be in humans’ and plants’ diets. According to the video due to the antibacterial and anti ‘this that and the other’ chemical treatments we treat our produce with, the B12 produced by the bacteria disappeared in our produce.
It absolutely impacted me hearing that (again, according to that video) the B12 in animals and their produce mostly gets added by supplements into their diets (since the plants we feed them don’t contain the B12 vitamins anymore due to pesticides and such) which means (according to the video) most of the “natural” B12 in animals is chemically produced B12 and only B12 of plants which can live symbiotically with certain bacteria contain “natural” vitamin B12.
A new study suggests that Spirulina, long promoted as a nutrient-rich food, may finally overcome one of its biggest nutritional weaknesses. Researchers report that a specially grown form of the blue-green algae can produce biologically active vitamin B12 at levels comparable to beef, a finding that could reshape how scientists think about sustainable nutrition.
The research, published in Discover Food, was led by Dr. Asaf Tzachor of Reichman University together with collaborators from Iceland, Denmark, and Austria. Their team studied a system that uses carefully controlled light to grow what they call photosynthetically controlled Spirulina.
Unlike conventional Spirulina, which mostly contains a pseudo-form of vitamin B12 that humans cannot use, this version produced active B12, the form the body actually needs. According to the researchers, this is the first time biologically active vitamin B12 has been reported in Spirulina.
Vitamin B12 deficiency remains one of the most common micronutrient deficiencies worldwide. More than one billion people are believed to have low levels. The vitamin is essential for DNA production, nerve function, and the formation of red blood cells. Severe deficiency can lead to anemia, nerve damage, memory issues, and developmental problems in infants. Addressing this issue is difficult because most natural sources of B12 come from animal products such as meat and dairy.
Foods such as beef and milk help meet the recommended intake of vitamin B12 (2.4 µg/day), but producing them carries a heavy environmental burden. Ruminant agriculture is linked to high greenhouse gas emissions, land use, water demands, and deforestation. So while animal products remain nutritionally important for many people, expanding their production to fight B12 deficiency comes at a cost.
Spirulina has often been presented as a possible alternative because it is rich in protein, essential amino acids, iron, and other micronutrients. It has also attracted attention for its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and immune-supporting properties. But one major flaw has limited its value as a true substitute for animal-source foods.
Most of the vitamin B12 in traditional Spirulina is pseudo-vitamin B12, also known as cobamide, which is not bioavailable to humans. In other words, it may look like B12 chemically, but it does not solve the deficiency problem.
Thank you! I should have probably included this somewhere.
deleted by creator
Hi, I used 3g of chlorella/day which contains 100% of Reference Daily Intake (RDI) of vitamin B12.
When I received my blood results (circa 7 months ago) the medical practitioner seemed suprised by my — to them seemingly unexpected — b12 scores.
I can fully recommend 3g of chlorella powder a day. I mix it with 3 grams spirulina, ~3g salt, some lemon juice, add cooked water to it and drink it as first drink after rising. The salt and lemon makes it taste more pleasent to me.
P.S. Past week I did an extended mix where I added lime juice, olive oil, and agave syrup. Somehow I truly enjoyed the taste. 😀 🫀 💚
Thank you, that is very useful to know!
Thank you kindly. That was my first ever comment on here, and any Lemmy instance. I hope the further comments I just posted get perceived as constructive as I intended them too. I (just) aim to share valid information.
Oh I like you! Stay awesome!
Thank you <3 You too!
Just drank the extended mix again. The good taste surprised me once again. The different components add interesting layers and blends of taste. The olive oil goes well with the algae. The agave syrup made it feel warm and added sweetness. The citrus juices add freshness.
Neat. My friend said that you don’t really uptake b12 past a certain age anyway. Has anyone else heard that?
No, that sounds very wrong. I am taking a supplement of B12 now though, since it is a risk area for me.
I’d love to have a couple of those reactors to brew some B12.
Exactly my thought. It’s interesting news, but the ability to reliably produce it at the hobbyist/DIY level is what’s crucial to me; otherwise, it might as well be any of the other widely available lab-grown vegan B12 sources.
Me too ! Do you think it can be bought ? Or at least can we find blueprints ?
We probably need some of the original cultivar of algae to grow (clone). I’m not sure if they can be exported (sold) dry.
The application is often called algaculture or algaeculture, but it’s micro in this case, so look for micro-algae.
It is probably a heavily guarded secret. Profits and all.
Imagine you just add Spirolina to your Vegan meal, jot any of that reinforced stuff, and it just works!
seems overlycomplicated better of taking methtylcobalmin
