Recently, a Chinese woman suffered from B12 deficiency due to a vegan diet for three years. The Pure Plant Action Alliance believes that vegans are indeed reminded to supplement the correct nutrients, but it also believes that B12 deficiency is not exclusive to vegans, and meat eaters should also pay attention.
Recently, it was reported that a 42-year-old woman in Hangzhou, China, suffered from severe vitamin B12 deficiency. She developed symptoms such as numbness in her feet, weakness in her limbs, and walking like walking on cotton. She was finally diagnosed with subacute combined degeneration of the spinal cord. The woman had been on a vegan diet for about 3 years, which attracted attention from the outside world. The lack of correlation between veganism and B12. The Vegan Action Alliance pointed out that this case reminds vegans to pay attention to B12 supplements, but meat-eating people should also pay attention to their B12 nutritional status.
Vitamin B12 is an important nutrient for maintaining normal hematopoiesis, DNA synthesis and nervous system function. The Vegan Alliance stated that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) pointed out that natural vitamin B12 is mainly found in animal foods. Therefore, vegans who do not consume animal foods at all are indeed more likely to have insufficient intake if they do not use B12 supplements or B12 fortified foods regularly.
The Pure Plant Alliance cited the British EPIC-Oxford study and analyzed 689 men, including 226 vegetarians, 231 lacto-ovo vegetarians, and 232 vegans. The serum B12 was less than 118 pmol/L as the deficiency standard. The results showed that 52% of the vegans, 7% of the vegetarians, and 1 vegetarian met the deficiency standard; the average serum B12 concentration was also the lowest in the vegan group. Research shows that if a reliable source of B12 is not established, vegans do need to pay special attention to their B12 nutritional status.
The Pure Plant Alliance reminds that "eating animal foods" does not mean that you will not be deficient in B12. After the human body ingests B12, it must be absorbed through the stomach and small intestine. The NIH points out that the elderly, patients with atrophic gastritis, patients with some gastrointestinal diseases, and those who have undergone stomach or intestinal surgery may suffer from B12 deficiency due to reduced absorption capacity.
The case of a 42-year-old woman suffering from neurological disease due to severe B12 deficiency does remind vegans to establish a stable and reliable source of B12. However, if this is extended to "only vegetarians will be deficient in B12", it is not consistent with current medical information.
On the other hand, the B12 risks of a vegan diet are not unmanageable. The Pure Plant Alliance cited the 2024 "Nutrition Bulletin" study, which found that the overall B12-related indicators of vegan adults were lower than those of meat eaters. Further analysis found that the serum B12, active B12 and other functional biological indicators of vegans who used B12 supplements were improved compared with those who did not supplement.
The Pure Plant Alliance stated that for vegans, B12 supplements and B12-fortified foods are important and reliable sources; in recent years, there have also been studies on the opportunity to obtain B12 from plant-based diets (such as nori or chlorella). For lacto-ovo vegetarians and non-vegetarians, just because the diet contains B12 does not mean that they are not at risk of deficiency. The elderly, those with gastrointestinal diseases, those who have undergone gastrointestinal surgery, or those who have long-term use of drugs that may affect B12 absorption also deserve to be vigilant.
The Pure Plant Alliance believes that from a medical perspective, the key to preventing B12 deficiency is not just to distinguish between "vegetarian or meat-eating", but to understand whether you are getting enough, whether your body can absorb it normally, and whether you have other risk factors. If symptoms such as numbness of hands and feet, limb weakness, abnormal gait, or unexplained anemia occur for a long time, you should seek professional medical evaluation; no matter what diet you adopt, establishing correct nutritional knowledge, taking appropriate supplements, and undergoing testing as needed are important ways to reduce the risk of B12 deficiency and nerve damage.
