Thanks for the info.

I have come across a coupole of different explanations for this.

One is that your body alters it’s intake based on availablity. When you have a pile of incoming B12 your body need not store as much or maintain a high blood level of it. You are going to keep piling it in.

The other is that the main reason for deficiency is not availability, it is low absorbtion.

Something else is that those who decided how much you should have are not the people who do the actual research, but those who use the research. As with most vitamins we are led to believe that the more the better. Which is almost always not the case. In this way most of the ‘requirement’ levels are way overstated.

There is also the issue of analogues. Heroin addicts are given heroin ‘analogues’ that get them high but also at the molecular level hang on to the receptors much longer than the real heroin molecule. This works to reduce their dependence on the actual heroin, the analogue does not cause the same ‘high’ level of dependence that original does.

Scientists trying to prove that you must eat meat to get B12 use this process to claim that analogue B12, such as spirulina*, is a B12 analogue and it hangs on to the receptor longer, tricking the body to believeing it has enough B12, the real stuff is flushed thus causing a reduction in blood B12 because your body alters it’s intake based on availablity.

The B12 debate remains unresolved. The main problem is that most of the reseatch is carried out using money from the powerfully rich agricultural-industrial complex.

*spirulina is a bacteria that makes B12, it is often called blue-green. B12 is manufactured by bacteria in the soil, in water and in the guts of mammals including humans. It is believed tha the destruction of the health of soil reduces the amount of B12 absorbed by plants to almost zero. A great advertisement for organic foods.

I am no doctor so don’t ‘believe’ me.

Sorry for the rant

Our bodies need so little of it, it makes you wonder how much is actually known.

It *is* nice to know a vegan nutritionist (with a degree!)(in nutrition!) …

The normal range is 211 to 911.

I scored 210.

I was surprised it was that low because I am not a vegan. I eat various cheeses and yoghurt and assumed it would be okay. Which basically it is okay and not an issue. I don’t drink fluid milk.

I don’t know how this relates to the subject, just throwing it in.

One thing that has come to mind is how devotees are really, really discouraged from getting jobs where they’ll be working around meat. The idea is that even serving meat ties you up in the karma of killing the animal.

Granted, milk being offered *does* alleviate your karmic reaction, but, as Ghosh said, that’s coming really close to sinning on the strength of the holy name. It’s not like killing cows is the same as pulling up carrots.

It’s all sorts of messy and I’m glad that I don’t really have to deal with it. I’m vegan, problem solved.

When I first read the Swami’s text I took it to be a an ‘inoculation’ against entering into the discussion. The more I hear from devotees who have read it that is how they are responding. Without looking into the issues they are saying “Thank God, I can stop feeling guilty now, end of discussion!”

“Don’t kill cows, it is the greatest sin” -Srila Prabhupada.

Eric, you must try out Felicia, there’s this totally cool feature where you can open anything as root simply with a mouse click. When you are root, everything is RED. It’s very groovy.