Oddbean

Ackshually, you do get B12 in vegetables IF they are grown in healthy soil with active bacteria (or yeast) that make it. This is not the case for most stuff you can buy in the store. False. While yeast does provide B-vitamins it does not provide any B-12. The exception to this are genetically modified yeast, or yeast that has been modified and B-12 artificially added to it. Ironically, CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation) animals also get no B12 from their GMO feed - it has to be added artificially. So if B12 is all you are worried about, just take a pill, or add nutritional yeast to a smoothie or cocoa. Half true… Yes cows who eat from feed do indeed usually get B12 supplements to be extra healthy. However a few important points to that end: 1) Cows and other animals dont need B12 like humans do. Humans evolved to have a particular issue with B12 production (the area of our intenstine where it is produced has evolved to no longer be able to absorb B12). As such while cows make their own B12 and are probably going to be ok without a supplment humans on the other hand need it far more than cows. 2) Grass fed cows dont get suppliments at all because the yeast in the dirt provides them with ample B12 on its own anyway. So I’d say the argument here is to make sure you just eat good healthy meat and not meat raised in poor conditions is all.. by the way you should do the same when picking veggies. The real reason to eat meat - real grass fed and grass finished non CAFO meat - is to move carbon back to the soil. Chemical fertilizers replace nitrogen, but not carbon, and yards of carbon rich top soil has been reduced to inches over the last century. This doesnt quite add up for me, but id need you to explain a bit more to have an opinion. Cows consume carbon from their food which they use to form their body.. if they die and get burried that carbon is returned. If we eat them and shit them out that carbon is returned. But if the cow is never born (because no one will eat it) then it never consumed the carbon from the ground int he first place nad thus there is nothing to “return”… So how is eating meat doing more good at returning carbon to the soil than not eating meat? seems they are the same to me. Grazing animals stimulate plant growth, trample carbon into the soil, and fertilize. If you really think CO2 is a problem (I don’t), switch to grass fed animals of your choice as much as you can afford. (It is more expensive.) None of this adds up logically for me… all carbon winds up back in the soil eventually when we talk about food regardless. I do agree that grass fed is a better choice, just for different reasons.