How I get Vitamin B12 as a vegan

Hi everyone

Following on from my blog on where I get my protein as a vegan I thought I would do a post on where I get B12 from. Vegan B12 is a vital nutrient that helps speed up reactions in the body, if you have a deficiency in B12 then it can lead to anaemia. I really struggled at first with where I got B12 from as the most obvious source for non vegans are eggs, meat and cheese. There are very few obvious source that are vegan without purposely being made for vegans (if that makes sense) so here is where I get my vitamin B12 from.

• Fortified cheese, yogurt, milks and cereal
• Marmite

You can see one key word here is fortified, you will find that most vegan alternatives to cheese, milk and yogurt have B12 added. My favourite cheese is the Violife block of cheese, it is just so versatile.

I choose this one as I can chop it, grate it or melt it as a block, you can see in the corner of the package it has added vitamin B12.

 

So how do I use this? Well of course in the same way as ‘normal’ cheese I have it on toast, with beans and with gravy. Amazing!

Another source of fortified B12 is yogurts. I am a big fan of yogurts for a snack at work, they are easy to carry and easy to eat. The Alpro Pasion fruit yogurt and the KoKo yogurts I just eat as a snack but the Apro plain protein yogurt I have had on cereal or with maple syrup of fruit as a breakfast in the same way you would have Greek yogurt.

Another really good source is soya milk, I often just buy the Morrisons own version and I have this on cereal, in tea or coffee and hot chocolate. In addition to milk when I fancy a treat I buy ice coffee, I love this one it is the Coffee and Soya Caramel. It taste so sweet and is like a milk shake more than a coffee. It contains B12 and is such a easy way to top up your levels.

Last but not least is a controversial source of B12 and that is marmite, the classic love or hate spread. I do like marmite, I wouldn’t say love but like enough to have on toast but if you are not keen then you could just add it to sauces for pasta, curry or chilli. It means you are getting the vitamin but without the taste you are not keen on.

So those are my sources of Vitamin B12, I would love to know your sources. Let me know if you recommend any brands.

Thanks for reading.

AKL