Today, we are tackling a nutrient that makes everyone look at vegans like we’re daredevils living on the edge: Vitamin B12.

If you tell someone you’re plant-based, they’ll often gasp and say, “But what about B12? You can only get that from meat!”

Well, grab a snack, because it’s time for a quick plot twist.

Animals Don’t Make B12 (Surprise!)

Here is a fun biological fact to drop at your next dinner party: no animal can make Vitamin B12. Not cows, not chickens, not pigs, and definitely not humans.

B12 is actually manufactured by bacteria that live in the dirt and natural, untreated water.

Once upon a time, wild animals would eat grass with a side of pristine, microbe-rich soil, and drink from natural streams. The bacteria entered their guts, made the B12, and the animal absorbed it. Humans used to get it the same way by eating unwashed veggies straight from the earth and drinking natural well water.

Enter Modern Farming (And Why the Dirt Changed)

Fast forward to today. Because of modern, intensive agriculture, our soils have been heavily depleted of natural microbes. On top of that, we (thankfully) chlorinate and sanitize our drinking water to kill off bad bacteria, which also kills the good B12-producing stuff.

Because farmed animals no longer roam wild eating pristine, bacteria-rich dirt, modern livestock are actually given B12 supplements in their feed or via injections.

Skipping the Middle-Cow

Think about the logic here for a second. If you eat meat to get your B12, you are simply eating an animal that was fed a B12 supplement.

At Twisted, we like to cut out the middleman. Instead of giving a vitamin pill to a cow, waiting for the cow to grow, processing the cow, and then eating the cow just to get the vitamin… why not just take the vitamin yourself?

Taking a tiny B12 supplement or eating fortified foods (like nutritional yeast—aka vegan gold) is cleaner, highly efficient, and leaves the cows entirely out of the equation.

The takeaway? B12 isn’t a “meat nutrient.” It’s a dirt nutrient. And in the 21st century, skipping the animal and going straight to the bacterial source is just smart science.

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