Nourishment Beyond Ideology: The Realities of a Raw Vegan Diet

Dear Land Loved,

I’m trying to find a cleaner way to eat, I want to be healthier. I’ve decided to become a raw vegan and I’d like some advice on B12 supplements.

Holy moly.

First, thank you. What a sincere and thoughtful place to stand: I want to be healthier. I want to eat in a more wholesome way. I have decided to become a raw vegan. And then the very grounded question: what about B12?

I fear I may disappoint you.

But I will always choose honesty over agreement. I trust that is why you are here.

Let’s dive in.

There is something deeply appealing about the word raw. It sounds pure. Untouched. Closer to the earth. More alive. More vital.

But raw is not automatically more nourishing.

Plants and animals are both made of cells, but they are not built the same way. Animal cells are wrapped in soft membranes made largely of fats. Plant cells are reinforced with rigid cell walls made of cellulose, the same structural material that becomes wood and cotton. Strong. Protective. Designed to hold everything inside.

Those cell walls preserve nutrients. Unless they are disrupted, much of what we seek remains physically locked away.

Blending helps. Chewing helps. But our teeth and even high speed blades are enormous compared to microscopic plant cells. They do not reliably rupture every wall. Unlike humans, many herbivorous animals have multiple stomachs or specialized digestive systems designed to break down tough plant cell walls and extract nutrients efficiently.

Consider our primate cousins. Many wild primates survive on raw fruit, leaves, and other plant matter. Their digestion is a constant effort. Meals pass quickly, stools are frequent and loose, and they must eat almost constantly just to get enough nutrients. Humans, by contrast, began cooking food hundreds of thousands of years ago. Cooking softens plant and animal tissues, breaks down tough fibers, and increases nutrient availability. This simple shift allowed our ancestors to extract far more energy from the same food, supporting larger brains and more complex bodies. The message is clear. Food prepared thoughtfully is not just easier to digest. It fuels our potential.

Traditionally, cultures prepared plants in ways that broke those cell walls before eating them. They dried herbs and fruits. They fermented cabbage into sauerkraut and soy into miso. They froze foods. They marinated them in fat. They applied heat.

When spinach cooks, its color deepens and its texture softens. When cabbage ferments, it transforms. When herbs are dried for infusion, minerals become more available. These visible changes are signs of structural breakdown.

This is not anti plant. It is pro accessibility.

Raw animal foods are different. Their nutrients are generally more bioavailable without structural barriers. This is why carnivores eat raw meat. But plants often require preparation for us to access their full nourishment.

So when someone commits to an exclusively raw plant diet, I pause. Not because I dismiss their intention, but because physiology matters.

Now about veganism.

Veganism is often rooted in compassion. A desire to reduce suffering. A longing to tread lightly. Those impulses are beautiful.

But biology does not bend to ideology.

Vitamin B12 is not found in plants in usable amounts. Not in seaweed. Not in spirulina. Not in unfortified nutritional yeast. B12 is produced by microbes and accumulates meaningfully in animal foods such as meat, fish, eggs, and dairy.

Without it, red blood cells cannot form properly. Nerves suffer. Cognition slows. Fatigue deepens. Deficiency can take years to appear, which is why someone may feel fine until they do not.

So yes, if someone chooses a vegan diet, B12 supplementation is essential.

There is also a philosophical layer to this conversation.

Vitamin B12 supplements do not grow in a garden. They are produced through industrial fermentation, extracted, stabilized, encapsulated, bottled, labeled, transported, and distributed through global supply chains.

None of this makes supplementation wrong. It simply makes it modern.

If one’s motivation for eating in a more wholesome way is to live closer to the land, to simplify, to reduce industrial dependence, then it is worth pausing to notice the tension. An entirely plant based diet, in our current world, depends on laboratories and logistics networks to remain nutritionally complete.

This is not condemnation. It is context.

Every dietary pattern participates in industry at some level. The question is not purity. The question is coherence. Does the system align with the values that inspired it.

There is also the mineral conversation.

Modern soils are less mineral rich than they once were. Even beautiful produce does not carry the same density it did generations ago. Cooking, especially long slow cooking, can increase mineral availability in plants.

I am far more concerned about mineral deficiency than vitamin deficiency in well fed populations.

Strict raw veganism can quietly struggle here.

There is also something interesting about where veganism tends to take root.

It is often an urban choice.

Not always. But frequently.

In cities, food is abstracted. We meet it in packaging. In restaurants. In aisles organized by category and trend. The cow is not in the pasture. The compost pile is not steaming in the corner of the yard. Manure is a word, not a smell.

Distance makes moral clarity feel simpler.

In rural places, food is rarely theoretical. Animals are part of the ecosystem. They fertilize fields. They rotate through pasture. They convert grasses humans cannot digest into nourishment. Birth and death are visible. Cycles are tangible.

It is much harder to draw a clean line between plants good and animals bad when you have watched chickens scratch through compost or seen how quickly land degrades without grazing animals returning fertility to it.

This does not make city dwellers naive. It simply means experience shapes philosophy.

Many who choose veganism have never lived within land based systems. Their compassion is sincere. Their environmental concern is real. But it is often formed in landscapes where nature is curated rather than participated in.

When you live inside ecological cycles, you begin to see that removal is not the same as harmony.

Integrated farming depends on animals. Organic systems rely on manure. Soil fertility is not generated by good intentions alone.

Food is not only fuel. It is ritual. Belonging. Ancestry. A diet that isolates you socially or demands constant vigilance can tax the nervous system. Health is not just nutrients. It is connection.

So what about B12.

If you feel deeply called to experiment with a raw vegan diet, then supplement with a reliable form of B12. Do not rely only on a standard B12 blood test as it can miss early signs of deficiency. To really know if your body is getting and using enough B12, it is wise to check functional markers like homocysteine and methylmalonic acid in addition to serum B12. Pay attention to energy, mood, hormones, hair, skin, libido, and cognition and stay humble enough to reassess.

Diet is not identity. It is a tool.

My stance is this.

I advocate for a broad, whole, integrated diet that includes plants in abundance and animals raised humanely in systems that build soil rather than strip it.

Animals eat what we cannot digest and convert it into nutrient dense food. That is ecology.

We are omnivores by design. Our teeth, digestive enzymes, and cellular membranes reflect that inheritance.

Can someone survive as a vegan. Yes.

Will some feel better than they did on a processed, sugar heavy omnivorous diet?

Absolutely.

But optimal long term nourishment is a higher bar.

I am not here to crush your hope of being healthier. I am here to widen the path.

Wholesome eating is not about subtraction alone.

It is about nourishment, bioavailability, mineral density, digestibility and joy.

Begin there.

With respect for your body’s design. With reverence for the land. With gratitude for the gifts of plants and animals.

Warmly,

Vanessa