A tale as old as time.
Natural vs. Unnatural.
The eternal struggle over what we should be putting on our plates in our drinks.
B12: The Dawn of Confusion
B12 has become the center of countless debates, scientific misunderstandings, social media arguments, and the occasional mildly unhinged dinner table conversation.
Depending on who you ask (my aunt Dot included), it's either proof that animal products are the most natural source of nutrition out there, or evidence that "natural" doesn't mean much once you look at how modern food systems actually work.
But before we take sides, we need to understand what B12 actually is. Oh, and yes, we make oat m*ilk, so we clearly have a horse in this race. Here are the facts anyways, sources included.
And to repeat what has practically become our catchphrase: reality is always more nuanced than what social media makes us believe.
Myth #1: “B12 is naturally produced by animals”
The conventional story goes something like this:
Want vitamin B12? Eat animal products. Meat contains B12. Milk contains B12. Eggs contain B12. Case closed.
Except there is one small problem with that story.
The animals aren't the ones making it.
To understand why, we need to get to know the real protagonist. Our buddy B12.
B12, is an essential water-soluble vitamin, which plays a key role in central nervous system development and function, red cell production, and DNA synthesis. In other words, it helps to keep us feeling strong and energized throughout our everyday life.
As such, its deficiency could lead to serious problems including anemia, neurological changes, muscle weakness and depression. Not so nice…
So yes, my Aunt Dot was right about one thing. B12 is very important.
But when it comes to vitamins, not all are created equal, at least not in how they are produced. Most animals are perfectly capable of making some vitamins themselves. Take vitamin D, for example, which is synthesized in the skin through sunlight exposure. Or vitamin C, which many animals can produce internally from glucose.
Vitamin B12, however, plays by entirely different rules.
Unlike vitamins C and D, no animal or plant, for that matter, can produce B12 on its own. Instead, vitamin B12 is exclusively synthesized by bacteria and archaea.
So how does it end up in animal products like milk, meat, and eggs?
In animals such as cows, B12 is produced by symbiotic bacteria living in their digestive systems, provided those bacteria have the right nutrients to do their job. When these conditions aren’t met, which is pretty much always the case in industrial scale farming, animals rely on feed that either contains B12-producing bacteria or supplies the nutrients required to support their microbial production.
As such, let’s set the record straight: “B12 is naturally produced by animals.”
Instead: “Animals can carry it, bacteria produce it.”
Myth #2: “Milk is a purely natural product”
So let us take a closer look at one of these animal products: milk.
No food carries a stronger image of pastoral simplicity than milk.
A green field. A grazing cow. A glass bottle filled straight from the farm. And a farmer who knows all the animals by name (we’re milking it…we know).
Since forever, milk has been portrayed as one of nature's more complete foods: local, wholesome, and naturally rich in nutrients like calcium and B12.
But that image, while comforting, doesn’t quite reflect how modern dairy systems actually work. Put bluntly, it could not be further from the truth.
Like almost every part of modern food production, it relies on carefully managed feed systems, veterinary care, mineral supplementation, and global supply chains.
This “local” nature of milk becomes far more nuanced once supplements are taken into account. As one livestock supplement producer proudly puts it: the milk you are drinking is truly global: a product of supplements sourced from all over the world. Copper from Chile and Peru. Cobalt from Congo. Calcium from Egypt and Malaysia.
The milk may be local. The system behind it often is not.
So how natural is cow’s milk, really?
To answer such a question we must follow the trail back to the source: the cow.
And here’s where things get interesting: A dairy cow and a protein-shake-loving gym bro are not as different as you might think.
They. Both. Take. Supplements.
Because the nutrients we find in milk do not simply appear by magic. They depend on a whole system working behind the scenes. And B12 might be the best example of all.
The image of a cow grazing on a diverse pasture is not entirely wrong, it is just incomplete. Today’s dairy systems are optimized around efficiency, and nutritional control. When cows do not receive all the nutrients they need from their environment, those gaps are filled through supplementation.
In fact, the majority of dairy cows today rely heavily on supplemented diets. Even in organic farming systems, where antibiotics and growth hormones are restricted, supplementation remains common practice.
And while there are alternatives, such as biodynamic farming, where cows are raised with limited feed supplements, these systems represent only a tiny fraction of total dairy production.
In the Netherlands, for example, biodynamic farms account for roughly 0.5% of all dairy farmers. They offer a glimpse of what a more ecologically balanced system could look like, but they are not designed to sustain mass consumption.
And this brings us back to B12.
Plant-based foods are often criticized for being “natural” because vitamins are added during production. But in reality, many of the nutrients found in animal products also depend on controlled inputs and supplementation.
Animals just receive them further upstream.
So, correcting the narrative looks something like this: “Milk is a purely natural product.”
Instead: “Milk is the result of a highly managed, globally connected system: optimized, supplemented, and far removed from the pastoral ideal.”
Myth #3: “Plant-based B12 is artificial”
After all this talk about animal products, you might be wondering: how does B12 actually end up in your oat m*lk?
Fair question.
And no, it’s not the result of some aggressive oat-squeezing technique (we’ve tried).
Just like in nature, the vitamin B12 in your oat m*lk is produced by bacteria. The difference is that, instead of relying on a cow’s digestive system, these bacteria are grown in a controlled fermentation environment, where they can do what they’ve always done best: produce B12.
Once produced, the vitamin is extracted and added to foods like plant-based m*lks and meat alternatives.
In fact, this same type of B12 production is widely used across the food system. So where does most of it end up?
Somewhat ironically, in animal feed.
Therefore, it’s not some artificial invention. It’s the same biological process. Just without the cow as a middle step.
And here’s the important part:
The B12 added to oat m*lk is molecularly identical to the B12 found in animal products. Same structure, same function, same biological effect .
The only difference? Some people can absorb the B12 in oat m*lk more easily.
Therefore, after adding some nuance we have: “Plant-based B12 is artificial”.
And instead: “The B12 vitamin in your oat m*lk is produced by the same bacteria as in nature, just without the cow in between.”
So where does that leave us?
After all this discussion, a practical question remains:
How should you actually get enough vitamin B12?
Fortunately, the answer is fairly straightforward.
You can get B12 from animal products such as meat, dairy, and eggs. You can get it from fortified foods, including many plant-based m*lks and meat alternatives. Or you can take a B12 supplement directly.
All of these approaches can provide adequate amounts of vitamin B12.
The important point is not whether the vitamin came through a cow, a chicken, or a fermentation tank.
In other words, there is no nutritional prize for taking the most complicated route to vitamin B12. The bacteria make it. The rest is simply a question of how it reaches your plate.
The bigger picture
What this all really shows is that nutrition is rarely as simple as we’d like it to be.
Behind every glass of milk (or oat m*lk for that matter) there’s a system, inputs, processes, and invisible players doing the real work. In the case of B12, that role belongs to bacteria, whether they operate in a cow’s stomach or a fermentation tank.
So maybe the real takeaway isn’t about choosing sides between “natural” and “artificial.”
It’s about how we define what feels natural in the first place.
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