Dr Paul Mason obtained his medical degree with honours from the University of Sydney, and also holds degrees in Physiotherapy and Occupational Health. He is a Specialist Sports Medicine and Exercise Physician.
Dr Mason developed an interest in low carbohydrate diets in 2011. Since then he has spent hundreds of hours reading and analysing the scientific literature. For a number of years Dr. Mason has been applying this knowledge in treating metabolic and arthritis patients who have achieved dramatic and sustained weight loss and reductions in joint pain.
Dr. Mason is also the Chief Medical Officer of Defeat Diabetes, Australia’s first evidence-based and doctor-led program that focuses on the wide range of health benefits of a low carb lifestyle, particularly for those wanting to send into remission pre-diabetes, type 2 diabetes, and other metabolic illnesses.
summerizer
B12 and child safety
- Vegan diets are promoted as healthy and ethical, but the nutrient realities can make them dangerous.
- Children can suffer severe outcomes on unsupplemented vegan diets without medical supervision, blood tests, and adequate nutrient planning.
- Plant foods do not provide adequate B12 unless fortified, and liver B12 stores only delay deficiency for years.
- A balanced vegan diet means fortified foods or B12 supplements, and B12 deficiency remains common among vegetarian groups.
- Animal foods provide B12 plus DHA, EPA, creatine, heme iron, choline, taurine, zinc, and fat-soluble vitamins that vegan diets struggle to supply.
Science quality and red meat
- Observational nutrition research produces associations, not causation, and food-frequency questionnaires add recall and classification error.
- Confounding and healthy-user bias make meat-avoidance headlines weak without randomized trials.
- Systematic reviews depend on included-study quality, and surrogate markers such as LDL can detach from meaningful clinical outcomes.
- The LDL mortality review in older adults rejects LDL as a reliable nutrition surrogate.
- The 2015 WHO/IARC red-meat cancer release relies on observational work and carcinogen-injected rat experiments.
- The EAT-Lancet diet links back to that IARC work while severely limiting red-meat intake.
Brain nutrients and bioavailability
- DHA and EPA are absent from plants, and ALA conversion is too small to protect brain development.
- DHA trials, creatine trials, and iron trials connect animal-source nutrients with cognition, memory, behavior, and child development.
- Heme iron, retinol, and vitamin D3 have better real-world bioavailability than the plant forms named in the talk.
- Plant anti-nutrients such as phytates, oxalates, tannins, and glucosinolates can block mineral absorption.
- Meat contains vitamin C, and historical Arctic, Antarctic, and military scurvy examples fit that reality.
Evolution and anatomy
- Soil and manure are not credible B12 sources, and vegan comparative-anatomy tables rely on false premises.
- Human saliva enzymes, stomach acidity, colon size, and great-ape opportunistic meat eating support an omnivorous anatomy.
Animals and agriculture
- Grain agriculture kills animals through harvest, predation after cover loss, machinery, plowing, and rodent poisons.
- Mouse counts, freezing behavior, plague densities, and poison lethality challenge the idea of a death-free vegan diet.
- Intent does not erase responsibility for deaths embedded in crop production.
Environment and land
- Monocropping drives soil erosion, microbial disruption, biodiversity loss, pesticide dependence, and nutrient decline in crops.
- Ruminant grazing builds soil through perennial grasses, root turnover, biomass, and carbon storage.
- Livestock land-use figures narrow once marginal land that cannot be cropped is separated out.
- Livestock water use must separate green rainwater from blue freshwater, because crop irrigation carries the blue-water burden.
Pesticides and glyphosate
- Pesticide use follows monocrop dependence, glyphosate-resistant weeds, grain residues, and residue concerns in cattle and humans.
- Glyphosate-related cues include preharvest wheat spraying, FSANZ food detections, Clostridium botulinum, cattle tissues, urine levels, organic-food differences, and chronic illness association.
Closing
- Animal foods make the stronger case; weak nutrition research does not justify red-meat demonization, and no diet avoids death.
References
- [00:02] The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1934 — https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1934/summary/
- [00:04] How prevalent is vitamin B12 deficiency among vegetarians? — https://doi.org/10.1111/nure.12001
- [00:10] Lack of an association or an inverse association between LDL-C and mortality in the elderly: a systematic review — https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2015-010401
- [00:11] Carcinogenicity of consumption of red and processed meat — https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(15)00444-1
- [00:13] Beef Meat and Blood Sausage Promote the Formation of Azoxymethane-Induced Mucin-Depleted Foci and Aberrant Crypt Foci in Rat Colons — https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/134.10.2711
- [00:14] Beef meat promotion of dimethylhydrazine-induced colorectal carcinogenesis biomarkers is suppressed by dietary calcium — https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007114507843558
- [00:14] Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT-Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems — https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31788-4
- [00:18] Maternal supplementation with very-long-chain n-3 fatty acids during pregnancy and lactation augments children’s IQ at 4 years of age — https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.111.1.e39
- [00:20] Oral creatine monohydrate supplementation improves brain performance: a double-blind, placebo-controlled, cross-over trial — https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2003.2492
- [00:20] Effects of creatine supplementation on cognitive function of healthy individuals: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials — https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exger.2018.04.013
- [00:20] A double-masked, randomized control trial of iron supplementation in early infancy in healthy term breast-fed infants — https://doi.org/10.1067/S0022-3476(03)00301-9
- [00:21] Effects of iron supplementation of low-birth-weight infants on cognition and behavior at 7 years: a randomized controlled trial — https://doi.org/10.1038/pr.2017.235
- [00:22] Randomised study of cognitive effects of iron supplementation in non-anaemic iron-deficient adolescent girls — https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(96)02341-0
- [00:22] Iron treatment normalizes cognitive functioning in young women — https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/85.3.778
- [00:24] The Efficacy and Safety of Vitamin C for Iron Supplementation in Adult Patients With Iron Deficiency Anemia: A Randomized Clinical Trial — https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.23644
- [00:24] Iron absorption from legumes in humans — https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/40.1.42
- [00:25] Comparison of vitamin D2 and vitamin D3 supplementation in raising serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D status: a systematic review and meta-analysis — https://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.111.031070
- [00:32] Midbrain circuits for defensive behaviour — https://doi.org/10.1038/nature17996
- [00:33] The effects of harvest on arable wood mice Apodemus sylvaticus — https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-3207(93)90060-E
- [00:35] Field Deaths in Plant Agriculture — https://philarchive.org/archive/FISFDI
- [00:36] Key messages | Global Symposium on Soil Erosion — https://www.fao.org/about/meetings/soil-erosion-symposium/key-messages/en/
- [00:37] Changes in USDA food composition data for 43 garden crops, 1950 to 1999 — https://doi.org/10.1080/07315724.2004.10719409
- [00:38] Livestock: On our plates or eating at our table? A new analysis of the feed/food debate — https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2017.01.001
- [00:40] A Global Assessment of the Water Footprint of Farm Animal Products — https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-011-9517-8
- [00:41] Pesticides use, pesticides trade and pesticides indicators: Global, regional and country trends, 1990-2020 — https://openknowledge.fao.org/bitstreams/78705276-3455-4c70-ac77-3082095f83b3/download
- [00:43] The Effect of Glyphosate on Potential Pathogens and Beneficial Members of Poultry Microbiota In Vitro — https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-012-0277-2
- [00:43] Glyphosate suppresses the antagonistic effect of Enterococcus spp. on Clostridium botulinum — https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anaerobe.2013.01.005
- [00:44] Detection of Glyphosate Residues in Animals and Humans — https://doi.org/10.4172/2161-0525.1000210
Logical fallacies called out in the talk
- [01:45] False premise — plant foods contain usable B12.
- [03:48] Euphemism / hidden premise — “well-balanced vegan diet” hides mandatory supplementation.
- [06:21] Correlation-causation fallacy — observational association used as proof of causation.
- [07:25] False precision — food-frequency questionnaires treated as reliable dietary evidence.
- [08:07] Confounding error — hamburger outcomes blamed on meat while fries, soda, and lifestyle variables remain mixed in.
- [08:34] Healthy-user bias — meat avoidance confused with better outcomes from broader health-conscious behavior.
- [09:56] Garbage-in, garbage-out — systematic reviews treated as strong even when included studies are weak.
- [10:28] Surrogate-marker fallacy — LDL used as a substitute for meaningful outcomes such as mortality.
- [11:48] Weak-evidence overreach — red meat treated as causing bowel cancer from weak observational evidence.
- [13:12] Animal-model overreach — carcinogen-injected rat experiments used as evidence against normal human red-meat consumption.
- [15:04] Citation laundering — weak WHO/IARC evidence reused by EAT-Lancet as if it were settled proof.
- [16:19] Image/implication fallacy — “plant-based = brain healthy” messaging despite nutrient risks to brain development.
- [17:16] Nutrient-equivalence fallacy — plant ALA treated as equivalent to animal DHA/EPA.
- [24:29] Rescue fallacy — vitamin C assumed to fix poor non-heme iron absorption.
- [24:04] Nutrient-amount fallacy — plant iron counted without accounting for bioavailability.
- [25:00] Form-equivalence fallacy — plant vitamin A/D forms treated as equivalent to animal retinol/D3.
- [26:00] Whole-food absorption fallacy — plant nutrients treated as available while antinutrients block absorption.
- [28:03] Argument from missing data — beef treated as vitamin-C-free because USDA values listed zero without measuring it.
- [30:33] Meat-scurvy myth — meat-heavy diets treated as causing scurvy.
- [30:43] Evolutionary falsehood — humans treated as not evolved to eat meat.
- [31:04] Ad hoc rescue — pre-agricultural humans supposedly got B12 from accidental soil/manure ingestion.
- [31:19] Cherry-picked anatomy / false comparison — comparative-anatomy tables used to make humans look herbivorous.
- [32:25] Death-free diet fallacy — vegan diets treated as good for animals while crop deaths are omitted.
- [33:05] Evasion-by-agility fallacy — mice assumed to escape harvesters because they are agile.
- [35:00] Intentions-over-consequences fallacy — lack of intent treated as reduced responsibility for crop deaths.
- [38:43] Land-use equivocation — livestock land use treated as croppable land use.
- [40:06] False trend — livestock land use treated as increasing.
- [40:22] Water-use equivocation — livestock “water use” treated as blue freshwater depletion while mostly green rainwater is counted.
[03:48] “The phrase ‘well-balanced’ is really code for ‘needs supplementing.’”
[05:18] “How can a vegan diet possibly be the healthiest diet for humankind when, without artificial supplementation, it will eventually kill you?”
[19:25] “To anyone with a child on a plant-based diet, please give them a good quality DHA supplement, not flaxseed oil.”
[45:58] “Finally, understand there is no such thing as a diet for which nothing has died.”
Mouse deaths in wheat. It was a plague year in Australia this year, the farmers got permission to use more powerful poisons. So next year’s wheat will also have more poison in it. There are reasons those poisons are normally banned.
Funny. The AI improved one thing in google searches. It doesn’t completely defer to the WHO:
foods containing iron
[picture of plants, picture of other plants, picture of other plants]
Dietary iron comes in two forms: haem iron (easily absorbed, found in animal products) and non-haem iron (harder to absorb, found in plants). To maximize absorption, pair plant-based iron with Vitamin C-rich foods (e.g., citrus, capsicum) and avoid drinking tea or coffee with your meals.
Haem Iron (Highly Bioavailable)
- Red Meats: Beef, lamb, and kangaroo. The redder the meat, the higher the iron content.
- Offal: Liver and kidney.
- Seafood: Salmon, tuna, oysters, and sardines.
Non-haem Iron (Plant & Vegetarian Sources)
- Legumes: Lentils, chickpeas, tofu, and baked beans.
- Grains: Iron-fortified cereals, oats, quinoa, and wholemeal bread.
- Vegetables: Dark leafy greens like spinach and broccoli.
- Nuts and Seeds: Almonds, cashews, and pumpkin seeds.
- Other: Eggs.
I’ve run against the safety guard rails so many times with AI, its a advanced form of gaslighting at times. But we could end up with 1984 levels of memory holing - if the AI owners say “All WHO recommendations are truth, and don’t return any results that go against those guidelines”. We would be stuck with the saturated fat is bad myth forever.
The best I’m able to do is get the guard rails to label themselves… for now
Bad advice.
CDC says to get your vitamins from food sources not supplements. Supplements can do more harm than good sometimes.
Vegans can ferment things if you feel you aren’t getting B12.
Let’s not spread quack science
Vegans can ferment things if you feel you aren’t getting B12.
What fermented food do you eat to maintain normal B12 levels? I have read quite a few food charts. Fermentation seems to increase other B vitamins but B12 is usually not present.
Natto is the best, but my wife doesn’t like the texture. So seaweed is another option. I grew up on Laverbread so I’m quite partial to seaweed foods. Kimchi is a bit debatable.
Whatever it is you want to ferment you’d want to use the LAC bacteria that produced B12 because typical yeasts do not.
I am finding some papers that say natto, tempeh, seaweed, sauerkraut etc may contain B12 though it’s not shown on nutrient charts like on wikipedia. And one review even says natto is rich in B12 ?!
Most importantly it works for you. So that’s good.
Natto contains only trace amounts of B12 in Japan. Maybe it is being fortified.
Natto is a lot of B12, seaweed is OK. Kimchi can have analogs that misreport total active B12. But yeah, so far so good.
Let’s not spread quack science
totally agree on this
CDC says to get your vitamins from food sources not supplements. Supplements can do mor harm than good sometimes.
Does this mean a whole food vegan diet doesn’t need supplements?
If you eat a good diet you don’t need supplements, everything you need can be from plants.
I haven’t had meat in 35 years, and no dairy, eggs, etc (so vegan) in 5 years. My bloodwork always comes back fine for iron, B12, D, etc.
Given that 40% of people experiencing b12 deficiency can have normal b12 blood work, would you recommend to other vegans not to supplement as well?
https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm13082176 - Diagnosis, Treatment and Long-Term Management of Vitamin B12 Deficiency in Adults: A Delphi Expert Consensus
The serum concentration of vitamin B12 is commonly used as a primary marker of vitamin B12 status. However, 30–40% of people with neurological or hematological symptoms related to B12 deficiency may have normal vitamin B12 concentrations
You can have b12 deficiency while on a meat diet too, It an inability to absorb it. Your doctor will check it you have deficiency symptoms.
That’s a non sequitur - it doesn’t follow. People are born with all sorts of disabilities, that doesn’t mean we’re all going to get them. Eating a diet with some B12, etc in it is going to give you a better chance of not experiencing deficiency symptoms. Eating a diet with no B12, etc in it is going to give you a better chance of experiencing those symptoms.
If you’re unwilling to eat foods that supply adequate nutrition (see also https://aussie.zone/post/33263844) you really should supplement. If you include sufficient supplementation your plant based diet is fine.
(I eat only meat, your appropriate uneducated reply should be that I shall inevitably get scurvy as meat has no vitamin C and no one thinks beef has enough ascorbic acid. To save you the trouble here’s why: https://aussie.zone/post/33171728)
Natto, seaweed will give you B12, or fermented products with LAC bacteria. I’m saying eat a proper food based diet and don’t jump to pills. This advice was direct from the CDC People with deficiencies are a separate class that what we are talking about.
Thus your position is vegans should not supplement unless recommended by a doctor?
Update - What I’m trying to do is identify the “bad advice” and “quack science” you initially complained about. So a medical doctor recommending vegans supplement is the “bad advice”?
It really depends on your doctor, some are pill pushers, some do real testing and research and give advice. Its hard to say trust your doctor because some aren’t good.
A friend was on doctor prescribed supplements and it messed him up, next doctor said no way should you be taking all this… For this long.
A better stance is confer with your doctor, but if able, educate yourself.
Like I went in with an Inguinal hernia, and when I explained what I had torn an ab abductor or ad aductor he scofffed at my terms, and asked me to lie down for the hernia exam. I said inguinal is a standing exam. He lost his shit and said I didn’t have a hernia after a flat exam. A week or so I had to go back because it was killing me, different doc on staff… He did the standing exam and said oh shit you should not be walking around like this and got me into surgery.
I realize that is off topic, but you really have to find out if your doctor knows stuff or just follows trends blindly.
Everyone said when I was a vegetarian powerlifter that I should be taking Iron supplements because I didn’t eat meat. Wasn’t needed, people just regurgitate advice that is often wrong
Vegan for 5 years? Want to guess how long a supply of B12 the liver holds? Around 5 years. Now is a good time to start supplementing.
I was checked recently all is good, you don’t supplement unless you have a problem or condition. Direct advice from CDC in my country.
A good diet and most people are fine, whether that is omivore, or vegetarian or vegan. Don’t spread fear for an agenda
If you don’t mind, could you tell me what agenda you are referring to, please?
Sorry, maybe I’m being too oppositional. Many people have an agenda that you must eat meat or take pills to live. While some vegetarians or vegans can have issues, the same goes for meat eaters with absorption issues. I suggest we don’t force pills on everyone, start with a proper diet first.
MD Gregor (who has never practiced, has no patients) of https://nutritionfacts.org/ fame, is specifically called out, with this flattering photo!
The section on brain health was very compelling
This mockup of a healthy plant based brain is more true then they realize, and should scare them! No fat in that brain.
This is friendly carnivore, why call out the vegan issues? It seems most of the people who come to our carnivore community are plant based and meat curious, so we have spent quite a bit of time lately going over lots of these logical fallacies in the comments of our posts - better to just address them with one meta post and get all the arguments in one place.
