A vegan diet needs a cabinet full of supplements, not just B12
B12 is a real requirement, and iodine can be a real gap. Calcium and selenium usually come from ordinary foods, and vitamin D is a problem for almost everyone whatever they eat. In practice it comes to one or two tablets, or one combined one. Omnivores are relying on supplements too; they are added to animal feed instead.
A diet that is only safe with a regular supply of pills is fragile in the real world. People forget tablets, stop buying them, or never start, and doctors see this every day with ordinary medication. If a Mediterranean-style diet with some fish and meat covers calcium, iodine, selenium, vitamin D and B12 from food alone, that is a more reliable recommendation for most patients than a vegan diet propped up by five or six supplements.
Taken one by one, the list gets much shorter.
B12 is a genuine requirement, and the catalogue already says so. Iodine is the other honest one. Many omnivores get much of their iodine from dairy, partly because cattle feed is supplemented with it. Vegans need iodised salt, fortified plant milk or a small supplement. Seaweed is unreliable as a source.
Calcium is not usually a supplement question. Fortified plant milks and yoghurts, calcium-set tofu, kale, pak choi, almonds and fortified bread all supply it. The fracture finding from EPIC-Oxford is real. It was largely concentrated in vegans with low calcium intake, so it points to eating enough calcium-rich food, not to a pill.
Vitamin D depends on sunlight far more than on diet. Oily fish and egg yolks supply some, but not enough to fix a deficiency that, as the challenger said, is widespread among people eating meat. Public health bodies such as the UK's advise everyone to supplement in winter.
Selenium varies with soil. A varied diet with grains, seeds and the occasional Brazil nut covers it. It is not a routine vegan supplement.
So the realistic list is B12 and iodine, plus the vitamin D most people should take anyway. A single vegan multivitamin covers all of it. The point about patients not taking their medication is fair. One daily tablet is still a long way from five or six.
It is also worth seeing where the omnivore's nutrients come from. Farmed animals are routinely given B12-related cobalt, iodine, selenium and vitamin D in their feed. The supplements are still in the system. They pass through an animal first.
None of this makes planning unnecessary. It does mean the supplement burden is small. A small, solvable inconvenience is a weak reason to keep causing harm that isn't needed.
- A vegan diet needs five or six supplements, and patients don't reliably take pills
Different wording, same argument. The response above answers all of them.