Comments | kjc: B12

kjc

B12

Jan 24, 2010 23:46

Fun Fact: Cereal, that which we have all long mocked as adjacent to this nutritious breakfast (even when fortified with vitamins and minerals), has the highest oral bioavailability of B12 next to beef liver (eauggh).

b12, health

Comments 8

selkiechick January 25 2010, 06:54:50 UTC

Hmmm, maybe I will go out and buy me a box of Cheerios!

ceo January 25 2010, 15:28:57 UTC

huh huh huh... she said "oral bioavailability"...

miss_chance January 25 2010, 16:13:15 UTC

Does that include taking a B12-supplement as an option? (By which I mean, I know some vitamins are just better accessed through food than through supplements, so I'm wondering if the oral bioavailability of B12 is being compared to its availability in other foods only for this study, or also to its o-ba when taken alone or with other supplements.)

kjc January 25 2010, 16:30:18 UTC

Yep. B-12 supplements have extremely poor oral bioavailability.

Which is why, if you are critically low in B-12, you get intramuscular shots of the stuff.

miss_chance January 25 2010, 16:53:00 UTC

hmmm... interesting. My doc sez I'm anemic, but not low in iron-- that my red blood cells are unusually large, which usually points to a B12 deficiency. I told her "but I take a B12 every day," and she said, well let's be sure to get you back in here to test your B12 levels." so... um, yeah, maybe it would be a good idea for me to prioritize actually doing that.

iiinteresting... thanks!

kjc January 25 2010, 17:04:39 UTC

Yep, you should do that. The side effects of B-12 deficiency are bad.

This is a good summary of B-12 anemia:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000574.htm

And this is a MUCH longer, but more detailed discussion of B-12 and all the various elements of how your body gets it & uses it and what goes wrong when you don't have enough.
http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/vitaminb12.asp

42itous January 26 2010, 02:29:46 UTC

Doesn't it depend on the cereal?

kjc January 26 2010, 05:58:26 UTC

Sure, some cereals are likely to have more B-12 than others, but I doubt it matters much. Most of them are fortified, even the super sugary ones, with the same plant-based B-12 stuff. Clearly, reading the nutrition information is a better guide than I am, but most of the variation between cereals seems to be in the fiber content and calorie count.