Message #18008

[mccoy]

This thread has given me the opportunity to go make some table-searching for B12 amount, thing I had not been doing for years.

This is an extraordinary vitamin anyway, carring cobalt which is needed to build up red globules. 2 micrograms of it (2 millionths of a gram), an incredible tiny amount, are enough for one day. 
I'm going to summarize my findings and conclusions though.

Presently, RDI in the USA for adult males is 2.4 micrograms

This quantity makes up a 97.5 percentile, that is 97.5 % of adult males are all right with that. Excluding those with hulky bodies and those with health problems, that means it is all right for 100% of adult males. That means also that it is an extremely cautious quantity.

If we look at the average daily need (RDI is a cautious reccomended value), we get down to 2.0 presently but even lower, to the 1.4 micrograms average need value of Europe in 1993.

I'll take that as a statistical benchmark, that is 50% of adult males are perfectly all right with 1.4 micrograms of B12 per day.

Let's add that scientific literature ascertained that those who eat less B12 develop mechanisms which allow the body to assimilate more of it, and the other way around. This means that the 1.4 micrograms value might be scaled down even more, but I'm going to keep it.

Milk is among the foods which displays an higher absorption of B12: 65%. In the average, absorption is about 50%. B12 is also heat-sensitive, so the amount contained in egg yolks is drastically reduced if cooked. Also eggs display one of the lowest absorption indexes.

All the above strongly suggests that, for vegetarians, the easiest source of B12 comes from dairy products.

one pint of milk: 2.0 micrograms B12
50 grams of parmesan cheese (1.8 ounce) = 2.1 micrograms B12
150 grams of average cheese = 2.0 micrograms B12
2 50-grams whole chicken eggs (with raw yolk) = 2.4 micrograms B12
2 50-grams whole chicken eggs (hard-boiled) = 1.1 micrograms B12
One pound of yogurt: 1.0 micrograms B12