Benefits:
Vitamin B12, like the other B vitamins, is important for metabolism. It also guards against heart disease, mental disorders, and anaemia, and keeps your immune system strong.
Vitamin B-12 is a vitamin which is important for the normal functioning of the brain, central nervous system and for the formation of red blood cells.
Also helps to prevent nerve damage and maintain fertility, and is needed for production of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter that enhances memory and learning.

Food sources:
Vitamin B12 is not found in foods of vegetable origin.
B-12 can only be found in animal sources such as poultry, eggs, milk (soya), cottage cheese, fish (tuna), meat, beef liver and kidney, bee pollen, breakfast cereals, sunflower margarines and yeast extracts.

Deficiency:
Vitamin B12 is one of a water-soluble vitamins and the body cannot store them. After the body uses the vitamin, leftover amounts leave the body through the urine.
Low levels of B12 can cause anaemia, numbness or tingling in the arms and legs, weakness and loss of balance,  Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
A low level of vitamin B12 has also been associated with asthma, depression, AIDS, tinnitus, diabetic neuropathy and low sperm counts.
Because vitamin B12 comes primarily from animal products, people who follow a strict vegetarian or vegan diet and do not consume eggs or dairy products may require vitamin B12 supplements. Therefore, vegetarians are strongly encouraged to supplement.

Recommended dietary allowances (RDA):
Although the daily intake required is small, Vitamin B12 absorption in the human body is poor, so higher amounts are required.
Adults (men and women) need 2.0 micrograms of vitamin B12 each day.
2.6 mcg/day - pregnant women
2.8mcg/day - breastfeeding women
0.2 mcg - infants and children
Some people who have problems with absorption or have had bowel surgery may need injections of Vitamins B12 to prevent deficiency because their bodies can’t absorb oral supplements properly.

Tips:
•    Fermentation in the manufacture of yoghurt destroys much of the B12 present. Boiling milk can also destroy much of the B12.
•    If you want to get the most vitamins possible from your food, refrigerate fresh produce, and keep milk and grains away from strong light. Vitamins are easily destroyed and washed out during food preparation and storage.
•     If you take vitamin supplements, store them at room temperature in a dry place that’s free of moisture.

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Tags | B12, Cobalamin, Cyanocobalamin, Vitamin