Nutr Res Pract.  2010 Jun;4(3):229-234.

Dietary source of vitamin B12 intake and vitamin B12 status in female elderly Koreans aged 85 and older living in rural area

• Kwak CS
• Lee MS
• Lee HJ
• Whang JY
• Park SC

Abstract

Recently, we found and analyzed vitamin B12 in some Korean traditional plant foods which had not reported, yet. This study was to investigate vitamin B12 intake and its dietary sources and the vitamin B12 status in the very old elderly Koreans. We measured serum vitamin B12 level and estimated the amounts of vitamin B12 intake from different dietary sources in female elderly Koreans aged 85 and over who had consumed a relatively low animal traditional diet for the whole life. The average age of the subjects (n = 127) was 98.0 years (85-108 years). The assessment on energy and nutrient intake involved a one-day 24-hour recall, and serum vitamin B12 concentration was measured by radioimmunoassay. Overall diet pattern was not different between the 85-99 yr-old group and centenarians, except centenarians were taking more dairy product. The average ratio of plant food to animal food consumption was 87.5:12.5 in weight. The average vitamin B12 intake of our subjects was 3.2 microg/day, and 52.7% of subjects consumed under estimated average requirement, 2.0 microg/day. On dietary source, 67.3% of dietary vitamin B12 was from meat, eggs and fishes and 30.6% was from plant foods, such as soybean-fermented foods, seaweeds, and kimchi. The average serum vitamin B12 concentration was 450.5 pg/mL, and low serum vitamin B12 (< 200 pg/mL) was found in 9.6% of subjects. Dietary vitamin B12 intake was significantly lower in subjects with low serum vitamin B12 (0.79 microg/day) than those with normal serum vitamin B12 (3.47 microg/day). There were no significant difference in vitamin B12 intake and its dietary sources and serum vitamin B12 level between the 85-99 yr-old group and centenarians. In conclusion, several plant-origin foods including seaweed, soybean-fermented foods, and kimchi, may contribute significantly to good vitamin B12 status in very old elderly Koreans.

Keyword

Female elderly; dietary source of vitamin B12; serum vitamin B12 level

MeSH Terms

Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Animals
Dairy Products
Diet
Eggs
Female
Fishes
Humans
Meat
Ovum
Plants
Radioimmunoassay
Seaweed
Vitamin B 12
Vitamins
Vitamin B 12
Vitamins

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Percentage of energy composition of subjects

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  Fig. 2 The percentages of food sources in vitamin B12 intake of the subjects

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