General Considerations of B-complex Vitamins

Reference from the joint venture of FAO/WHO expert consultation on Human Vitamins and Minerals verbatim. (Chapter 3)

General considerations for B-complex vitamins

Notes on suggested recommendations

6. Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of Medicine/National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council. 1998. Dietary Reference Intake: Folate, Other B Vitamins, and Choline. Washington, D.C., National Academy Press.

The recommendations for infants are based largely on the composition and quantity of human milk consumed and are formally considered to be adequate intakes. Younger (0–6 months) infants are considered to derive adequate intake from milk alone; recommendations for older (7–12 months) infants are adjusted by metabolic scaling such that a factor – (weight of 7-12 mo/weight of 0-5 mo) 0.75 – is multiplied by the recommendation for the younger infant (6). 

Recommendations have been given to use the higher (6–11 months) level for the first year of life. For most of the B vitamins, there is little or no direct information that can be used to estimate the amounts required by children and adolescents. Hence, an extrapolation from the adult level has been used where a factor – (weight child/weight adult) 0.75 × (1 + growth factor) – is multiplied by the adult recommendation (6). 

For most of the B-complex vitamins covered here, data are not sufficient to justify altering recommendations for the elderly. For pregnancy and lactation, increased maternal needs related to increases in energy and replacement of secretion losses were considered.

Dietary sources of B-complex vitamins

A listing of some better and usual food sources for the vitamins considered is given in Table 12.