Sunday, September 5, 2010

feeling down - maybe take some more thiamin...... in a supplement....

Doing some research connecting nutrition to sleeping issues. Picked up my first edition of Vitamins and Hormones, printed in 1943. Came across this quote:
Recent knowledge concerning thiamin [thiamine] shows that many symptoms are produced by deficiency and exist long before the development of clinical beriberi...... there earlier symptoms are usually classified under the heading of a neurasthenic syndrome and consist  essentially of the triad of anorexia, fatigability and sleep disturbances...... other symptoms are produce such as .... queer feelings in the abdomen [had to include that LOL], constipation, backache, headache....
This sounds like chronic fatigue, or depression or general blahness. I know headaches are the bane of GP's as there is normally no concrete reason/diagnosis.

Well how much thiamine do you need daily to prevent these symptoms? 1.8 mg of thiamine. (The current RDI is 1.0 mg to  1.4 mg.) I used the Linus Pauline Institute data on high vitamin B1/thiamine foods. The table below is the levels you need to eat to obtain 1.8 mg of thiamine :


Food   Food amount Units
Wheat germ breakfast cereal  0.4  cup
Fortified breakfast cereal  1.8  cup
Peas (cooked)  4.3  cup
Lentils (cooked)  5.3  cup
Long grain white rice, enriched (cooked)  6.9  cup
Cantaloupe  8.2  fruit
Long grain brown rice (cooked)  9.5  cup
Spinach (cooked)  10.0  cup
White bread, enriched  16.4  cup
Whole wheat bread  18.0  cup
Orange  18.0  fruit
Milk  18.0  cup
Long grain white rice, unenriched (cooked)  45.0  cup
Egg (cooked)  60.0  egg
Pork, lean (cooked)  210.0  g
Pecans  265.3  g
Brazil nuts  280.0  g


I like eggs - but 60 of them?! Or have some milk, 18 cups worth that is only 4 and 1/2 liters!What I find somewhat ironic and rather disturbing is that one of the best sources of thiamine is fortified cereal. This is a blatant statement that we need to supplement. We can't get enough through our normal food so we have to add a vitamin to cereals - This is supplementing, just hidden supplementation. So to all of you who don't think you need to supplement - answer this - why do they fortify cereals?  And secondly how do you achieve your 1.8mg of thiamine ?!

To make sure that I was only using one set of data I then used the data from Worlds Healthiest Foods to create this table:



Food Food level units
Sunflower seeds, raw 0.5  cup
Sesame seeds 1.6  cup
Black beans, cooked 4.3  cup
Green peas, boiled 4.4  cup
Split peas, cooked 4.9  cup
Navy beans, cooked 4.9  cup
Corn, yellow, cooked 5.0  cup
Lentils, cooked 5.5  cup
Pinto beans, cooked 5.6  cup
Lima beans, cooked 6.0  cup
Kidney beans, cooked 6.4  cup
Oats, whole grain, cooked 6.9  cup
Asparagus, boiled 8.2  cup
Spinach, boiled 10.6  cup
Brussel sprouts, boiled 10.6  cup
Winter squash, baked, cubes 10.6  cup
Pineapple 12.9  cup
Watermelon, diced 15.0  cup
Carrots, raw 15.0  cup
Tomato, ripe 16.4  cup
Oranges 16.4  cup
Cabbage, shredded, boiled 20.0  cup
Broccoli, steamed 20.0  cup
Green beans, boiled 20.0  cup
Eggplant, cooked, cubes 22.5  cup
Summer squash, cooked, slices 22.5  cup
Collard greens, boiled 22.5  cup
Grapes 22.5  cup
Kale, boiled 25.7  cup
Celery, raw 30.0  cup
Mustard greens, boiled 30.0  cup
Bell peppers, red, raw, slices 30.0  cup
Turnip greens, cooked 30.0  cup
Swiss chard, boiled 30.0  cup
Romaine lettuce 32.7  cup
Cauliflower, boiled 36.0  cup


Now at least this table has some intakes that might be obtainable. I could have 1/2 cup of sunflower seeds in a shake or on top of my cereal.  But 4 cups of beans..... I don't think so. How about juice asparagus and spinach cooked are 8 and 10 cups respectively. There would be loose in cooking, however there is also lose in juicing as it is impossible to get all the nutrients out of the vege's (if we could get it all the waste would be white). So let us say lose is same between cooking and juicing. Therefore need to juice 8-10cups. This is a rather large amount! When we make juice at home we have 1/4 - 1/3 of the juice as green stuff, otherwise it gets a bit over powering. So odds of doing 10 cups, slim and non.

Therefore if you ware not feeling 100%, bit tired, not sleeping quite right, having not much of an appetite, take some vitamin B supplements (well a multi would be better).

2 comments:

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  2. Follow taking - Recommended Daily Intake (or) Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) - is the daily intake level of a nutrient that is considered to be sufficient to meet the requirements. Anything you are taking more/less is not good!

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