For young kids and everybody else, health is wealth. Usually if not hearing the line, eat your vegetable you'll hear the phrase, don't forget to take your vitamins before going to school or for work. Vitamins are helpful in all our internal systems processes, together with minerals that we get from the food that we eat, most importantly, the green leafy vegetable.
It keeps our body strong and healthy. As we grow older, our need for these vitamins grows more. That is why we buy multivitamin supplements. Here we will discuss one of the Vitamin B complex, the vitamin B2.
B2 also known as Riboflavin, similar with the rest of the B complex is a water soluble stored in our body responsible for processing amino acids and fats, it helps convert carbohydrates into adenosine triphosphate, which is also known as the fuel the body needs and it activates vitamin B6 and folic acid. Like B1, it also acts as an antioxidant. This means that B2 is required in our body daily.
Although they say B2 and all other B complex can easily be absorbed, usually the body only gets very few of it. One major cause is the process of how it is cooked. Heat easily reduces the amount of vitamins in all foods. This is why vitamin supplements are recommended.
Riboflavin eases watery eye fatigue and is really helpful in treatment and prevention of cataracts. B2 is also needed in the digestive tract keeping the mucus membrane healthy and helps absorb iron and B6 much easier. Not only that, riboflavin is also used for the health of the hair, nails and skin.
When you are experiencing cracks and sores at the corners of your mouth, eye disorders, swelling of the mouth and tongue and skin lesions, this means that you are suffering from a vitamin B2 deficiency. Other symptoms also include dizziness, hair loss, dermatitis, insomnia, poor digestion, retarded growth, light sensitivity, burning feet and slow mental responses.
B2 or Riboflavin had been used in referral to individual health concerns like anemia, canker sores, cataracts, migraine or headaches, Parkinson's disease, sickle cell anemia and preeclamsia to pregnant women.
For health purposes here are examples of foods where you can get B2. It is present in dairy products, organ meats, eggs, cheese, whole grains and of course leafy vegetables. It can also be found in fishes, legumes, and yogurt. The average amount that an individual should take in of the B2 is 1.2 mg per day for females, and 1.6 mg per day for males.
However, multivitamin supplements contain 20-25 mg. This is more than the body needs but nothing to worry about because too much intake of vitamin B2 is not as harmful as other overdoses of other vitamins. The only side effect is a normal yellow discoloration of the urine and nothing more. This is not dangerous.
But, for better results, it is highly recommended that you take in vitamin B2 with the other vitamin B complex especially vitamins B1, B3 and B6 because it is what works hand in hand with. Better take a prescribed B complex supplement available in most drug stores.
As precautionary measures, it is important that you learn more about each vitamin's benefit, why it is needed, its sources, how it helps us and many more. Nutritional magazines, cook books, healthy brochures and other reading materials are available everywhere especially in clinics providing us recipes and information about all the healthy products and menus there is that we can study and learn in preparing our food for the family.
If you think you are having vitamin deficiency, it is wise that you consult a dietitian, nutritionist, or even your family doctor in order to have the right prescription.
Inside the net there are a lot more informational sites regarding vitamin uses and recommended multivitamin supplements. Some sites offer a toll free charges where you can communicate to a dietitian for advises and many more.
For more knowledge, try finding posts about seminars and lectures about healthy diets. This way you can make sure that you serve the healthiest food not only for yourself but also to the people or your family you are serving it. Through this, you not only make yourself happy, other people too. Health is a treasure everyone should always be aware of. When one is healthy, it is never hard feeling great everyday.
Riboflavin, also known as vitamin B2, is an important member of the water soluble B complex of vitamins and has of course been well known as an essential nutrient for many years, hence its popularity as a fortifying agent in commercially produced breakfast cereals and breads etc. But in the current craze for tracking down new anti-oxidant ?superfoods? it's easy to overlook the more familiar, but nonetheless vital, nutrients such as the B complex vitamins.
Riboflavin, for example, is essential for the body's production of certain enzymes, known as flavocoenzymes, which are needed for the production of energy through the metabolism of the proteins, fats and carbohydrates consumed in the diet. Flavocoenzymes are important in the breaking down and the using or neutralizing of chemicals, including drugs and toxins within the body, and it has also been noted that they are a precursor of the specialized proteins needed for the proper functioning of the brain cell mitochondria.
Impaired oxygen metabolism within these mitochondria has been identified as a possible cause of migraine headaches, Although tested on only a small sample of patients, supplementation with high levels (400 mg) of riboflavin has been duly found to have significant effects in reducing the frequency of migraine attacks when continued over a three month period. Despite the limited scope of the research so far, orthodox medicine regards riboflavin as worthy of further investigation for use in conjunction with conventional drug therapies.
Riboflavin is also important as an anti-oxidant in enabling the proper functioning of glutathione, the crucial anti-oxidant enzyme. Glutathione is needed to neutralize the hydrogen peroxide which is released as a by-product of normal metabolic reactions within the body. Left unchecked hydrogen peroxide can interact with other free radicals to produce hydroxyl, the most damaging of all. Glutathione is particularly important in protecting the delicate fatty structures, eg the membranes, of every cell in the body.
Although anti-oxidants are required to protect every cell in the body, particular attention has been focussed on their role in the lens of the eye, where light induced oxidative damage has been found to be a risk factor for the development of cataracts, one of the most significant causes of vision loss in the elderly.
Measuring by reference to glutathione activity, research has suggested that individuals in the highest quintile of riboflavin levels may have only around half the risk of developing cataracts as those in the lowest quintile.
In addition to facilitating the action of the fat soluble glutathione, riboflavin is also essential for the body's manufacture of another enzyme, xanthine oxidase, which is needed for the formation of uric acid, one of the most powerful water soluble anti-oxidants.
In common with all the vitamins of the B complex, a deficiency in riboflavin is likely to be associated with, and to cause, a deficiency in each of the others. Deficiency in riboflavin, however, has also been particularly associated with problems in the absorption of iron, and consequent anemia and lowered immune system function.
The US Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for riboflavin is set at the very low sounding levels of 1.3 mg per day for men, and 1.1 mg for women, In Europe the slightly higher figure of 1.6 mg is suggested. To put these in perspective, a cup of fortified cereal may provide between 0.6 and 2.3 mg; 8 oz milk perhaps 0.35 mg, and a single large egg 0.3 mg. Meat, fish, chicken and green vegetables also provide a certain amount.
So these food values would seem to suggest that the RDAs should be easily achievable by those eating a normally balanced diet ? and indeed they should. The problem is that the RDAs are set at levels designed to ensure protection against outright deficiency disease, which is not at all the same as optimal health. There is also good evidence that few of us in any case, in fact succeed in eating such a diet, and this can be a particular problem for older adults. Some research suggests that as many as a quarter of over 65s fail to achieve their RDA of riboflavin though their normal daily diet, and of course that which they do take in tends to be less well absorbed than that consumed by younger people. The result is that as many as 10% of the over 65s show signs of severe deficiency, an alarming and unforgivable statistic in wealthy Western societies.
But such symptoms of deficiency may not be confined to the elderly. Younger adults who achieve only these minimal levels of riboflavin intake may also be at risk if subjecting their bodies to unusual stresses, amongst which must be included physical work, intensive athletic or sporting activity, and the use of alcohol, tobacco or other drugs.
There are no known toxicity issues with any quantity of the B complex vitamins conceivably likely to be consumed, and the Food and Nutrition Board has specified no upper safe limit. The vitamins are water soluble with any excess being easily excreted by the body. So given the difficulties of absorption which become more pronounced as the body ages, and the increased requirements for these vitamins which seems to arise with the increasingly stressful lives we lead in the 21st century ? not to mention the nutritional poverty of much of the heavily refined and processed foods we now routinely consume, there seems no reason not to supplement with riboflavin and the other vitamins of the B complex.
Both Ben Adams & Steve P Smith are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Ben Adams has sinced written about articles on various topics from Vitamin B Complex, Migraine Headaches and Vitamins. Ben Adams publishes an informative website, providing free useful and helpful information about vitamins and minerals at: . Ben Adams's top article generates over 4400 views. to your Favourites.
Steve P Smith has sinced written about articles on various topics from Anti Oxidant, Brain Power and Food Enzymes. Steve Smith is a freelance copywriter specializing in direct marketing and with a particular interest in health products. Find out more at. Steve P Smith's top article generates over 4400 views. to your Favourites.