B Group vitamins: Current Uses and Perspectives

JEAN GUY LEBLANC; GRACIELA SAVOY DE GIORI

InTechOpen

Año: 2018 p. 158

978-953-51-6191-2

Although only very small amounts of vitamins are required to avoid deficiencies, and that all 13 vitamins are found in a wide variety of foods, deficiencies are still very common in all parts of the world. There are numerous factors that can explain this problem, one of the most frequent causes is malnutrition, which not only includes the inadequate intake of foods for social-economic or psychological reasons, but also includes people that consume un-balanced diets. Although there are numerous beneficial effects that have been demonstrated to result from mandatory fortification programs, there are concerns that people who consume normal balanced diets might be exposed to elevated and potentially dangerous levels of vitamins. Food technologists and biotechnologists have been looking for methods to increase or preserve vitamins in foods by different methods. There are many groups that are actively studying and demonstrating that the role of vitamins in human health, especially in diseases, is still widely misunderstood and need to continue so that our understand of their roles can evolve form the initial period of discovery.