Eating three times the recommended daily intake of folate and vitamin B12 may lower the risk factors for heart disease and cancer. Folate-rich foods include leafy green vegetables while B12 is found in meat, chicken, fish, liver and kidneys.
Eating more folate and B12 actually slows the wear and tear of DNA - genetic material found in the nucleus in our cells.
The investigators found that people with above-average damage to their DNA may reduce some of the damage by boosting their intake of foods with these vitamins.
The researchers believe that between five and 10 percent of people eating a Western diet do not take enough to optimize DNA repair and synthesis.
Those with above-average rates of DNA damage have two to three times the level of cancer risk than those who have low DNA damage.
The studies found a 25 percent reduction in chromosome damage amongst the high-damage group, after supplementing their diet for 12 weeks with folate and B12. Those in the low-damage category had no change.
More information: rosie.schmedding@nap.csiro.au
I find this observation interesting in that it not only supports the use of fresh vegetables but it also is an important argument against being vegetarian.
Vitamin B12 is an incredibly powerful and necessary nutrient and it is enormously difficult to get from non-animal sources.
I would never argue against someone's spiritual convictions for being a vegetarian; but I am relatively convinced that it is necessary to have some regular source of animal protein to stay optimally healthy.
I am also convinced that while it is possible to obtain folic acid and vitamin B12 from supplements the benefits are far more profound if one obtains the nutrient from whole natural foods.
Vitamin B12 is particularly difficult to obtain from supplements. Vitamin B12 is the largest of the vitamins and it is enormously difficult to absorb through the intestinal wall because of its size.
The body (in the parietal cells of the stomach) makes a substance called intrinsic factor to facilitate this absorption.
The complex (intrinsic factor/vitamin B12) then floats down the intestinal tract to the distal small intestine where it is absorbed. Many people lose the ability to make B12 as they get older and they develop what is called "pernicious anemia."
It is pernicious because without vitamin B12 massive brain disruption can occur that is permanent and irreversible. I am not convinced that sublingual and certainly oral vitamin B12 works very well.