Nutrition measurement: Can someone... - Pernicious Anaemi...

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Nutrition measurement

clivealive profile image
clivealiveForum Support
11 Replies

Can someone please explain the difference between mg and ug in the nutrition measurements for example in those of Marmite in the picture.

I'm confused with the folate and b12.

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clivealive
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Sleepybunny profile image
Sleepybunny

There are 1000ug in 1mg. hopefully I've got that right....

Gambit62 profile image
Gambit62Administrator in reply toSleepybunny

ug is a way of writing micro-gram (the actual scientific symbol for micro is the greek letter mu but it's not a standard part of the keyboard, and looks rather like the letter u in English .... and u isn't used to indicate any other scientific value that I'm aware of).

mg is the usual way to write milli-gram.

milli indicates a thousandth

micro indicates a millionth

so, as sleepy bunny says there are 1000ug in 1 mg.

Although there is a lot of B12 in marmite it isn't something that people eat a lot of - and the high salt content would make it unwise to eat a lot anyway.

clivealive profile image
clivealiveForum Support in reply toGambit62

Thanks Gambit62

So why when all the other ingredients are measured in mg are folate and b12 shown in ugs if they are the same?

It's all a bit Greek to me.

By the way I love Marmite and have done for sixty years since I was a teenager.

clivealive profile image
clivealiveForum Support in reply toSleepybunny

So does that mean that in the Marmite above the Folate @ 100ug is the same as 10mcg and the b12 @ 0.5ug is 2mcg?

I'm no good at maths and don't know how to convert the numbers. Must be the brain fog....

clivealive profile image
clivealiveForum Support

Thanks to µ fbirder (sadly my alt key didn't do anything)

I just think it's odd that the two "ingredients" that I'm interested in were measured in µg

clivealive profile image
clivealiveForum Support

So is 400µg the same as 400mcg?

Please forgive my thickness

helvella profile image
helvella in reply toclivealive

Yes.

In medicine they often use mcg instead of µg - partly because at one time typing µg was difficult and it was inconsistent on computer systems.

The letter "u" was already in use in medicine for International Unit (IU or just U). And a scribbled "u" looks very like "µ" - depending on the person's handwriting.

Leilanilea profile image
Leilanilea

Hello Folks,

I've heard of Marmite but didn't know exactly what it was. I found this story and hope some of you might enjoy it, as did I! I'm in the US, however Grandparents and my Mother were born in England. I remember loving malted milk tablets that were supposed to be medicinal, but tasted like candy to me. Also loved Grandma's pickled onions, cabbage, and yes...walnuts. But I don't remember ever having Marmite.

dailymail.co.uk/femail/food...

I hope no one minds my taking this little turn away from serious discussions that have been so helpful to me.

Leilani

clivealive profile image
clivealiveForum Support in reply toLeilanilea

Thanks Leilani

It's not quite true "One Midlands factory makes ALL the world's Marmite" as Australia and New Zealand have their own product. When the earthquakes rocked Christcurh N.Z. a few years back production of Marmite was halted, shelves in supermarket were denude and warehouse stocks quickly ran out. Even the Prime Minister was prompted to broadcast an appeal for calm during what became known as "Marmageddon" as prices of the "Black Gold" soared for people who put what they had up for sale - even half empty jars of the stuff.

My favourite innovation is the "Big Squeezy" as it dispenses the Marmite easily and evenly so you don't need to use a knife to spread it, thus saving you having to lick the knife clean afterwards :D

google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j...

Leilanilea profile image
Leilanilea in reply toclivealive

Thanks for the information, Clive, interesting!

Here in California we had Carmageddon when the 405, one of the busiest freeways in Los Angeles was closed for revision.

Ug is micrograms. 1000ug =1mg

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