Healthy diet

[Luac]

Hello again,

I was encouraged to look at this forum to find out about how to get enough folic, potassium and iron etc from food in order to improve b12 utilisation.

I have used the search function but there's a lot to sift through.

Can you please recommend what I should search for (i tried 'diet', 'what to eat') or push me in the direction of related posts?

Many thanks

[fbirder]

A normal sensible diet should provide everything you need - plenty of veg and fruit; lots of nuts, grains, seeds and pulses; meat and/or fish (especially oily fish) several times a week. Top up to the required number of calories with carbohydrates.

To boost folate, eat more leafy green veg, seeds nuts and pulses.

Not many people need potassium, and too much isn't good for you. A good way is to replace your salt with low-sodium salt. Potassium replaces the sodium.

Iron is best obtained from red meat. Iron in vegetables like spinach is usually locked away in a form that is very difficult to absorb.

[Emmapemma in reply to fbirder]

I've been told not to recommend low salt as it has extra potassium in. I need to look this up really but I've never had it myself. But generally reducing salt intake is great.

[fbirder in reply to Emmapemma]

It does have potassium in it. KCl replaces some of the NaCl. The NHS advice is -

Taking 3,700mg or less of potassium supplements a day is unlikely to have obvious harmful effects.

To get 3.7 g of potassium from KCl you would need to eat 7 g of it. Low sodium salt is 67% KCl so you would need to eat 10 g of it - every day.

That is quite a lot.

[Gambit62 Administrator]

spinach is not a good source of iron - it's the one vegetable that is particularly difficult to get iron from despite popular myths based on the US government displacing decimal places in the 1930s.

folic acid, potassium etc don't actually help you utilise B12 and supplementing won't help unless you are deficient, meaning that the processes that use B12 and folic acid/iron etc aren't running as efficiently as they should, not because of the B12 deficiency but because you are deficient in the other vitamin and mineral.

If you have PA or another B12 absorption problems then it can quite easily affect your ability to absorb other micronutrients like minerals and vitamins. Generally you can get round this by focusing on foods that are risk in these micronutrients but if the absorption problem is significant you may need to supplement - but best to speak to GP/pharmacist about that. A dietician may also be able to help.

[deniseinmilden]

One way you can do it is to Google each of the nutrients you want to know about to find out the symptoms of deficiency and excess and what dietary sources you might like.

If you start with taking a broad spectrum multivitamin and mineral supplement plus get extra folate, potassium, magnesium and iron, maybe vitamin D, ideally from your diet, you won't be far away from providing all the vitamins and minerals required in the processes that use B12 to get most efficient response from your jabs.