|| Nutrition Basics Home ||
Deficiency Diseases and Good Nutrition
Vitamin B2 (riboflavin)
C17H20N4O6
Riboflavin is needed in every cell of your body every day. It promotes repair and proper growth of tissue, and is essential for good digestion and steady nerves. It is also vital to correct metabolism. Riboflavin is an important component in FAD (flavin adenine dinucleotide) and FMN (flavin adenine mononucleotide). These two coenzymes are common helpers in the metabolism of fatty acids and glucose. They are produced by a reaction that requires the enzyme flavokinase. Flavokinase is regulated by thyroxin, a hormone produced in the thyroid. (Is your head spinning yet?) Therefore, if you have a thyroid problem, flavokinase cannot be produced to stimulate (with the help of riboflavin) FAD and FMN production, and you're not able to metabolize your food properly. If you have a thyroid problem, you're going to have some troubles with your metabolism. You probably already knew that, but now you know how riboflavin is involved in metabolism.

Riboflavin is also important in DNA and RNA metabolism. Animals fed no B2 had babies with extreme malformations in the skeletal system, because of mutations in the DNA. Low riboflavin can also cause degeneration of your nerves. Riboflavin is needed to stimulate the hormone that stimulates the adrenals to release their hormones. (The body is pretty complex.) Hormones from the adrenal glands are the ones that help you deal with stress, so you don't want to disrupt those! The hormones from the adrenal glands also control where and how fat is deposited.

The body has low stores of B2, so you need to eat enough of it to sustain you basically from a day to day basis. 



Foods High in Vitamin B2

Liver, beef, 3 oz.                      3.52 mg
Ice milk, soft serve, 1 cup             0.54 mg
Milk, 2%, 1 cup                         0.40 mg
Yogurt, fruit flavored, low fat, 1 cup  0.40 mg
Brewer's yeast, 1 Tbls.                 0.34 mg
Egg, 1                                  0.26 mg
Pork, roast loin, 3 oz.                 0.24 mg
Cheese, feta, 1 oz.                     0.23 mg
Hamburger, lean, 3 oz.                  0.22 mg
Spinach, fresh, ckd, 1/2 cup            0.21 mg
Cheese, cottage, 2% fat, 1/2 cup        0.21 mg
Bagel, plain, 1                         0.20 mg
Chicken, dark meat, 3 oz.               0.19 mg
Milk, mother's, 1 cup                   0.09 mg
Rice, brown, cooked, 1 cup              0.05 mg

|| Walton Home Page || Walton Self Reliance Home || Nutrition Basics Home ||
Web Page Maintenance: Al Durtschi, E-mail: mark@waltonfeed.com

Note: Alisha is unable to answer your questions as she's at college.

Home Page: http://waltonfeed.com/ http://rainydayfoods.com

All contents copyright (C) 1999, Walton Feed Inc.  All rights reserved.

This information may be used by you freely for noncommercial use with this URL and my E-mail address attached.

Revised: 14 Sep 99