Food sources of vitamin B3

Niacin, commonly known as vitamin B3, was the third water-soluble vitamin to be discovered. It encompasses both nicotinic acid (pyridine 3-carboxylic acid) and nicotinamide (nicotinic acid amide). These compounds are essential in forming coenzymes known as nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADP), which play crucial roles in the development and proper functioning of living cells in the human body.

Naturally, niacin can be found in a variety of foods and is also added to specific food products, including:

1.Poultry, beef, pork, anchovies, and fish
2.Certain types of peanuts, nuts, legumes, and grains
3.Enriched and fortified foods, such as various breads and cereals
4.Whole grains and whole meal wheat flour

In general, foods rich in protein, except for tryptophan-poor grains like corn and wheat, can partially fulfill the body's niacin requirements. Key dietary sources of tryptophan include meat, milk, and eggs.

Tryptophan, an amino acid, significantly contributes, accounting for up to two-thirds of the niacin activity needed by adults in their typical diets.

Peanut butter stands out as an excellent source of niacin, while fruits and vegetables can also provide valuable amounts depending on dietary intake. Additionally, whole grain cereals, bread, tea, and coffee serve as useful sources.

Human milk contains a higher concentration of niacin compared to cow's milk. In plants, especially in mature cereal grains like corn and wheat, niacin may combine with sugar molecules in the form of glycosides, leading to a notable reduction in niacin's bioavailability.

The importance of B3 (niacin) lies in its role in the body's processes to:

1.Convert food into glucose, which is utilized to produce energy
2.Generate macromolecules, including fatty acids and cholesterol
3.Facilitate DNA repair and manage stress responses.

For the majority of people in the United States, their dietary intake provides sufficient niacin, and instances of niacin deficiency are exceedingly rare in the country.
Food sources of vitamin B3

Niacin Nutrition

Niacin Nutrition
Niacin is a water soluble B vitamin important for DNA repair and energy metabolism.

Niacin is the name for two similar nicotinic acid and nicotinamide. In 1867, nicotinic acid was produced from nicotine in tobacco. In the early 1940s, with its role as a vitamin established, it was renamed “niacin” so people wouldn’t confuse it with nicotine.

Niacin is part of coenzyme that participates in the production and breakdown of carbohydrates, fatty acids, and amino acids. It involved in at least 200 metabolic pathways.

It is also a compound that dilates blood vessel. Deficiency on niacin causes pellagra a (disease that causes diarrhea, dermatitis, nervous disorders, and sometimes death).

Pellagra is characteristically associated with maize based diets.

The disease pellagra has been known since the introduction of corn to Europe in the 1770s. The connection between pellagra and niacin was confirm in 1937 by an American scientist who reaching for the cause of pellagra.

In industrialized country, particularly among alcoholics, niacin deficiency may present with only encephalopathy.

Niacin comes form the diet, but the body can also manufacture it from the amino acid tryptophan, with riboflavin helping out in the process.

Adults require 13-20 mg niacin. In pregnancy, lactation and active muscular work, niacin requirement is further increased by 3-4 mg. Children require 5-16 mg niacin.

Most niacin in the American diet comes from meat, poultry, fish, nuts and peanuts an enriched and while grain products.

In grains, niacin is present ion covalently bound complexes with small peptides and carbohydrates, collectively referred to as niacin.
Niacin Nutrition

Niacin deficiency

First documented in 1735 by a Spanish physician named Gaspar Casal the niacin deficiency disease pellagra was originally named ‘mal de la rosa,’ or ‘red sickness.’ Its due to the telltale redness that appears around the necks of people with the disease.

Pellagra means ‘rough skin’ in Italian. The great pellagra epidemic in America’s South did not emerged until the early twentieth century.

Because the niacin coenzymes NAD and NADP are involved in just about very metabolite pathway, niacin deficiency wreaks havoc throughout the body. It also that the depressive psychosis is assumed to be because of inadequate formation of the neurotransmitter serotonin as a result of tryptophan deficiency.

The classical features of endemic pellagra are dermatitis, inflammation of the mucous membranes, diarrhea and psychiatric disturbances.

The dermatitis often appears after exposure to sunlight and resembles sunburn.

Pellagra condones to plaque people living in Southeast Asia and Africa however, whose diet lack sufficient niacin and protein.
Niacin deficiency