Evaluation of vitamin B6 status and RDA in young Koreans

Aims and Methods: The vitamin B-6 status of 294 healthy young Koreans (149 men, 145 women), aged 17-25 years, was estimated to establish the Korean Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for vitamin B-6. The dietary vitamin B6 intake was estimated based on a three-day recall method. Results: The average daily vitamin B-6 intake of the subjects was 1.504 +/- 0.825 mg/day (1.567 +/- 0.968 mg/day for men and 1.439 +/- 0.644 mg/day for women). The average ratio of vitamin B-6 intake to daily protein intake was 0.019 +/- 0.001 mg/g (0.015 +/- 0.001 mg/g for men and 0.023 +/- 0.001 mg/g for women). Foods from animal and plant sources provided 35.68 +/- 16.16 and 64.18 +/- 16.29% of total vitamin B-6. Plasma pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP) concentration of the subjects was 29.26 +/- 16.84 nmol/l (30.52 +/- 20.18 nmol/l for men and 28.21 +/- 13.28 nmol/l for women). The vitamin B-6 intake of the subjects whose PLP concentration was 130 nmol/l was 0.019 +/- 0.001 mg vitamin B-6/g protein intake (0.017 +/- 0.001 and 0.023 +/- 0.001 mg vitamin B-6/g protein intake for men and women, respectively). The intake of vitamin B-6 was significantly (p < 0.01-p < 0.001) positively correlated with the intake of all other nutrients. However, no significant correlation was found between PLP concentration and all nutrients examined. Conclusion: Our suggested adequate Korean RDA for vitamin B-6 in young Koreans is 1.6 mg/day or 0.02 mg/g of protein intake in men and 1.5 mg/day or 0.02 mg/g of protein intake in women. Copyright (C) 2004 S. Karger AG, Basel.