Supplementation with beef or milk markedly improves vitamin B12 status of Kenya schoolers

This paper reports on a two year controlled intervention with animal source foods, initiated in Embu, Kenya, to improve the micronutrient status of 6-9 year old rural Kenyan school children and test if animal source foods improve growth and cognitive function as well.

Twelve schools were randomly assigned to three different but equi-calorific food supplements. A local maize and bean stew (githeri) was used as the basic dish to which was added oil, beef, and milk respectively for each of the groups. Feedings were provided as a morning school snack 5 days/week. A control group received no school feeding. At baseline, 38% of children had severe and 30% of children had moderate vitamin B12 deficiency.

Findings:

• in years 1 and 2 respectively, plasma B12 (ng/L) increased by 55 and 201 ng/L (p<0.0013 - 0.0001) in the meat group; 84 and 126 ng/L (p< 0.0013 - 0.0001) in the milk group; and did not change appreciably in the added oil group or control groups. The increase of vitamin B12 concentration in the meat group was significantly greater than in the milk group at the end of year 2 (p= 0.0017)
• after 2 years of school feeding, severe deficiency in the meat group was nearly eliminated and greatly reduced in the milk group. Because vitamin B12 was alleviated by supplementation with animal products, the cause of B12 deficiency appears to be due mainly to low intake of animal source foods rather than to malabsorption due to infection

The paper concludes that modest amounts of milk and meat can greatly improve vitamin B12 status and eliminate severe vitamin B12 deficiency overall as diet greatly improves.