The prevalence of supplementation of B12 vitamin in vegetarian of Blumenau regional university (FURB)

Abstract

The vegetarian diet is common in the world. In Brazil about 14% of the population is vegetarians, representing around 30 million people, according to estimates of the Brazilian Vegetarian Society. The objective of this study is to evaluate the prevalence of vitamin B12 supplementation in vegetarians at the Regional University of Blumenau (FURB), since vitamin B12 is synthesized by bacteria and found in animal products, isn’t present in adequate quantities in products of plant origin, since the plants don’t need vitamin B12.  The research was carried out with vegetarians FURB students. A questionnaire with 13 questions was applied by Google form and sent by e-mail, for 20 people, with questions regarding vitamin B12 supplementation and vegetarianism. The results were transformed into graphs to better understand and interpret the data. It was found that 60% of the participants were lacto-ovo-vegetarians and 40% strict vegetarians, 50% made vitamin B12 supplementation where the majority does oral supplementation and 15% use 2.4 to 100mcg per day. It is possible to observe that 75% of the participants of the research are followed up with biochemical tests, which is important to evaluate the need for supplementation. Regarding the symptoms, 35% do not present symptoms, fact that can be associated to the short period of diet, less than 3 years. Since vitamin B12 has hepatic stock. It was concluded that vitamin B12 supplementation, although necessary, is not adopted by the vegetarians in this study, even most doing supplementation.