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Major Dietary Constituents and Vitamin B₁₂ Requirement¹

Department of Agricultural Chemistry, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri

The effects of the concentration of two major dietary constituents, protein and fat, and of the type of carbohydrate on the vitamin B₁₂ requirement of the rat were investigated. The criteria of adequacy of the diets were growth rate of weanling rats, reproduction and lactation performance of mature females and the incidence of gross malformations among the offspring. The basal diet contained sucrose, 10% of fat and 30% of soy protein. One diet contained 60% of soy protein, one 30% of fat, one lactose and one glucose. All supplements were added at the expense of sucrose.

The high-protein and high-fat diets slightly increased the growth response to vitamin B₁₂, but the interaction was not statistically significant. High protein decreased reproduction but did not increase the incidence of congenital anomalies. High fat tended to improve the reproduction and lactation performance in the absence of vitamin B₁₂ but had no effect on congenital malformations.

Glucose gave results entirely comparable to those obtained with sucrose. In the absence of vitamin B₁₂, lactose impaired reproduction but tended to decrease the incidence of abnormal offspring.

Manuscript received 21 July 1961.