B-Complex Vitamin: The Best Vitamin That Protects the Digestive System

Experiments are the best scientific tools to determine a result. I was introduced to the methods very early in my secondary school days. I still remember lots of others, like Frederick Gowland Hopkins's experiments on vitamins and rats. The B complex vitamins are essential nutrients affecting carbohydrates, fats, and protein digestion. The lack of vitamins in a diet can factor in certain illnesses like Wernicke-Korsakoff-syndrome and beriberi, seen in persons who drink too many alcoholic beverages and eat sugars. Vitamin B deficiencies noted in rice-eating communities are no longer significant, as the meals are now being supplemented with fish, milk, meat, eggs, birds; fresh fruits, and green leafy vegetables.

Experiments are not to be taken on a light note, but seriously. However theoretical, absurd, and opinionated, it is a pointer to facts that can be investigated, tested, and verify; and correct conclusions or inferences arrived at. It would be absurd to think that an experiment to re-create Leonardo da Vinci, the legendary artist and scientist, is outright stupidity. The experiment is real and here are the facts if you have not realized it in 'extra' biology lessons.

The parents of Leonardo da Vinci were Piero and Caterina. Years later, Piero had a third wife, and Bertommeo results from the union. When Signor Leonardo passes away, Bartommeo attempt to recreate his late father in his outward appearance! In Vinci, Italy, he found a girl whose looks match that of Caterina. He married her and Piero Jr. that was born looks like Leonardo da Vinci! This experiment tells us that nothing is to be taken for grant. Feel free to test or challenge any of the stories you read.

After digesting 'pure' starch of white flour, white bread, biscuits, custards, and tapioca, lethargy instead of the release of energy is the result. The lack of the B-complex vitamins or groups of related B-complex items is factoring in this. The same can be said of 'inorganic' fats and proteins.

Professor Hopkins’s experiment with rats attests to the fact. He fed the tiny creatures with enough pure foods: carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, and all the rats died. In the second test with the same 'pure foods', after some time (18 days specific) he added 'fruit juice', and experimented also with dilute fresh milk. Practically, all the rats got nourished and survive. This made Hopkins realize that fruit juice, including fresh milk, contained some nutrients that kept the rats alive. These nutrients he identified as 'accessory food substances' that include the groups of B-complex vitamins. Vitamin results from the word 'amines' invented by Polish chemist Casimir Funk, to describe the accessory food substances.

Before the Hopkins experiment, rats and wild animals are constantly taking advantage of the vitamins in the wild environment. Deficiency diseases in man prompt Hopkins and other scientists to investigate the challenge.

Vitamins are essential living organic nutrients in a diet that maintain the biological, chemical, and physiological functions in the body. That is the reason why cooked fruits, overcooked vegetables, grains, nuts, and cereals do not do the body any good. Any biological living things in them like vitamin C, B-complex, and folate are destroyed or killed. B-complex vitamins, C, and folate can all be destroyed by extreme heat. In fact, all fruits should not be cooked; and green leafy pumpkin vegetables should be cooked for only two minutes. Peanuts should be barked half in their raw state to maintain their essential living ingredients. For that reason, I regularly chew fresh raw peanuts.

Vitamin or vitality sets the sparks on the carbohydrates, fats, oils, and protein we eat to release energy for work and motion. The B-complex is at least a group of eight B- vitamins. Thiamine or B₁ acts on starch and sugars and helps its digestion. Riboflavin or B₂, and biotin (vitamin H) will act on fats and oils, and proteins making them easy to absorb. Pyridoxine or B₆ also takes on proteins. At times, certain B-vitamins work in synergy with more than one B vitamin-like B₁ and B₂ with B₆ for a better result. All B-complex except B₁₂ and biotin is gotten outside the body. B₁₂ is made by floral intestinal bacteria in the intestine of men and animals. Supplements of B₁₂ in capsule or tablet form are usually prescribed by a qualified medical doctor or pharmacist for dietary deficiency, and as supplements for pregnant mothers. Like B₁₂, biotin is also made available by intestinal bacteria.

Exception for B₁ or thiamine, the other B-complex, are soluble in oil and are less affected by heat. Nevertheless, extreme heat should be avoided when preparing foods that supply B-complex vitamins. The vitamin is retained in the body between 24 and 36 hours. Deficiency can occur after a month, but the liver can store B₁₂ for 3 months.

The best source of B-complex is brewer’s yeast. Food and nutrition yeast are good sources. Wheat germ is a significant source of these vitamins. Naturally, whole grain cereals like beans, peas, brown rice, nuts, and seeds are sourced. Bread and biscuits made with whole grains are a good source. All fresh fruits and leafy greens are good. Meat, fish or seafood, hard-boiled eggs, milk, cheese, and birds are also significant. The liver of meat apart from brewer’s yeast is also a better source.

Synthetic B-complex should only be taken by a doctor’s or pharmacist's prescription. Exceeding the dosage can amount to drug abuse.

As B-complex can be affected by too much extreme heat, so it is advisable to cook organic natural foods: grains and cereals, and roots for less than 35 minutes to retain their active ingredients. Meat and fish steam for 10 minutes; hard-boiled eggs should take not more than 10 minutes to deactivate avidin in the egg that prevents biotin from being absorbed into the bloodstream.

Here is the complete listing of the B-complex vitamin:

B₁ or thiamine.

B₂ or riboflavin.

B₃ or nicotinamide or niacin (nicotine acid).

B₅ or pantothenic acid.

B_{6 or} pyridoxine.

B₇ or biotin.

B₉ or folate.

B₁₂ or cobalamin, or cyanocobalamin. It is called methylcobalamin in supplementary form.

Obviously, the B-complex is more than a nutritional vitamin. Lack of it will weaken the body, though enough quantity of food is being eaten. As Hopkins discovered, the rats lost weight, look pale, and died. The same thing applies to the human body. Persons who eat lots of pure polished rice or overcooked corn meals are struck with the disease beriberi and pellagra. The digestive system will be disturbed; follow by the musculoskeletal system and the circulatory system. Unless B-complex therapy prescribed by a qualified medical practitioner is taken in time, it can lead to a nervous breakdown. Therefore, to prevent and cure any B-complex deficiencies, eat organic foods regularly. Supplement this by adding Brewer’s yeast to plates of soups, rice, bean, and salads. I was introduced to this nutrient in my secondary school days.

Some B-complex like biotin (vitamin H) and pantothenic acid (vitamin B₁₂) seem to be available in almost all-natural foods. Like B₁₂, biotin is also synthesized by human bacteria in the intestines and found in all organic foods. Deficiencies of biotin and pantothenic acid are rare in human nutrition. Biotin comes from the Greek word 'bios' or life, and it is the same word from which biology, the study of living things, is derived. So, like pantothenic acid or B₁₂, biotin is abundant in nature. Biotin impacts life healthily. You name a food a man can eat, and you have got biotin along with it, except man-made alcohols, spirits, beers, and sugar.

B-complex vitamins are widespread in nature. Nearly all the foods known by man contain B-complex. Therefore, it is best you make use of organic foodstuff as a primary source of your intake of vitamins. Medical prescriptions of synthetic counterparts on account of illness must adhere to the letter.

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5. B-complex vitamins