Question

Gina is a college sophomore. An analysis of her diet shows that she consumes less than the RDA for vitamin C and more than the RDA for thiamin. Does she have a vitamin C deficiency? Is she at risk of thiamin toxicity? What other factors need to be considered before you can draw any conclusions about her nutritional status?

Answer 1

The RDA for vitamin C is 5 mg daily for women and 90 mg for men. These amounts are several times what's needed to treat deficiency symptoms. The classic vitamin C deficiency disease is scurvy. The thiamin dosage underneath is the (RDA), Male 1.4 mg per day and female 1.0 mg per day, although 50 mg is usually used in supplementation. Thiamin toxicity is uncommon; as excesses are readily excreted, although long term supplementation of amount larger than 3 gram have been known to cause toxicity. A lack of thiamin cause the disease beriberi.

In this case, Gina should take lots of fruits and vegetables added to her diet to increase her vitamin C, many other food have small amounts of this nutrients. thus, through a varied diet, she should be able to meet the vitamin C RDA or at least obtain enough to prevent scurvy.