Cheerios, a General Mills breakfast cereal, contains many added vitamins and minerals, including vitamin B-12. Vitamin B-12 plays an essential role in neurological function, red blood cell formation, DNA synthesis, fat and protein metabolism and hemoglobin synthesis.
Percent Daily Value
The FDA set a daily value, or DV, of 6.0 micrograms for vitamin B-12. The National Institutes of Health identifies foods that provide 20 percent or more of a nutrient's daily value as good sources of that nutrient. A 1-cup serving of cheerios provides 25 percent of the recommended daily value for vitamin B-12. The same serving with ½ cup of skim milk provides 35 percent of the daily value for B-12. However, some fortified cereals may provide as much as 100 percent of the daily value for B12, according to the National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements.
Type of B-12
Dietary supplements and fortified cereals, such as Cheerios, contain synthetic vitamin B-12. Synthetic vitamin B-12 differs from natural B-12 in that it is not attached to protein. Before the body can absorb naturally occurring vitamin B-12 from foods, hydrochloric acid in the stomach must separate the vitamin from the protein. Synthetic vitamin B-12 is already free. Free vitamin B-12 attaches to the glycoprotein called intrinsic factor in the stomach before the body can absorb it. Individuals with low levels of hydrochloric acid, such as atrophic gastritis sufferers and people who have had gastrointestinal surgery, may be able to absorb synthetic vitamin B-12 more easily than natural B-12.
Advantages
Animal products, including meat, poultry, seafood, eggs and dairy products, provide the only natural food sources of vitamin B-12. Cereals fortified with synthetic vitamin B-12 provide one of the only dietary sources of B-12 for strict vegetarians and vegans. Data from the Framingham Offspring Study found that people who consumed fortified cereal more than four times a week were less likely to be deficient in vitamin B-12 than those who consumed fortified cereal less often, according to the National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements
Other Nutrients
Cheerios provides 14 vitamins and minerals including calcium, iron, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folic acid, phosphorous, magnesium, zinc and vitamins A, C, D and B6. A 1-cup serving of Cheerios contains 100 calories and 2 g of fat and has no saturated fat or cholesterol. This serving provides 170 mg of potassium, 3 g of fiber and 3 g of protein.
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