An interesting article that explains that there is a thiamine deficiency throughout the food chain- to include humans. It was once though that B-1 deficiency in humans was caused by over consumption of alcohol (which is true), but in 1995 a scientist discovered that B-1 deficiency has affected the entire food chain not do to human actively, but natural processes.
Ominous B1 Deficiency Found Throughout Food Chain
STORY AT-A-GLANCE
- Vitamin B1 (thiamine) is used by nearly all your cells, metabolizing the carbohydrates and lipids in the foods you eat, helping to convert food into energy and boosting the flow of electrolytes in and out of your nerves and muscles
- Thiamine is important for healthy immune function, and may actually be crucial to protect against infectious respiratory illnesses such as COVID-19
- While thiamine deficiency is often the result of alcohol misuse, chronic infections, poor nutrition and/or malabsorption, recent research suggests vitamin B1 has dramatically declined throughout the food chain in recent years
- The transfer of thiamine up the food chain may be blocked by a number of factors, including the overabundance of thiaminase, an enzyme that destroys thiamine. Thiaminase is naturally present in certain microorganisms, plants and fish that have adapted to use it to their advantage
- Thiamine deficiency has been identified in dozens of animal species and is now suspected of driving declines in wildlife populations across the northern hemisphere. This means our diets are likely to be low in thiamine, thereby raising the risk for thiamine deficiency in the human population