Everyone these days is into label reading and wanting to take vitamins. One such vitamin which is widely consumed by people is riboflavin. Riboflavin is also known as Vitamin B2 and commonly found in many vegetables and fruits. It is essential for a number of certain enzymatic processes in the body.
Most people obtain riboflavin by eating cheese, leafy green vegetables, drinking milk, consuming legumes, yeast, mushrooms or liver.
Riboflavin is essentially a safe vitamin and easily absorbed from the gut. Excess ingestion is usually excreted by the body. The only side effects of excess riboflavin are an occasional headache and dark yellow urine.
Riboflavin is found in many processed foods including baby foods, cereals, pasta, fruit drinks, milk products and pasta. Riboflavin is quite stable as long as the vitamin is kept away from light.
Riboflavin deficiency is extremely rare and only occurs in individuals who have a poor diet, have had extensive intestinal surgery or are not able to absorb the vitamin. Other than that most people do not need to take extra riboflavin. Experts claim that eating fruits and vegetables provides adequate vitamin B2 and consumption of pills is not necessary. Moreover, one shouldn’t forget that there are ample fake vitamin products and over the years, contamination of vitamins supplements has also been reported. Bottom line- eat a cardboard like pill or a delicious fruit?