Yo pensaba eso también Harprakash, hasta que me he leído el paper completo, y:
Cobalamin status according to diet
All but 3 of the subjects consumed dairy products and 98% of the subjects consumed them daily.
Of the 84 subjects who reported that they never ate eggs, 78 were vegetarians. Only one subject adhered to a strict vegan diet, ie, no consumption of mut- ton, poultry, fish, eggs, or dairy products. Thus, most of the vegetarians ate a lactovegetarian diet.
Of the nonvegetarians, 22 ate animal derived products rarely, ie, eggs, mutton, poultry, or fish <1 time/mo. Fifty-six subjects reported that they consumed at least one of these food groups between 1 time/wk and 1 time/mo. Forty-eight subjects ate one of these food groups >1 time/mo; of these subjects, 28 ate eggs, mutton, and poultry ≥2 times/wk. There was a strong correlation between the frequency of intake of each of the 4 food groups, from 0.76 (mutton versus fish) to 0.88 (mutton versus poultry).
The vitamin status and hematologic indexes of the vegetarians and nonvegetarians are shown in Table 5*. Hemoglobin concentrations were somewhat lower and the prevalence of macrocytosis was higher in the vegetarians than in the nonvegetarians; however, the differences, although statistically significant, were not pronounced. Significantly more vegetarians were cobalamin deficient; however, neither the concentrations of cobalamin, and elevated MMA concentrations differed significantly between the 2 groups. Of the subjects who reported consuming eggs, mutton, and poultry >2 times/wk (n = 28), 36% had cobalamin deficiency, 61% had elevated MMA concentrations, and 79% had hyperhomocysteinemia.
Overall, the frequency of intake of animal-derived food items was weakly correlated with cobalamin status.
The strongest relation was with serum cobalamin, followed by holoTC, tHcy, and MMA concentrations (data not shown). Significant associations were observed between the frequency of intake of mutton and concentrations of cobalamin (r = 0.19, P < 0.01), holoTC (r = 0.17, P = 0.017), and tHcy (r = Ϫ0.16, P = 0.038). Serum cobalamin was also significantly associated with the frequency of intake of poultry (r = 0.15, P = 0.038). The frequency of intake of eggs or fish was not significantly associated with cobal- amin, holoTC, tHcy, or MMA concentrations (data not shown).
The risk of cobalamin deficiency, adjusted for age, sex, and disease category, was significantly increased in subjects who rarely consumed mutton (OR: 2.93; 95% CI: 1.58, 5.41), eggs (OR: 1.91; 1.06, 3.45), or poultry (OR: 2.24; 1.22, 4.10). Low fish intake was not significantly associated with cobalamin deficiency (OR: 1.55; 0.86, 2.81). In a model including frequencies of fish, poultry, mutton, and egg intakes, only an infrequent intake of mutton remained significantly associated with cobalamin deficiency (OR: 8.36; 1.64, 42.61). Repeating the analyses in only nonvegetarians did not materially alter the results.
*(la tabla 5 es muy interesante)
Los parásitos podría ser una explicación, Lucía, pero en este caso lo dudo. No había niños, ni ancianos en el grupo estudiado (más de 200 individuos); más de las dos terceras partes tenían diagnosticados CVD, diabetes o ambas (lo que sugiere un cierto control médico); y por último: a más de las tres cuartas partes se les detecta un status carencial de B12, sin encontrar relación con la cantidad de producto animal en sus dietas, ni tampoco con sus dolencias.
Suspicious...