# Zero B12 in cereal but 35% with milk..how **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 19, 2007, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zero-b12-in-cereal-but-35-with-milk-how/427058 "2007-11-19T18:15:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wisernow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@wisernow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wisernow)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zero-b12-in-cereal-but-35-with-milk-how/427058/1 "2007-11-19T18:15:17Z")
I was reading the nutrition information on a box of Kellog’s cereal. For vitamin B12( and for a few more like vitamin B6 etc.)the listing says that Vitamin B12 is zero with cereal but 35% of DV(Daily Value) with 250 ml of milk: What does this imply? Zero B12 in the cereal itself but 35% of Daily Value when taken with milk? Where does the B12 come from if it is zero in the cereal? Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Gus\_Gusterson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85f322/32.png) [@Gus\_Gusterson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gus_Gusterson)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zero-b12-in-cereal-but-35-with-milk-how/427058/2 "2007-11-19T18:16:41Z")
Is this a trick question? The B12 is in the milk. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zero-b12-in-cereal-but-35-with-milk-how/427058/3 "2007-11-19T18:46:14Z")
The bellboy has it. ---
**Author:** ![wisernow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@wisernow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wisernow)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zero-b12-in-cereal-but-35-with-milk-how/427058/4 "2007-11-19T19:10:21Z")
[QUOTE=Gus Gusterson] Is this a trick question? The B12 is in the milk. [/QUOTE] I don’t think so, because different brands of cereals gave different values for B12 (25% to 35%) with the same amount of milk. Second, fortified cereals are recommended to be a good source for vitamin B12 (from [here](http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/vitaminb12.asp)). If the B12 is only in the milk why recommend cereal and not milk itself? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zero-b12-in-cereal-but-35-with-milk-how/427058/5 "2007-11-19T19:12:36Z")
The wiki page on milk suggests 100g has 18% of the RDA of B[sub]12[/sub], so a typical “serving” with cereal (250ml, if I recall correctly) is in the neighborhood of 35%. There probably isn’t any calcium, magnesium or Vitamin A in the cereal either, until you add the milk. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zero-b12-in-cereal-but-35-with-milk-how/427058/6 "2007-11-19T19:18:48Z")
[QUOTE=wisernow] If the B12 is only in the milk why recommend cereal and not milk itself? [/QUOTE] I’m sure the milk lobby smiles when people say things like that. ---
**Author:** ![wisernow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@wisernow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wisernow)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zero-b12-in-cereal-but-35-with-milk-how/427058/7 "2007-11-19T20:05:31Z")
[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers] The wiki page on milk suggests 100g has 18% of the RDA of B[sub]12[/sub], so a typical “serving” with cereal (250ml, if I recall correctly) is in the neighborhood of 35%. There probably isn’t any calcium, magnesium or Vitamin A in the cereal either, until you add the milk. [/QUOTE] It implies that the cereal I was looking at is not one that has been “fortified”. Thank you. Any idea which ceral is fortied 100% (from the link above) to be a good source of B12? ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zero-b12-in-cereal-but-35-with-milk-how/427058/8 "2007-11-19T20:18:29Z")
Exactly what cereal box are you looking at in your OP? Fortified cereals like All-Bran, Special K and Total all have 100%, and most of the Kellog cereals I looked at online showed at least 25% for B[sub]12[/sub] for cereal alone. ---
**Author:** ![Mike\_Fun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a9adbd/32.png) [@Mike\_Fun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mike_Fun)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zero-b12-in-cereal-but-35-with-milk-how/427058/9 "2007-11-19T21:14:58Z")
Ceral is never fortied. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zero-b12-in-cereal-but-35-with-milk-how/427058/10 "2007-11-19T21:50:56Z")
I would suspect that: (a) People eat cereal for other reasons than to gain their B-6 and B-12 RDA – for example, milk is a **terrible** source of dietary fibre, while cereals, particularly bran and whole grain ones, are a fair to outstandingly good source of fibre. (b) The reason for the two nutritional-value tables is that typically people eat cereals with milk on them, not dry (and yes, there are a few exceptions). Ergo, a person interested in what proportion of his RDAs is being filled by his dish of breakfast cereal is not interested in taking the figure for one serving of dry cereal + [the figure for one serving (one glass) of milk / what fraction of a serving is normally put on cereal] – what he wants is what one serving of cereal with the normal amount of milk on it adds up to, in one easy-to-read place. Should he choose to eat it dry, or with vodka or durian juice in place of milk, he can use the dry-serving figure. If he’s in the overwhelming majority who eat cereal with milk, he’ll use the cereal-with-milk figure. © B-12 is needed in only microgram amounts in one’s RDA, and is very widespread in animal-derived foodstuffs. It is not a common constituent of plant-derived foodstuffs, though I believe it does occur in some. To say you get none in a bowl of cereal when typically that cereal is eaten with milk and provides B-12, is misleading. (Note that one can overdose on some nutrients, e.g., vitamins, though except for those with high sensitivity, only the fat-based vitamins and one or two organic minerals are typically seen in overdose quantities.) ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zero-b12-in-cereal-but-35-with-milk-how/427058/11 "2007-11-19T22:31:59Z")
Of minor note is the cereal packets we get with army field rations. They consist, usually, of oatmeal mixed with powdered milk. The package helpfully suggests adding water or, if you prefer, eat it dry. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/zero-b12-in-cereal-but-35-with-milk-how/427058/12 "2007-11-19T23:20:59Z")
[QUOTE=wisernow] Any idea which ceral is fortied 100% (from the link above) to be a good source of B12? [/QUOTE] [http://www.peertrainer.com/DFcaloriecounterB.aspx?id=1688](http://www.peertrainer.com/DFcaloriecounterB.aspx?id=1688) Total - 112%