Journal of the American College of Nutrition, Vol 9, Issue 3 241-249, Copyright © 1990 by American College of Nutrition

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Effect of dietary fiber on the vitamin B6 status among vegetarian and nonvegetarian elderly (Dutch nutrition surveillance system)

M. R. Lowik, J. Schrijver, H. van den Berg, K. F. Hulshof, M. Wedel and T. Ockhuizen
TNO-CIVO Toxicology and Nutrition Institute, Department of Human Nutrition, Zeist, The Netherlands.

To obtain more insight into the effect of dietary fiber on vitamin B6 status among elderly people, we studied dietary interrelationships as well as associations between dietary intake and plasma pyridoxal-5'-phosphate (PLP) and cofactor stimulation of aspartate aminotransferase in erythrocytes (EAST-AC) among 441 nonvegetarian (aged 65-79) and 32 vegetarian elderly (aged 65-94). EAST-AC was found to be inversely related with intake of vitamin B6 and dietary fiber in bivariate regression analyses. After adjustment for age, intake of energy, protein, and fiber, the intake of vitamin B6 was still inversely related with EAST-AC. The association between EAST-AC and dietary fiber disappeared in the multivariate analysis, whereas total protein intake proved to be positively related with EAST-AC in the multivariate analysis only. The differences between bi- and multivariate analyses are most likely due to the observed interrelationships between intake of vitamin B6, fiber, and protein. It is concluded that dietary fiber does not have a significant impact on the vitamin B6 status among Dutch elderly people, since only protein (positively) and vitamin B6 (inversely) intake appeared to be related with EAST-AC in the multivariate analysis.