Vitamin B6 is found in a wide variety of foods, including meats, corn, nuts, soybeans, wheat germ, oats, and molasses. Exposure to sunlight or heat can, however, decrease the natural levels of the vitamin in these items. The United States Food and Drug Administration’s Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of the vitamin is 2 milligrams, but the effects of consuming inadequate amounts of it are rather non-specific, dependent on other factors in the diet, and difficult to reproduce. In experiments with infants, however, vitamin B6 deficiency has been shown to produce central nervous system problems, such as convulsions that can be quickly ceased when the vitamin is dispensed to the child.
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