Thiamin intakes and erythrocyte thiamin levels in eleven-year-old children in the Western Cape.

Dietary intake of thiamin has been evaluated in a series of 615 eleven-year-old children in Western Cape Province, South Africa. Thiamin intakes, determined by 24-hour recall and local food composition tables, were highest in rural white children (boys 1.49 mg/day, girls 1.11 mg), followed by rural black (Xhosa) children (1.33, 1.15 mg), and lowest in rural (1.18, 1.11 mg) and urban coloured (Euro-African-Malay) subjects (1.11, 0.85 mg). The group means exceeded WHO recommended daily intakes except for urban coloured girls. Thiamin nutritional status was determined by automated microbiological assay of thiamin in erythrocytes in a subsample of 69 children. One urban coloured child was thiamin deficient. The highest mean value (69.4 micrograms/l) was found in rural coloured children, followed by their urban counterparts (64.8 micrograms/l) and black rural children (63.6 micrograms/l). Rural white children had the lowest mean value (60.3 micrograms/l). In general, thiamin stores in these children appear to be adequate.