By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD

A reader asked about nutritional yeast for a twelve month old boy.

If a child’s diet is nutritionally adequate or supplements are being used to insure intakes at the RDA level for age, nutritional yeast is not especially needed. Some families choose to use Vegetarian Support Formula nutritional yeast as a source of vitamin B12. I am not aware of any need to avoid this product for a healthy 1-year old. The RDA for vitamin B12 for a 1-3 year old is 0.9 mcg/day. Approximately 2 heaping
tablespoons of Large Flake Vegetarian Support Formula (VSF) nutritional yeast or 1.5 heaping tablespoons of Mini Flake provides 8 mcg of vitamin B12. (http://lesaffre-yeast.com/red-star/vsf.html). By my calculations, about 3/4 teaspoon of Large Flake VSF or 1/2 teaspoon of Mini Flake VSF would provide close to 0.9 mcg of vitamin B12, which is the 1-3 year old RDA for vitamin B12.

The contents of this posting and our other publications, including the Vegetarian Journal, are not intended to provide personal medical advice. Medical advice should be obtained from a qualified health professional. We often depend on product and ingredient information from company statements. It is impossible to be 100% sure about a statement, info can change, people have different views, and mistakes can be made. Please use your best judgment about whether a product is suitable for you. To be sure, do further research or confirmation on your own.