Ever since moving my food tracking to spark people (gaining the capacity to track more nutrients), I have noticed I never seem to hit much over 50% RDA for pantothenic acid. As I became aware of this, I decided to do some research. First I sought out what pantothenic acid was, and learned it is vitamin B5. If you are curious to learn the nitty gritty, here is a link to the wiki (Pantothenic Acid).

Pantothenic Acid is considered essential, is needed to synthesize Coenzyme-A, and is required for the synthesis and metabolism of fats, carbohydrates, and proteins. Hum, sounds like I should up my intake.

Deficiencies are reported to be rare, since the vitamin is found in small quantities in almost everything. The highest concentrations are found in meat and whole grains, with broccoli and avocados even being mentioned on the wiki as being rich in the vitamin.

When I went to NutritonData, I did a search to see what foods were most abundant in pantothenic acid and found most of the top items to be cereals and organ meats- neither of which I am keen on eating. Here are some foods I am considering adding (or eating more of) based on what I did consider edible with a reasonable portion size:

* Sunflower Seeds———————— 20% VitB5 – 28g [160cals]
* Skiitake Mushrooms (4 dried) —– 33% VitB5 – 15g [44cals]
* Avocado ————————– 14% VitB5 – 100g  [160cals]
* Broccoli ————————— 6% VitB5 – 100g  [34 cals]

Here is the link to that particular nutrition search: Vit B5 Search

Pork is a fairly good source of VitB5, and the days I have a higher B5 intake are the result of higher pork intake and sunflower seeds. Since I am aware of Methionine restriction, I don’t particularly want to pile on some Met (in pork or other meats) just to up my Vit B5 intake, so I think adding dried shiitake mushrooms to my stir-fries is an easy compromise.

Update: I decided to supplement with B5 since shiitake mushroom will be $$ in the quantities I would need to eat.