Niacin (B3, niacin equivalents), food by food

Health Canada’s Dietary Reference Intakes, adults 19–30. The word beside each food says how much of that one serving gives, read against the higher amount, 16 mg, which is the men’s: for the other sex a serving counts for more.

The plain words beside each food: “a lot” means one serving gives at least 20% of the daily amount, “some” at least 10%, “a little” at least 2%; below that it says “almost none”. Each row prints its percentage of the daily amount, rounded to a whole number, and the word is read from that printed percentage (a row at 9.6% prints 10% and reads “some”). The cut-offs are ours, one set for every page: 20% and 10% are borrowed from the US labelling terms “high” and “good source”, and applied to Health Canada’s daily amount; Health Canada’s own shopper rule says 15%, and we keep one number so a percentage never changes meaning (provisional: they may change in a later method version).

Niacin is counted in niacin equivalents (NE): 1 NE is 1 mg of niacin, or 60 mg of tryptophan, an amino acid in protein that your body can turn into niacin. Each food’s figure adds the two.

What it does: NIH Office of Dietary Supplements, niacin fact sheet for health professionals. How much a day: Health Canada, Dietary reference intakes tables: Reference values for vitamins.