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The B-Vitamins and Your Health
If you have ever read the food label on your cereal box, you have probably
wondered what words like riboflavin, folic acid, and pyridoxine mean. Truthfully,
each of these words describe one of the eight B vitamins that include
thiamine (B 1), riboflavin (B 2), niacin (B 3), pyridoxine (B 6), folate
(B 9), cyanocobalamin (B 12), pantothenic acid, and biotin.
Although the B vitamins are often grouped together, they each have very
specific functions for good health. The table that follows highlights
the essential functions of the B vitamins and foods that are good sources
for these vitamins.
B Vitamin |
Functions |
Food Sources |
Thiamin (B 1): |
Promotes a normal appetite, aids in
the release of energy from the foods you eat, and helps keep your
nervous system working properly and your muscles healthy.
|
Enriched, fortified or whole grain
products including cereals, rice, pasta, bread) and ready-to-eat
cereals |
Riboflavin (B 2): |
Aids in releasing energy from the
foods you eat; helps keep your hair, nails, and skin looking and
feeling healthy; and promotes normal vision.
|
Milk, yogurt, cheese, grains and grain
products (pasta, cereal, bread, rice), liver, poultry, fish, beef,
and eggs.
|
Niacin (B 3): |
Aids in the release of energy from
the foods you eat, helps your body to make essential fats used
for energy, and helps to keep your nervous system working properly.
|
Meats (all types), grains and grain
products (pasta, cereals, bread rice), dried beans and nuts, milk,
cheese, yogurt, and potatoes. |
Pyridoxine (B 6): |
Helps to keep your nervous system
working properly, helps build body proteins, and needed to form
red blood cells.
|
Oatmeal, bread, ready-to-eat cereals,
bananas, avocados, prunes, tomatoes, meats (all types), chicken,
dried beans, green and leafy vegetables, milk, and potatoes.
|
Folate (B 9, also known as
folic acid and folacin): |
Promotes development of red blood
cells, helps keep your digestive tract healthy, helps build body
proteins, is extremely important for women before and during pregnancy
for the health of your child, and reduces the risk of developing
heart disease.
|
Enriched cereal grains, enriched and
whole grain bread and bread products, fortified ready-to-eat cereals,
dark green and leafy vegetables (spinach, romaine, and collards),
broccoli, brussels sprouts, oranges, bananas, grapefruit, milk,
cheese, yogurt, and dried beans.
|
Cyanocobalamin (B 12): |
Helps to keep your nervous system
working correctly, needed to form normal red blood cells, and important
to overall proper functioning of body cells, especially those of
the digestive tract and bone marrow.
|
Fortified cereals, meat, fish, poultry,
eggs, milk, cheese, and yogurt.
|
Biotin: |
Used by the body to create essential
fats, proteins, and glycogen. |
Grains, pasta, cereal, bread, meats,
liver, dried beans, eggs, vegetables.
|
Pantothenic Acid: |
Aids in the release of energy from
the foods you eat.
|
Beef, chicken, whole grains, cereal
products, pasta, bread, vegetables, fruits, milk, cheese, and yogurt.
|
A good way to get the vitamins you need is by eating a variety of foods
from the five basic food groups: 1) grains (preferably whole) and grain
products, 2) vegetables, 3) fruits, 4) low fat or fat-free milk and milk
products, 4) low-fat or lean meats and poultry, fish, nuts, and beans,
and 5) oils. Make sure to include five or more servings of fruits
and vegetables a day. For better health, limit the amount of foods
you eat that contain more added sugars and solid fats.
Sources: Nutrition Now (Wadsworth Publishing
Co.), Judith Brown, MPH, PhD. Dietary Reference Intakes for Thiamin,
Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B 6, Folate, Vitamin B 12, Pantothenic Acid,
Biotin, and Choline, The National Academy
Press. MyPyramid.gov, U.S. Dept.
of Agriculture.
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