Vitamin B1 | Everything You Need to Know
Vitamin B1 is an important nutrient that is necessary for the body to produce energy. Vitamin B1, also known as thiamine, can be found in foods such as whole grains and vegetables.
The main function of vitamin B1 is to help convert food into usable energy for the cells in your body. As a result, it’s crucial that you have enough of this nutrient available to avoid fatigue or irritability from low levels of energy production.
What is vitamin B1?
Vitamin B1 (Thiamine) is a water-soluble vitamin that helps food turn into energy. It is found naturally in many foods, including meat and whole grains like rice.
Thiamine is a sulfur-containing molecule that helps create energy and supports other chemical reactions. It also plays important roles in the functioning of the heart, liver, eyes, nervous system and muscles.
It is taken in combination with other B-complex vitamins and regulates important functions of the cardiovascular, endocrine, and digestive systems. The human body cannot produce thiamine, so it must be ingested from dietary sources.
Sources of vitamin B1
Vitamin B1 can be found through various sources, including peas, nuts and beans. It is also present in meat, fish, eggs, dairy products, soybeans, Asparagus and Acorn Squash.
| Source | Milligrams (mg) per 100g | |
|---|---|---|
 | White rice, long-grain, enriched, parboiled | 1.4 mg |
 | Egg noodles, enriched | 0.5 mg |
 | Porkchop | 0.4 mg |
 | Trout | 0.4 mg |
 | Black beans | 0.4 mg |
 | English muffin | 0.3 mg |
 | Mussels | 0.3 mg |
 | Tuna | 0.2 mg |
 | Macaroni | 0.2 mg |
 | Acorn squash | 0.2 mg |
 | – Brown Rice, long grain – Whole wheat bread – Orange juice, 1 cup – Sunflower seeds – Beef steak – Yogurt – Oatmeal – Corn – Milk, 1 cup – Barley | 0.1 mg |
Dietary recommendations
The Recommended Dietary Allowance for vitamin B1 is 1.1mg-1.2mg per day for adults, but this is difficult to be met through diet alone. Supplementing a healthy diet is recommended to ensure that the body receives adequate vitamin levels of thiamine.
Pregnancy – Lactation
| Life stage group | RDAs or AIs (mg RAE/day) | Upper limits (UL, mg/day) |
|---|---|---|
| <19 years | 1.4 mg | 1.6 mg |
| >19 years | 1.4 mg | 1.6 mg |
Infants
| Life stage group | RDAs or AIs (mgRAE/day) | Upper limits (UL, mg/day) |
|---|---|---|
| 0–6 months | 0.2 mg | 0.3 mg |
| 7–12 months | 0.3 mg | 0.4 mg |
Children
| Life stage group | RDAs or AIs (mg RAE/day) | Upper limits (UL, mg/day) |
|---|---|---|
| 1–3 years | 0.5 mg | 0.5 mg |
| 4–8 years | 0.6 mg | 0.6 mg |
Females
| Life stage group | RDAs or AIs (mg RAE/day) | Upper limits (UL, mg/day) |
|---|---|---|
| 9–13 years | 0.9 mg | 1.0 mg |
| 14–18 years | 1.0 mg | 1.2 mg |
| >19 years | 1.1 mg | 1.2 mg |
Males
| Life stage group | US RDAs or AIs (mg RAE/day) | Upper limits (UL, μg/day) |
|---|---|---|
| 9–13 years | 0.9 mg | 1.0 mg |
| 14–18 years | 1.2 mg | 1.3 mg |
| >19 years | 1.2 mg | 1.4 mg |
Dietary supplements
Dietary supplements including Vitamin B1 provide about 1.5 mg but are sometimes more. Multivitamin/multimineral supplements with thiamin typically have the higher dose of 1.5 mg, and a few offer lower doses as well. There are also products that include all parts of the vitamin B family or just one component.
There are two most common types of thiamin in supplements: Thiamin mononitrate and thiamin hydrochloride. They are stable and water-soluble. There is also a type of supplement that is not water-soluble. It needs to be converted to thiamin in the body.
Benefits of Vitamin B1
The vitamin is essential for the metabolism of carbohydrates, fats and protein to produce energy for your body’s cells. Thiamin also helps maintain healthy nerve function and muscle control and assists in forming red blood cells that deliver oxygen throughout the body.
Prevents nerve damage
Vitamin B1 is the superstar of healthy nerves. Without enough “fuel” from our diets going toward function, your nervous system can experience nerve damage and have trouble moving, learning, or remembering information.
Thiamine converts carbohydrates in food to provide much-needed energy for various parts of the body including those that are most important: your brain and central nervous system!
When we eat sugars they need a little help getting broken down by one enzyme called pyruvate dehydrogenase which works with thiamin derivatives like vitamin b1 on this job where it’s not doing all these other jobs at once without any support!”
Improves Cardiovascular System
Vitamin B1 supports a healthy cardiovascular system. Serving as an integral component of coenzymes, it is essential to numerous metabolic reactions. Plus, vitamin B1 plays an important role in the formation of red blood cells and nerves, muscle contractions and brain function.
The brain needs thiamine to make a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine. This is used to help the brain send messages between these nerves and muscles. The heart relies on this kind of message, so it is very important that we have enough thiamine in our bodies.
The nerves and muscles must be able to use energy to keep signaling. Recent studies have shown that thiamine can help with heart disease because it helps maintain healthy ventricular function and treat heart failure.
Boosts Immunity
Thiamine is important for the health of your gut. It helps to keep its muscle tone and supports your immune system. Digestive health is important for thiamine absorption because a healthy digestive tract allows you to extract nutrients from food better, which are used to boost immunity and defend you from getting sick.
Treating alcoholism is a benefit of vitamin B1
Thiamine is important for the health of your brain because it can help you avoid Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome. This syndrome can cause involuntary muscle movements, nerve damage, and trouble walking. It is related to low levels of thiamine and is often seen in alcoholics who don’t have a good diet.
High doses of thiamine have been shown to help people who have problems with alcohol to feel better.
Keeps Metabolism healthy
Thiamin helps keep your metabolism healthy when you are under stress, during dieting or after alcohol consumption.
Thiamine is an important part of the body. It helps make ATP which carries energy in the body. Without it, it would be hard to carry out many tasks. Thiamine also breaks down carbohydrates and proteins and fats to help give the body energy.
The coenzymatic form of thiamine (the one that is active) can be involved in 2 types of reactions: “decarboxylation” and “transketolation”. When you eat something that has thiamine, it goes into the blood and plasma cells. It then changes energy into what the body needs.
Thiamine is important for making red blood cells. It gives you energy and it helps with metabolism. You can find B vitamin supplements that say, “energy-boosting” or “healthy metabolism”. These are good for people who have metabolic disorders caused by genetic diseases.
Improves brain activity
Thiamine helps the brain and bodywork together. It is good at fighting a type of brain damage called a cerebellar syndrome. Doctors sometimes give patients high doses of thiamine to prevent problems with memory or when people are going through alcohol withdrawal. It can also decrease the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
Increases focus while learning
Thiamine is a vitamin that helps you focus and have energy. It also prevents chronic stress and may help with memory loss. Studies have shown that people who don’t get enough thiamine may not be able to learn or remember things easily.
Improves Mood
Vitamin B1 is thought to be important for maintaining a positive mood.
It works by supporting nerve impulses in the brain, and it can reduce feelings of nervousness (anxiety).
B vitamins are called anti-stress vitamins because they help you cope with stress. You need the energy to feel good and do things. B vitamins give you energy, mood, and defense against depression and anxiety.
Vision Problems prevention
Some research has shown that thiamine can help defend your eyes from problems like cataracts and glaucoma. This is because it affects the nerves and muscles that tell you information about what you see.
Deficiency of vitamin B1
A deficiency of thiamine can lead to beriberi, a disorder that causes muscle wasting and severe cardiovascular problems.
Thiamine deficiency is not very common in Western, developed nations. It’s believed that most adults meet their daily thiamine requirement, and with supplementation included, some adults may get significantly more than their required daily intake.
The deficiency symptoms can include:
- Irritability
- Confusion
- Fatigue
- short-term memory loss
- Muscle weakness
- Depression
- Nerve damage
- weight loss
- Gut issues
Health Risks from Excessive Vitamin B1
People who take too much thiamin may experience agitation, confusion, and hallucinations.
The latter two symptoms are more likely to arise when someone has a chronic illness or is taking prescription medications that affect the nervous system.
However, this can be countered by simply reducing their intake of thiamine-rich food and/or supplements.
Some people with hemochromatosis – an iron overload disorder – require as many as 300 mg of supplemental vitamin B12 per day even though they eat some high-iron foods daily; these individuals should not supplement with additional amounts of other vitamins like niacin or thiamine without medical supervision because doing so could lead to serious health consequences including damage to the heart muscle.
Final Thoughts
Vitamin B1 is very important for our body to function properly. It is also, important for the nervous system, and can be depleted by chronic illness or prescription medication which affects the nerves in your brain.
We recommend adding some of the best sources for Vitamin B as a supplement to your diet if you are not getting enough from food alone. A balanced, healthy diet is always one of the most important steps in preventing deficiency so it’s good that you’re already taking care of this! Vitamins
By NutriWins team
