There are lots of B vitamins, and chances are—if you’ve ever scanned a nutrition label—you know the names of a few of them, so names like riboflavin, niacin, and thiamine aren’t foreign to you.  Well, that’s all well and good, but just because you’ve heard of thiamine and you know it’s also known as vitamin B1, you don’t necessarily know what it does or how you can make sure you get it.

All B vitamins are water soluble vitamins, meaning any excess you take in is flushed out of your body in the urine; it also means these vitamins must be replenished daily.  There are eight B vitamins altogether, and thiamine is just one of them.  All B vitamins help your body process the food you eat into energy your body can use; in addition, B vitamins assist the body in the formation of red blood cells.

A thiamine deficiency can cause a host of problems, including the diseases beriberi, Korsakoff syndrome, and Wernicke’s disease, so you want to make sure you get your vitamin B1.  Adult women should make sure their thiamine intake is at least 1.1 milligrams a day, and—believe it or not—it’s not that hard to make sure you get plenty of vitamin B1 in your diet each day.  You can get .21 milligrams of thiamine in a half-cup serving of peas and .19 milligrams in a one cup serving of cooked long grain brown rice.  You can also get .72 milligrams from a 3 ounce serving of pork.

If you’d rather cover your bases and obtain your vitamins through a supplement, you can rest assured that most supplements have the amounts you’ll need.  For example, Nature Made’s Multi for Her has 100% of what you need daily for thiamine.  One bottle has 90 tablets and can be found at most food and drug stores for around $5.  If you’d prefer a vegetarian vitamin tablet, Deva’s Multivitamin and Mineral supplement contains 833% of your daily needs; you can purchase 90 tablets from Deva for less than $11, and it’s easy to buy online.

So, “B” smart, healthy, and watch your pennies—make sure you get plenty of thiamine in your daily diet.

Sources:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/bvitamins.html /> http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/DRI//DRI_Thiamin/58-86_150.pdf /> http://www.healthsupplementsnutritionalguide.com/recommended-daily-allowances.html /> http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002401.htm /> http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/vitamins/thiamin/ />