Food is for the soul, it's obvious, who doesn't like to eat? But a second before you run to cook for fun and eat for fun, you might want to consider how you can add to all that fun also important nutritional value, such as vitamin B12, a very essential component of your body that you really don't want to miss. Get: Why is it important to have vitamin B12 in food, what foods with B12 are recommended to bring into the menu, and if you are vegetarian or vegan and suffer from vitamin B12 deficiency - what to eat?
Vitamin B12: It's important to know
Vitamin B12 is essential and even critical for the proper functioning of the brain and nervous system and for the prevention of anemia. It is involved in the production of red blood cells and DNA cells, and in fact, the metabolism of each cell in the body is dependent on vitamin B12, because it plays a role in fatty acid synthesis and energy production. The human body produces millions of red blood cells every minute, but these cells cannot reproduce properly without vitamin B12. When vitamin B12 levels are too low, red blood cell production decreases and as a result may develop anemia.
And how much vitamin B12 do we need? For adolescents and adults over 14 years of age, it is recommended to consume 2.4 micrograms (mcg) of vitamin B12 per day. Pregnant women should receive 2.6 mcg of vitamin B12 a day and women breastfeeding 2.8 mcg.
What happens when we lack vitamin B12?
When the body does not receive enough vitamin B12, a deficiency can occur, a condition that can cause severe and irreversible damage to the nervous and brain systems. Even slightly lower than normal levels of Vitamin B12 can cause deficiency symptoms, such as depression, confusion, memory problems, and fatigue. When symptoms worsen, they can include neurological changes, such as numbness and tingling in the hands and feet. Some people may have difficulty maintaining balance, and others may develop psychosis and dementia.
Vitamin B12 deficiency can lead to anemia as a result, and then symptoms include fatigue, shortness of breath, and irregular heartbeat. People with anemia may also experience mouth or tongue pain, weight loss, pale or yellowing skin, diarrhea, and hypersensitivity to infections.
Adequate intake of vitamin B12 and proper absorption are the keys to the existence of vitamin in the body's required amount. There are populations that are more at risk of developing vitamin B12 deficiency, such as older people, people with vitamin uptake problems caused by various health conditions, and vegetarians and vegans who do not consume enough vitamin B12.
Meet the daily requirement: foods with B12
So which foods contain vitamin B12 and how much of the daily vitamin intake do they provide?
- The liver is the richest food in vitamin B12 - one serving of 100 grams of chicken liver contains 16 mcg, which is about 6 times what you need per day.
- Boiled (hard-boiled) egg will give you about 0.6 mcg, which is about a quarter of the daily amount of B12 required.
- From 100 grams of ground beef, you can get about 2 mcg of vitamin B12, almost the amount of its daily vitamin you need.
- White tuna preserved in weight of 100 grams will give you 2 mcg of vitamin B12, a battle for the daily amount you need. While cooked tuna can give you even 10-9 mcg per 100 grams - 4-3 times the daily amount you need.
- From low-fat milk, you will earn 1.2 mcg of vitamin B12 - about half of the recommended daily intake.
- Low-fat yogurt also contains a nice dose of vitamin B12 - 170 grams will give you 1.3 mcg of vitamin B12.
- And if you eat 100 grams of salmon fish, you will be arranged for a full day - as they contain 3 mcg of vitamin B12.
Not touching the meat? Vitamin B12 in plant foods
If you are a vegan or a vegetarian, you probably have to worry a lot about the B12 food issue, and rightly so, since most of the vitamin plants do not exist, and your risk of developing vitamin B12 deficiency is greater compared to people who eat animal foods. The only foods that provide it are meat, eggs, poultry, dairy products, and other animal-derived foods, and so is the recommendation for vegetarians and vegans to take a vitamin B12 supplements.
Vitamin B12 deficiency: what to eat?
Is it possible to satisfy our body requirements for vitamin B12 only from plants? This seems like an easy task. B12 can be found in some vegetarian foods, such as fortified cereals - which can contain even a good amount of B12 - and fermented soybeans (Tampa). There are also some edible algae such as spirulina, nori, and chlorella, which contain vitamin B12, but the concentration of the vitamin in them varies according to their method of growth and type of crop, and products containing them do not always contain vitamin B12 which is also biologically available, so it is difficult to be trusted as an exclusive source of vitamin B12. There are also edible mushrooms that contain vitamin B12, such as shiitake, but you have to eat a large amount of them daily to get the required amount of B12, which is actually difficult to consume daily. What's more - a vegetarian diet usually contains a large amount of folic acid, which can hide in the blood tests the fact that vitamin B12 deficiency develops, so the recommendation for vegans and vegetarians Not enough to consume dairy and egg products, consume vitamin B12 in the supplement so as not to get into situations of deficiency, which can be dangerous.
