Vitamin C is found in citrus fruits, vitamin A in carrots, but what about vitamin B12? Read here to find out which foods contain the super vitamin.
Vitamin B12 – that doesn’t mean anything to many people at first. Compared to other vitamins like vitamin C, vitamin D or folic acid (vitamin B9), B12 is less well known. But that doesn’t make it any less important! Because vitamin B12 (also: cobalamin) is involved in numerous essential processes in our body.
The vitamin is mainly absorbed through food. To guarantee a sufficient B12 intake, you should eat foods rich in vitamin B12 every day.
Why is vitamin B12 so important for us?
Our daily requirement of vitamin B12 is not particularly high: according to the Nutrition Society (DGE), the (adult) body only needs about 4 micro-grams of B12 per day. At first glance, that sounds like quite a small amount. Pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers have a somewhat higher requirement of 4.5 and 5.5 micro-grams respectively. But even if small amounts of the vitamin are enough, it fulfills an important role for our organism.
B12 is needed, for example, for the formation of red blood cells, which are responsible for oxygen transport, among other things. If the organism does not absorb enough vitamin B12, this can lead to anaemia.
In addition, the vitamin is involved in cell formation and cell growth, as well as in the formation of DNA and RNA, the hereditary substances.
Vitamin B12: The best foods
Foods rich in vitamin B12 are almost exclusively of animal origin. Those who do without meat, fish, eggs and dairy products therefore have a hard time.
Good to know: Sea buckthorn berries are practically the only plant food that is supposed to contain vitamin B12, according to information from the Federal Centre for Nutrition (BZFE). However, the results of the measurements vary greatly, and often no B12 could be measured.
Vitamin B12-rich foods at a glance:
- Eggs
- Meat & offal
- Oysters
- Fish
- Cheese
- Sea buck thorn berries
Which foods are particularly rich in vitamin B12 ?
Meat contains plenty of vitamin B12, as do cheese and fish. But exactly how many grams of the valuable vitamin are in the different foods?
Here is a table of foods with particularly high vitamin B12 content :
(in micro-grams (µg) per 100 g)
- Beef liver/calf liver: 65 µg
- Oysters: 14.5 µg
- Rabbit: 10 µg
- Herring: 8.5 µg
- Trout: 4.5 µg
- Beef: 5 µg
- Camembert: 3 µg
- Emmental cheese: 3.1 µg
- Hen’s egg: 1.8 µg
Meeting vitamin B12 needs in everyday life: Small amounts of these foods are enough
If you take a look at the list of foods rich in vitamin B12, you will quickly see that you can easily cover your daily requirement – just a few grams are enough.
- If you like cheese, it is enough to eat two slices of Emmental and a little Camembert.
- If you eat meat several times a week and fish regularly, you will also fill up your vitamin B12 stores.
To get enough vitamin B12, vegetarians should eat foods like eggs and cheese every day. Yogurt and other dairy products also contain vitamin B12, but in smaller amounts. Deficiency symptoms are rare; in most cases, the requirement can be well covered.
The situation is different for vegans, who eat only plant-based foods and avoid all foods of animal origin. Since vitamin B12 is primarily found in animal foods, they should have their B12 level checked regularly by a doctor by means of a blood test and may have to supplement it with food supplements.
Since the vitamin can be stored by the body for a good three years, it takes a while before a deficiency occurs. To prevent a vitamin B12 deficiency, vegans should take vitamin B12 supplements:
- Take preparations or food supplements with vitamin B12.
- Prefer foods to which the vitamin has been added, e.g. soy milk.
