How to Eat More Vitamin B

Co-authored by Claudia Carberry, RD, MS

Last Updated: September 16, 2021 Approved

Vitamin B is actually a group of 8 different vitamins, all of which play an important role in your body. Some B vitamins help break down food to make energy, while others help ward off headaches, support your immune system, ensure healthy pregnancies, and many other things. The best way to absorb enough B vitamins is through a healthy diet, but you can eat foods that are rich in them and use supplements to boost your intake.

Method 1

Method 1 of 2:

Getting More B Vitamins from Your Diet

1
Get more meat in your diet to increase your B vitamin levels. Red meat, pork, chicken, and seafood are all loaded with B vitamins. If you’re trying to increase the amount of vitamin B that you eat, increasing the amount of meat that you eat is an easy way to do it.^{[1]
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- Red meat provides high levels of B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, and B12, while pork is rich in B1, B2, B3, B5, and B6. Chicken and turkey are less potent but do contain large amounts of B3, B5, and B6.
- Fish like salmon provides high levels of 6 of the 8 B vitamins: B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, and B12. Trout has more B1, B2, B5, and B12 than almost any other food. Mackerel (B2, B3, and B12) and tuna (B3, B6, B12) are two more fish you can rotate into your diet.
2
Snack on more nuts to boost your intake. Healthy nuts like cashews, almonds, and especially sunflower seeds are full of B vitamins. Eat nuts as a healthy snack, add them to your dishes, or sprinkle them on top of your salads to boost your levels of dietary B vitamins.^{[2]
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- A quarter of a cup (33 g) of sunflower seeds will give you 43% of your daily B1, 28% of your B6, 24% of your B5, 20% of your B9, 18% of your B3, and sunflower seeds are a good source of B7.
- Macadamia nuts, peanuts, and cashews are loaded with multiple types of B vitamins.
Spinach is rich in B2, B6, B7, and B9. Other leafy greens, such as swiss chard and kale have smaller, but still significant amounts of B vitamins. Add in more fresh, leafy greens into your dishes to boost your intake of B vitamins.^{[3]
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4
Add more mushrooms to your diet. Cultivated mushrooms are an excellent source of multiple types of B vitamins, so adding more to your diet is a simple way to make sure you’re getting enough of them. Look to add more mushrooms into your dishes and salads to boost your intake.^{[4]
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- Cultivated mushrooms have been found to be good sources of vitamin B2, niacin, and folic acid.
Whole wheat bread is a great way to get more B1, B7, and B9. White bread has very little B vitamins, though French bread is very rich in B9. Focus on eating whole grain bread for a more nutritious and vitamin B-rich option.^{[5]
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6
Try to eat more eggs. Eggs are super cheap, nutritious, and they’re full of B vitamins. Add more eggs to your meals or have them as part of a well-balanced breakfast. Hard-boiled eggs are a great, portable snack, as well as a delicious salad topping, and you can boil several in advance and keeping them in the refrigerator for when you need them.^{[6]
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- Eggs are rich in B2, B5, B7, and B12.
7
Look for foods fortified with B vitamins if you’re vegan. A vegan or a plant-based diet that excludes animal products will be low in B vitamins, especially B-12. If you do follow a plant-based diet, look for products that are fortified with B vitamins so you can make sure you’re getting enough from your foods.^{[7]
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- Foods fortified with B vitamins include fortified silken tofu, fortified soy milk, and fortified cereals.
Drinking too much alcohol interferes with your body’s ability to absorb B vitamins, so if you do plan to drink, always drink in moderation. Don’t drink more than 3 drinks in a 24 hour period.

Method 2

Method 2 of 2:

Taking Supplements

1
Talk to your doctor about taking B vitamin supplements. Having too much of a certain vitamin can be harmful to your health if you have certain conditions or if you’re pregnant. Additionally, B vitamins can cause damage if you take too much of them or if they negatively interact with other medications that you may be taking. Before you take any supplements, talk to your doctor to make sure they’re safe for you to take.^{[8]
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- Never give supplements to children without first talking to a doctor.
2
Take a B-complex supplement to increase your total B vitamin intake. You can buy a B-complex supplement that will provide the daily allowance of all the B vitamins. If they’re safe for you to take, a full B-complex supplement is an easy way to make sure you’ve got all of the vitamins taken care of in 1 supplement.
- Always talk to your doctor before you take any supplements to make sure it’s safe.
- Many multivitamins also contain B vitamins, so check the label.
3
Use supplements to boost specific B vitamins. If you only need to increase your amount of 1 specific B vitamin, look for a supplement that provides just that vitamin, such as a B-12 or a B-6 supplement. That way, you can boost the amount of a specific vitamin without taking too much of another.^{[9]
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- Look for quality B vitamin supplements at health stores and pharmacies.

Expert Q&A

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What are some good plant sources of vitamin B?

Dee Dine
Nutrition & Vegan Food Specialist
Dee Dine is a Nutrition and Vegan Food Specialist and the founder of Green Smoothie Gourmet, a blog dedicated to healthy, plant-based vegan, limited ingredient recipes. Dee holds a BS in Biology/Biochemistry with an emphasis in Immunology. Dee has written two books full of healthy plant-based recipes, including chocolate desserts, snacks, juices and, wellness shots. They are: "Crazy Healthy with 4 Ingredients: Dessert, Breakfast & Snack Vegan Recipes" and "4-Ingredient Smoothies and Juices: 100 Easy Nutritious Recipes for Lifelong Health". Dee is an editor with TheFeedFeed, a crowdsourced digital cooking publication, and has been featured on BuzzFeed, Marie Claire, the Academy of Culinary Nutrition, Well + Good, and Hello Glow.

Dee Dine

Nutrition & Vegan Food Specialist

Expert Answer

There are quite a few good plant sources of vitamin B, including beans, oats, chia seeds, sorghum, seeds, nuts, millet, squash, whole grains, chestnuts, leafy greens, tomatoes, mushrooms, peanuts, avocados, dairy milk, eggs, and more. You can also find vitamin B12 in nutritional yeast, which can be sprinkled on top of vegetables.

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