Are You Getting Enough B-Complex Vitamins in Your Diet?

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At Healthline, Marsha McCulloch, MS, RD, explains the importance of B-complex vitamins and gives examples of some of the best foods to incorporate into your diet to ensure you’re getting the vitamins you need. She writes:

Many foods are high in B vitamins, including certain types of meat, fish, and poultry, legumes, seeds, eggs, dairy products, and leafy greens.

There are eight B vitamins — collectively called B complex vitamins.

These include:

• thiamine (B1)
• riboflavin (B2)
• niacin (B3)
• pantothenic acid (B5)
• pyridoxine (B6)
• biotin (B7)
• folate (B9)
• cobalamin (B12)

Though each of these vitamins has unique functions, they generally help your body produce energy and make important molecules in your cells (1Trusted Source).

Aside from B12, your body cannot store these vitamins for long periods, so you have to replenish them regularly through food (1Trusted Source).

Many foods provide B vitamins, but to be considered high in a vitamin, a food must contain at least 20% of the Reference Daily Intake (RDI) per serving. Alternatively, a food that contains 10%–19% of the RDI is considered a good source (2).

Here are 15 healthy foods high in one or more B vitamins.

1. Salmon

This all-around nutritious fish is high in several B vitamins. In fact, a 3.5-ounce (oz), or 100-gram (g), cooked serving of salmon contains (3Trusted Source):

• Thiamine (B1): 23% of the Daily Value (DV)
• Riboflavin (B2): 37% of the DV
• Niacin (B3): 63% of the DV
• Pantothenic acid (B5): 38% of the DV
• Pyridoxine (B6): 56% of the DV
• Cobalamin (B12): 127% of the DV

Additionally, salmon is a low mercury fish that is high in beneficial omega-3 fats, as well as protein and selenium (4Trusted Source).

SUMMARYSalmon is high in riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12, as well as a good source of thiamine
and pantothenic acid. Additionally, it’s low in mercury and high in omega-3 fats and protein.

2. Leafy greens

Several leafy greens stand out for their folate (B9) content. These are among the highest vegetable sources of folate (5Trusted Source, 6Trusted Source, 7Trusted Source, 8Trusted Source, 9Trusted Source):

• Spinach, raw: 12% of the DV in 1 cup (25 g)
• Spinach, cooked: 39% of the DV in a 1/2 cup (90 g)
• Collard greens, cooked: 17% of the DV in 1/2 cup (65 g)
• Turnip greens, cooked: 21% of the DV in 1/2 cup (73 g)
• Romaine lettuce, raw: 3% of the DV in 1 cup (35 g)

Notably, some folate is destroyed by heat during cooking, and some can transfer to the cooking water as well. To minimize folate loss during cooking, steam the greens until partway between tender and crisp (10Trusted Source, 11).

Read about the other 13 foods here.