Top 7 Foods Highest in Vitamin B1 (Thiamine) Prevent Neuropathy/Brain Fog

Today, I'm gonna show you the top seven foods that have the highest amounts of vitamin B1 or thiamine. I'm Dr. Ken Berry, and this list is verified from the USDA Food Data Central website. You're welcome to verify this as well, but these are the top seven foods that have the highest amount of vitamin B1 for the amount of the food that you're gonna eat. First of all, let's talk just for a second about why does B1 matter? So vitamin B1, also called thiamine, is required for the enzymes that allow your cells to metabolize glucose into usable energy. Your nerves and your brain rely very, very heavily on this function of thiamine, and if you're deficient in thiamine, you're gonna have basically two symptoms, neuropathy, brain fog fatigue, some in that constellation of symptoms. These are very, very common symptoms of vitamin B1 deficiency. Now let's talk about the top seven highest vitamin B1 foods that you can eat. First one is not even close. It's pork chops. It contains about 0.96 milligrams per 100-gram serving. That's about three and a half ounces. That's the richest source of vitamin B1 on planet Earth that I was able to find. One serving can meet your daily requirement for vitamin B1. Now, if you're not a big fan of pork, you don't have to eat three and a half ounces of pork every day. If you just eat that amount of pork one or two or three days a week, you're gonna keep your vitamin B1 stores up because you can store about a 10-day supply. That's about it. And so you don't have to eat three and a half ounces of pork every day in order to keep the stores full, but you do need to eat it two or three times a week, probably, just to be safe. The second one is gonna be much less appetizing than a delicious pork chop, and that's pork liver. Now, some people love it, some people don't love it, but it has about 0.8 milligrams per 100-gram serving. It's very dense in all the B vitamins, actually, but it's a good source of vitamin B1. The number three source is sunflower seeds. I always eat any seed roasted, preferably sprouted and roasted, but 100 grams of sunflower seeds has about 1.48 milligrams of vitamin B1, but the bioavailability is not nearly as high as it is in the pork or the pork liver, even though it has a higher amount, your body's not gonna be able to use all of that. And so if you're like, I hate pork, I can't eat pork because of religious reasons, and I definitely am not eating pork liver, sunflower seeds, or number four, macadamia nuts, which contain 1.19 milligrams per 100-gram serving, is also a very strong plant source. Again, there are anti-nutrients in the macadamia nuts that if you don't roast them thoroughly, you're not gonna be able to even have access to the B1, even though there's quite a bit in there. Number five, another plant source is pine nuts. They have about 0.85 milligrams per 100-gram serving. Again, the anti-nutrient spiel still applies to this. I think you just need to eat some pork two or three times a week to make sure you're getting enough vitamin B1. But if you don't want to, those are three plant sources. Next to number six is trout. So for whatever reason, the good Lord decided to make trout a much better source of vitamin B1 than other fish. A 100-gram serving of trout has about 0.43 milligrams per serving, and it's far and away the best seafood or fish source of vitamin B1, thiamine. And then number seven, very inexpensive option, also a carnivore option, keto option, if you're looking for that, is tuna. Even cooked tuna is gonna have 0.38 milligrams per 100-gram serving, and that's great for variety. If you like tuna but you don't love it, you could eat one or two or three cans a week, and that's gonna be a good little dollop of vitamin B1 so that you don't become deficient. Now, let's talk a little bit more about bacon, because you know I love bacon. But bacon's not a great source. Now, if you were to eat raw bacon, freshly sourced, right, smells very fresh, you're not gonna get worms. But bacon, when you cure it, smoke it, and then use high heat to fry it or cook it, you're gonna lose about 85% of the vitamin B1. And so if bacon, well-done, crispy bacon is your only source of pork, even though it's delicious, it's not the best source of vitamin B1. Now, let's quickly talk about some things that can destroy vitamin B1 in your body or block B1 absorption in your body, because you can be eating a good diet full of B1, and if any of these things are going on, you're either not gonna absorb it, you're gonna chew it up prematurely, or you're gonna pee it out prematurely before your body has a chance to use it. Coffee and tea contain tannins, and if you drink a pot of coffee each and every day and eat a kind of a lowish vitamin B1 diet, you could wind up with B1 deficiency. Same for tea. Alcohol also blocks, because of some certain molecules in the alcohol, it will not only block the absorption, but it'll make you prematurely pee out B1 before your body's had a chance to use it. If you eat a lot of raw fish very, very often, that contains something called thiaminase, which is an enzyme that breaks down vitamin B1. And so you can make yourself effectively B1 deficient and have the neuropathy. So this doesn't mean you can't go have sushi every now and then, or sashimi, or raw oysters. You can, it's fine. But if it's every single day, then you need to prioritize making sure you've got some vitamin B1-rich foods in your diet. The sulfites in wine, the sulfites in dried fruit. Sulfites can also be in some processed meats, and also some salad bars use that. That can break down thiamin prematurely before your body has a chance to use it. And then some medications. Diuretics, like loop diuretics, like Lasix, or thiazide diuretics, like HCTZ. Metformin for diabetes, pre-diabetes, metabolic syndrome. All three of those can cause you to be effectively vitamin B1 deficient, even though you may be getting enough in your diet. And then one more thing, if you are not getting enough magnesium, that can make you effectively vitamin B1 deficient, because you have to have adequate magnesium in order to utilize the vitamin B1 that you get in your diet. So vitamin B1 is absolutely essential for nerve function, energy production, and brain health. And so if you're deficient, you're gonna have those symptoms. Pork fish, a few nuts, the other things I talked about are gonna be the best sources. I'd much prefer you get your vitamin B1 from one of these food sources or several than to buy a vitamin B1 supplement. And so all my carnivore brothers and sisters out there, especially if you're on the lion diet, beef is not a great source of vitamin B1. Even though it has all the other B vitamins, you need to include some pork once or twice or thrice a week so that you can get your vitamin B1 without having to take a supplement. Make sure that you're getting enough because your body cannot store a long-term supply of vitamin B1. Very important to keep that in mind. It's a water-soluble vitamin. You cannot store it long-term like you can the fat-soluble vitamins. If you wanna know more about the neuropathy and all the things that can cause it if you're vitamin B1 deficient, I've got a video that'll pop up right here that you can watch next. This is Dr. Berry. I'll see you next time.