Have you ever picked up something heavy and felt fatigued afterwards or maybe you had a great workout that left you feeling sore or tired? Sometimes even studying or utilizing our brain power can give us this same feeling of exhaustion. Why is this? Well, these are all examples of work, both physical and mental, which require something we are all familiar with – energy! When we perform these tasks, we are using energy in the process and oftentimes we need recharged the same way our cellphones need recharged after using them all day.
So how do we recharge our bodies? Well, getting enough sleep is important, but we also need to restock the energy we used up and the way we do this is by eating! You see, food contains different nutrients called carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, all of which get metabolized and converted into energy so our bodies can continue to perform important functions inside and movements outside. Now, this process of taking a nutrient like a carbohydrate and making it into usable energy requires a little bit of help from some other nutrients. Imagine your body is a factory and the main product it makes is energy. We are going to be talking about some of these factory workers in the next few posts of the “Vitamin Me” series, specifically the B-vitamins. There are 8 B-vitamins each with their own specific functions and job duties in the body. They are water-soluble and help the body in making and using energy from the foods we eat and forming red blood cells.1 We are going to talk about a few of these more in depth beginning with B1, also known as thiamine.1
This vitamin is one of the main energy factory workers in the energy plant that is our body, meaning it helps change the carbohydrates from the foods we eat into usable energy for our bodies.1 Carbohydrates are the brain and nerves number one source of energy so it is so important not only to eat healthy carbohydrates like fresh fruits and vegetable, whole grains, and legumes but also to get adequate B1 to help these foods get digested.1 Thiamine is also essential for the metabolism of another molecule, pyruvate, which helps with several different chemical reactions in the body.1
There are loads of yummy food sources we can eat to get thiamine. Here is a list of a few and how many mg each contain.2 Try to get 1.0-1.2 mg every day:
- Wheat Germ = 1.08 mg in 1 cup
- Beef Steak = 0.6-0.9 mg in 3 oz
- Pork = 0.81 mg in 3 oz.
- Enriched White Rice = 0.26 mg in 1 cup
- Peas = .21 in ½ cup
- Brown Rice = 0.19 mg in 1 cup
- Pecans = 0.19 mg in 1 oz.
- Lentils = 0.17 in ½ cup
- Cantaloupe = 0.11 mg in ½ fruit
- Whole grain bread= .10 mg in 1 slice
- Orange = 0.10 in 1 fruit
- Milk = 0.10 mg in 1 cup
- Egg = 0.03 mg in each
What happens if we do not get enough thiamine in our diet? Well, without thiamine we cannot make enough energy to stay fully charged, so we will start to feel weak and fatigued and may even experience nerve damage or psychosis.1 There are some things that impair thiamine from doing its job and shut down the production line, one of which is drinking too much alcohol.1 The main thing to keep in mind is a well-balanced diet rich in those healthy carb sources and thiamine foods to keep our energy factory up and running with full efficiency!
References:
- B vitamins. MedlinePlus. https://medlineplus.gov/bvitamins.html. Published November 19, 2021. Accessed February 1, 2022. Thiamine (B1).
- Winchester Hospital. https://www.winchesterhospital.org/health-library/article?id=26273. Accessed February 1, 2022.
Post created by University of Akron dietetic intern: Michaela Campbell
