B1: Thiamine’s Place in Your Life

Because there are so many nutrients that your body needs daily, it may be easy to confuse them with one another. However, because they are so important in our bodies, you must take it upon yourself to learn about all of the nutrients you need on a daily basis. Vitamins are crucial to our bodies. They help with a variety of functions—everything from growth to organ function. Without the proper vitamins in our bodies, we would fall ill very quickly. Therefore, it is important to learn about the vitamins your need to consume every single day. One of these vitamins is thiamine, which is also known as vitamin B1. If you are not getting enough thiamine in your daily diet, it is important to talk to your doctor about taking vitamin supplements.

Thiamine has a number of functions in the body. Its main function is to help your cells convert carbohydrates, which are found in bread, pasta, and potatoes, into energy. If you cannot convert this into energy, your body will store it as fat instead. Other than that, thiamine also helps to keep the heat, muscles, and nerves functioning properly. Therefore, thiamin is extremely important in the body.

Of course, while thiamine is available in supplements, the best possible way to provide thiamin to the body is through food sources. You can find thiamine in lean meats, especially pork, as well as fish and soybean products. You can also get your daily helping of thiamine in fortified breads, cereals, pasta, dried beans, peas, and whole grains. Wheat germ is an especially good source of thiamine, which is why bodybuilders and athletes who are concerned with carbohydrate control sometimes drink wheat germ diet shakes. You also get small amounts of thiamine from dairy products, like milk and cheese, and from some kinds of fruits and vegetables.

Without enough thiamine in the body, a number of diseases develop, and so it is important to take vitamin supplements if you are worried about this. A slight deficiency causes weakness, fatigue, psychosis, and problems with your nervous system. Over time, this can develop into beriberi, a disease that is known in the United States to mainly affect alcoholics. High amounts of alcohol in the blood stream reduce the amount to thiamine that can be absorbed from food. If this problem is not treated, Korsakoff’s syndrome or Wernicke’s disease could develop. Both are mental problems that leave patients confused, among other things. Vitamin supplements to replace thiamin can therefore be very important.

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