How to Find Vitamin B-12 in Foods

Your body needs vitamin B-12 to function properly. You need B-12 to create blood, to keep your nervous system healthy and to prevent neurological damage. Follow these tips to find vitamin B-12 in food so you can maintain your health.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Find B-12 in the protein animals. Eat meat like beef, pork, ham and chicken to get daily doses of B-12. You can find B-12 in all cuts of beef including steak, roast and ground beef.
2. Include liver in your diet. Liver was once used to keep people with B-12 alive when their bodies failed to produce enough of its own B-12 vitamin.
3. Cook a serving of poultry or fish, which is another way to include B-12 in your diet. Eat chicken, turkey, salmon or tuna.
4. Eat an egg a day. You can fry, steam, poach or scramble eggs to ensure you get your needed dose of B-12. You can also find this vitamin in dairy products like milk, yogurt or cream. Drink a cup of whole milk or eat a cup of yogurt daily.
5. Buy foods that are fortified with B-12 like cereal or milk.
6. Make sure babies get B-12 by providing them with breast milk. The B-12 transfers to the baby through the breast milk from the protein in your own body.
7. Supplement your diet with plants like algae and seaweed. These foods contain some vitamin B-12 but not enough to provide all the B-12 you need.
8. Eat food containing folic acid like green leafy vegetables to prevent your B-12 levels from dropping. Your body needs vitamin B-12 and folic acid to maintain adequate vitamin levels.

Tips & Warnings

• Get tested by a doctor to find out if you have a B-12 deficiency.
• Your body cannot obtain vitamin B-12 from food if you have pernicious anemia. If you have this disorder, you must get B-12 shots in order to stay alive.