Everyone knows “B vitamins are for energy!” and that is definitely a theme, but there’s a lot more to it than that, and in some cases, there are big mistakes that people make when it comes to supplementing their diet.

First, let’s do a quick overview of what each of the B vitamins do, by number, and putting names to them:

B1 (Thiamine)

• Function: helps convert carbohydrates into energy, supports nerve function
• Forms: thiamine hydrochloride, thiamine mononitrate, benfotiamine (fat-soluble form)
• Example foods: lentils, sunflower seeds

B2 (Riboflavin)

• Function: supports energy production, skin health, and eye function, turns your pee fluorescent yellow (the latter is really only if you consume exciting amounts of it; this will usually occur from supplementation, not from normal diet)
• Forms: riboflavin, riboflavin-5’-phosphate
• Example foods: almonds, mushrooms

B3 (Niacin)

• Function: aids metabolism, supports skin, nerves, and cholesterol levels
• Forms: niacin (nicotinic acid), niacinamide (nicotinamide), inositol hexanicotinate (flush-free niacin)
• Example foods: whole grains, peanuts (literally the best nut for this)

B5 (Pantothenic Acid)

• Function: essential for fatty acid metabolism and hormone production
• Forms: pantothenic acid, calcium pantothenate, panthenol (alcohol form!)
• Example foods: it’s in pretty much everything (hence the name); it’s almost impossible to be deficient in this vitamin unless you are literally starving

B6 (Pyridoxine)

• Function: needed for red blood cell production, supports brain function, as well as specifically being a part of neurotransmitter production (including dopamine and serotonin, despite them being made in different places—the brain and the gut, respectively),
• Forms: pyridoxine hydrochloride, pyridoxal-5’-phosphate (active form)
• Example foods: bananas, potatoes

B7 (Biotin)

• Function: helps with fatty acid synthesis, skin, hair, and nail health
• Forms: d-biotin, biotinylated compounds of various kinds
• Example foods: fava beans, walnuts

B9 (Folate/Folic Acid)

• Function: crucial for DNA synthesis, cell division, and fetal development
• Forms: folic acid, folinic acid, 5-methyltetrahydrofolate (5-MTHF, active form)
• Example foods: chickpeas, spinach ← we only mentioned one leafy green here for fairness, but leafy greens in general are great sources of vitamin B9, hence the name, from the Latin “folium”, meaning leaf.

B12 (Cobalamin)

• Function: supports red blood cell formation, nerve function, and DNA synthesis
• Forms: cyanocobalamin, methylcobalamin (active), hydroxocobalamin (active), adenosylcobalamin (active)
• Example foods: nutritional yeast, nori

You may be wondering: what about vitamins B4, B8, B10, and B11? Those are now vacant spots, that once contained things that are no longer considered vitamins.

Three Critical Vitamin B Mistakes That May Be Sabotaging Your Health

Some mistakes that people make include:

Not supplementing when necessary

This occurs most often after midlife, especially in women, and the most common deficiencies are B1, B9, and B12.

See also: These Signs Often Mean These Nutrient Deficiencies (Do You Have Any?)

While it’s tempting to think “if I have a good balanced diet, I won’t need…” but the fact is sometimes our diet isn’t as nutrient dense as we hope—often through no fault of our own! But many modern farming methods prioritize yield over nutritional value, and that can result in plants and animals that do not have the nutritional qualities they “should”.

We wrote about this a while back, weighing up the “supplementation vs diet alone” dilemma:

Does Our Diet Need A Little Help? ← this also has a very useful chart of which vitamins people usually get too little or too much of. Note however that the statement of marginally excessive folate is slightly misleading, as the data pool contains men and women aged 18–65, while B9 is mostly needed more by women, and especially around childbirth or menopause, so B9 is actually a very common deficiency, but here it’s being balanced out lots of men getting too much (because every multivitamin has it).

Supplementing to excess

Most B vitamins have a very high maximum tolerable dose, because (with the exception of where we marked otherwise) they are water-soluble, which means that if you take more than you need, you’ll just pee it out later. Hence the famous fluorescence, for example.

However, the fat soluble form of vitamin B1 is harder to get in and harder to get out.

As for the others, problems usually only occur if you take enough to cause toxicity, faster than you pee it out. In other words, go easy on those Berocca drinks!

Nevertheless, there are other problems that can arise:

Vitamin B6 is essential—but too much can be toxic. Here’s what to know to stay safe ← tl;dr: there are issues with it causing peripheral neuropathy at doses over 10mg (the safe dose is disputed, so we’re mentioning the lowest safe dose here, but you can read about the others in the article)

Getting forms that don’t work so well

Those different forms we listed? They are not all created equal! For example:

• Folic acid is cheap; unfortunately, it’s not absorbed or used well
• Cyanocobalamin is cheap; unfortunately, it’s not absorbed or used well

Let us quote a recent book review of ours:

❝Rather, the most common forms of vitamins B9 and B12 provided in supplements are folic acid and cyanocobalamin, respectively, which as he demonstrates with extensive research to back up his claims, cannot be easily absorbed or used especially well.

About those vitamers: a vitamer is simply a form of a vitamin—most vitamins we need can arrive in a variety of forms. In the case of vitamins B9 and B12, he advocates for ditching vitamers folic acid and cyanocobalamin, cheap as they are, and springing for bioactive vitamers L-methylfolate, methylcobalamin, and adenosylcobalamin.

He also discusses (again, just as well-evidenced as the above things) why we might struggle to get enough from our diet after a certain age. For example, if trying to get these vitamins from meat, 50% of people over 50 cannot manufacture enough stomach acid to break down that protein to release the vitamins.

And as for methyl-B12 vitamers, you might expect you can get those from meat, and technically you can, but they don’t occur in all animals, just in one kind of animal. Specifically, the kind that has the largest brain-to-body ratio. However, eating the meat of this animal can result in protein folding errors in general and Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease in particular, so the author does not recommend eating humans, however nutritionally convenient that would be.

All this means that supplementation after a certain age really can be a sensible way to do it—but do it wisely, and pick the right vitamers.❞

You can read that review in full here: Your Vitamins are Obsolete: The Vitamer Revolution – by Dr. Sheldon Zablow

Want to try those latter two?

We don’t sell them, but here for your convenience are example products on Amazon:

L-methylfolate (active form of vitamin B9)

Methylcobalamin, adenosylcobalamin, & hydroxocobalamin (active forms of vitamin B12)

Take care!