{"id":25506,"date":"2026-05-26T10:23:59","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T17:23:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foodrevolution.org\/?p=25506"},"modified":"2026-09-15T00:03:45","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T07:03:45","slug":"b-vitamins-benefits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foodrevolution.org\/blog\/b-vitamins-benefits\/","title":{"rendered":"What B Vitamins Do You Need \u2014 And What Are The Best Sources?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1912, a Polish chemist named Casimir Funk <\/span>discovered<\/span><\/a> a substance vital to human health that the body cannot produce on its own. He called it a \u201cvitamine,\u201d a portmanteau of \u201cvital\u201d and \u201camine\u201d (due to a mistaken belief that this substance was an amino acid). Things got slightly more complicated when another such substance was found, but the scientists handled it with aplomb: They called one \u201cvitamin A\u201d and the other \u2014 do you see where this is going? \u2014 \u201cvitamin B.\u201d Then came C, and D, followed by E, and then K, as several compounds in a row (F, G, H, I, and J, presumably), didn\u2019t pass vitamin muster.<\/span><\/p>\n

But then things started getting messy. When researchers began to realize that vitamin B was actually an entire family of substances, similar in form and function, but unique in the roles they play in human health. Instead of adding more letters (there weren\u2019t that many left, and who knew where this proliferation of Bs was going to end), the namers turned to numbers: B1, B2, B3, B5, and so on.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A few things here. First, there\u2019s no B4, which you could charitably chalk up to not wanting to be responsible for the following hypothetical conversation:<\/span><\/p>\n

Parent: \u201cDid you take your B4?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Child: \u201cDid I take my <\/span>what<\/span><\/i> before?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Thank you, science.<\/span><\/p>\n

Second, while there are eight B vitamins, there are no B batteries, which feels suspicious to me.<\/span><\/p>\n

And third, the Bs aren\u2019t even named in chronological order. If you peruse the 1,098-page classic, <\/span>Handbook of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Fourth Edition<\/span><\/i>, by Lundblad and McDonald, you\u2019ll learn that B12 was first identified in 1926, while B3 wasn\u2019t discovered until 1936. Either these folks had other things on their minds, or time travel is real. You decide.<\/span><\/p>\n

Anyway, none of that is to take away from the importance of the B family of vitamins. In fact, all of them are essential for a healthy body and mind, and play an integral role in how your body functions, starting at a cellular level.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Conventional nutritional wisdom holds that the best places to find B vitamins are in animal products, where you can generally find them in abundance. But is it possible to get what you need from plant-based foods? What are the health benefits and risks of the various B vitamins? And should you supplement? These are the questions that we\u2019ll tackle in this article. And we won\u2019t take 1,098 pages to do it.<\/span><\/p>\n

What Are the B Vitamins?<\/span><\/h2>\n
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iStock.com\/Ildo Frazao<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

B vitamins refer to a group of eight different vitamins that make up what\u2019s often called the B-complex. The B vitamins are:<\/span><\/p>\n