Vitamin B1, or thiamine, is known as the "morale" vitamin because of its dramatic effect on our nervous system and our mood. Besides supporting the nervous system, it aids in carbohydrate metabolism, enhances our immune system, wards off mosquitoes, helps develop red blood cells, maintains muscle tissue, promotes growth in children and helps control motion sickness. A synthetic version is added to white flour in America in order to ward off beriberi, but it is better to consume the natural form in whole grains. Because thiamin helps with carbohydrate metabolism, it makes energy available for the body, including the brain. So if you are not getting enough thiamine, you may not be feeding your brain enough glucose for it to think well.

Extra Thiamine Requirements

If you are pregnant or nursing, use oral contraceptives, cigarettes or diuretics, you will need more vitamin B1. Those with diets high in refined foods, too much sugar and junk foods and/or alcohol will also have higher requirements for thiamine. Last, but not least, heavy metal pollutants like mercury and stress also use up thiamine in the body and will increase your need for it.

Deficiency Symptoms of Vitamin B1

Fatigue and insomnia, poor memory, brain function and muscle coordination, headaches, weakness and confusion. Insufficient thiamin has also been linked to mood changes, disorderly thinking, fear and feelings of uneasiness. These are all signs of mental depression that can often affect memory as well.

Food Sources of Vitamin B1

Nutritional yeast, whole grains like whole wheat, brown rice and oatmeal, rice bran, watermelon, asparagus and fresh peas, pork, including ham and beef, legumes, nuts and seeds like sesame seeds.

Vitamin B2 or Riboflavin is Also Important for Energy Production

You may not hear about it as often as vitamin C or E, but vitamin B2 is often deficient in the American diet, and you may be hearing more about it in the years to come. Along with B1, it aids in carbohydrate and fat metabolism, and helps give us energy. It is very good for the eyes and can help prevent corneal ulcers and cataracts. It also helps protect the body from toxicity from drugs as well as chemicals in our environment, a very important function these days. It also promotes healthy skin and helps with psoriasis.

Research also shows that B2 can help neutralize harmful free radicals because of its antioxidant properties. Free radicals are unbalanced molecules in your body that try to balance themselves by stealing electrons from elsewhere in your body. This taking of other electrons can cause damage, and antioxidants quench free radicals by offering an electron of their own. This helps protect other cells in your body and keep them healthier. This may help your body to reduce cholesterol buildup and prevent cancer.

Riboflavin helps many important processes in the body to take place, including helping to turn food into energy. For example, it helps B6 and Folate, other B complex vitamins, to be properly utilized in the body. B2 is also crucial in transforming amino acids into neurotransmitters, which are chemicals used in the brain and needed for proper mood, memory and cognitive skills. Riboflavin also helps the body to make red blood cells.

Extra Vitamin B2 Requirements

Along with B1, you will need more vitamin B2 if you are pregnant or nursing, use oral contraceptives or diuretics. Sulfa drugs can also cause an increased need for B2. Those with diets high in refined foods, too much sugar and junk foods and/or alcohol will also have higher requirements for riboflavin. Exercise, although good for the body in many ways, tends to deplete the body of B2 as well.

Deficiency Symptoms of Riboflavin

Some of the diseases associated with a deficiency in vitamin B2 are: hypothyroidism, severe dermatitis (skin rash), anxiety, diabetes, cataracts, drug abuse, anemia, congenital heart disease and ulcers. Riboflavin deficiency can also cause other vision problems, like blurred vision and light sensitivity, and cracks and redness in the corners of the mouth as well as on the tongue. A deficiency of B2 is often seen at the same time as other B vitamin deficiencies, another reason to not just add more B2 to your diet, but all the B Complex vitamins.

Food Sources of Vitamin B2

Synthetic vitamin B2 is added to white flour and cereals, but synthetic vitamins cannot hope to have the same effects on the body as the whole food nutrient complex. Food sources of B2 include nutritional yeast, whole grains like whole wheat and wild rice, asparagus and broccoli, leafy greens like spinach and turnip greens, yogurt and milk (especially fresh, raw milk), cheeses, liver and kidney, mushrooms and eggs.

Some studies have shown that people who do not consume dairy and meats tend to have a higher risk of a B2 deficiency. Even those who simply do not consume milk tend to have lower levels of Riboflavin. If you need to add more B to your diet, you might also want to consider adding a natural source B vitamin supplement to your diet in the beginning, in order to get your B levels up to where they should be faster.