Vitamin B1 (thiamine)
Vitamins
It serves to draw energy from sugars — it is what is missing when one eats only white rice.
It is in the bran and the germ: refining removes most of it.
Effects and benefits
The key that turns sugars into energy. It contributes to normal energy metabolism and to the function of the heart and nerves. And its story launched the discovery of vitamins.
At the end of the 19th century, in Java, the physician Christiaan Eijkman noticed that hens fed white rice fell ill and recovered with bran: it was beriberi, and the first step toward the idea of a vitamin, which earned him the Nobel Prize in 1929.
It contributes to normal energy-yielding metabolism, to the normal functioning of the nervous system, to normal psychological function and to the normal function of the heart (Regulation 432/2012).
By sex: the need follows the energy spent, around 1 mg a day, a little more for a man than a woman, and more during pregnancy and breastfeeding (EFSA, 2016). Alcohol hinders its absorption and increases its loss.
Sources: Eijkman, 1897 · EU Regulation 432/2012 · EFSA, 2016
Where to find it (23)
- African rice
- Black bean
- Black chickpea
- Black rice
- Black soybean
- Brown rice
- Buckwheat
- Chickpeas
- Flaxseeds
- Green / brown lentil
- Macadamia nut
- Oats
- Pearl millet
- Pine nut
- Pistachio
- Pumpkin seeds
- Quinoa
- Red rice
- Rye
- Sesame seeds
- Soybeans / edamame
- Sunflower seeds
- Whole wheat