What foods provide vitamin B12?
Vitamin B12 is naturally found in animal foods including fish, milk and milk products, eggs, meat, and poultry. Fortified breakfast cereals are an excellent source of vitamin B12 and a particularly valuable source for vegetarians. The table of selected food sources of vitamin B12 suggests dietary sources of vitamin B12. When is a deficiency of vitamin B12 likely to occur? Diets of most adult Americans provide recommended intakes of vitamin B12, but deficiency may still occur as a result of an inability to absorb B12 from food. It can also occur in individuals with dietary patterns that exclude animal or fortified foods. As a general rule, most individuals who develop a vitamin B12 deficiency have an underlying stomach or intestinal disorder that limits the absorption of vitamin B12. Sometimes the only symptom of these intestinal disorders is anemia resulting from B12 deficiency. Characteristic signs of B12 deficiency include fatigue, weakness, nausea, constipation, flatulence (gas), lo
