Foods containing vitamin B12

Mollusks, clam, mixed species, cooked, 3 ounces 84.1
Liver, beef, braised, 1 slice 47.9
Calves liver, 4 oz.
Fortified breakfast cereals, (100% fortified), ¾ cup 6.0
Trout, rainbow, wild, cooked, 3 ounces 5.4
Salmon, sockeye, cooked, 3 ounces 4.9
Trout, rainbow, farmed, cooked, 3 ounces 4.2
Snapper, baked, 4 oz.
Venison, 4 oz.
Salmon, Chinook, 4 oz.
Beef, tenderloin 4 oz.
Lamb, roasted 4 oz.
Beef, top sirloin, lean, choice, broiled, 3 ounces 2.4
Scallops
Fast Food, Cheeseburger, regular, double patty & bun 1.9
Shrimp, mixed species, steamed/boiled 4 oz.
Fast Food, Taco, 1 large 1.6
Halibut, baked/broiled
Fortified breakfast cereals (25% fortified), ¾ cup 1.5
Yogurt, plain, skim, with 13 grams protein per cup, 1 cup 1.4
Haddock, cooked, 3 ounces 1.2
Cod, Pacific, fillet, baked/broiled
Clams, breaded & fried, ¾ cup 1.1
Tuna, white, canned in water, drained solids, 3 ounces 1.0
Milk, 1 cup 0.9
Milk, 2%
Pork, cured, ham, lean only, canned, roasted, 3 ounces 0.6
Egg, whole, hard boiled, 1 0.6
American pasteurized cheese food, 1 ounces 0.3
Chicken, breast, meat only, roasted, ½ breast 0.3

Note: The unit of measurement used in the list is a microgram.

One indication that you might be significantly low on vitamin B12 is the
appearance of lines or ridges on your fingernails, and the disappearance of
the moons at the bottoms of your fingernails.

There are many common things, not to mention stress, which reduce the
amount of B12 you get from your food. Some of these things also deplete
the B12 you have stored in your body. (For your body to work properly
you need B12 in all of your muscle tissue, according to the neurologist I
was seeing when my B12 problem was first diagnosed.)

There are two forms of Vitamin B12 commonly available. It's a good idea
to learn to distinguish between them, since one form, Methylcobalamin , is
the active form of B12 and acts both more quickly and more efficiently.
You will be able to find this at your health food store. Be sure to buy
Methylcobalamin -- it gives far better results than the form which is
simply labeled "B12".

Because there is so little B12 in foods, (there's more than enough if you
aren't under a lot of stress, I don't want to give the wrong impression) I'm
going to talk about the amount to take.

1,000 mcg (micrograms) is the same as 1mg. Dissolving a 1mg
Methylcobalamin lozenge under your tongue every day for a month is the
same as having a B12 shot a month.

A 5mg Methylcobalamin lozenge dissolved under your tongue every day
for a month will equal 5 B12 shots a month.

Let me give you an idea of how much B12 is generally prescribed by
doctors: the therapy typically begins with a shot a day for a week or two,
followed by a shot every week for a few weeks, after which there is a
shot a month, generally for life, for "maintenance."

To equal a shot a day, you would need to dissolve 30 mg a day of
Methylcobalamin lozenges under your tongue. That would be 6 of the 5
mg lozenges a day.

To equal ten shots every two weeks, you would need to dissolve 4 of the
5mg Methylcobalamin lozenges under your tongue every day for a month.

Just to be clear, it appears that once there is a B12 deficiency, the amount
of B12 needed to recover is not available from food.

It was when I was having a shot a day that my peripheral neuropathy
began to go away.