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 ounce 0.3
Chicken, breast, meat only, roasted, ½ breast 0.3

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

An indication of low vitamin B12

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.