Written By: Shraddha Rupavate | Updated : December 23, 2014 12:36 PM IST
Being water-soluble in nature, vitamin B2 or riboflavin cannot be stored in the body. This means that you must include vitamin B2 rich foods in your diet every day to meet the daily requirement of the B2 in your body. The recommended daily allowance (RDA) of riboflavin is different for different age groups. For those above 19 years old, it 1.1 mg/day for females and 1.3 mg/day for males. But the requirement increases during pregnancy and lactation. Here are some natural sources of B2 that you can include in your diet.
Dark green, leafy vegetables: Spinach (palak), fenugreek (methi) and lettuce contain significantly high concentrations of riboflavin. Apart from leafy vegetables all dark green coloured vegetables like capsicum, broccoli, asparagus, Brussels sprouts and dark peas are rich sources of B2.
Fruits: Bananas, figs, apples, berries and pears are fairly good sources of vitamin B2.
Meat: If you're a non-vegetarian, you could fulfil your daily requirement of B2 by including meat sources in your diet. Pork, chicken and animal organs like liver and kidney offer highest amounts of vitamin B2.Besides, oily fish like salmon, mackerel, shellfish and herring also contain vitamin B2 reserves, with highest concentration present in salmon (67%)
Nuts and seeds: Roasted almonds are the richest source of B2 among nuts, with 0.1 mg present in 10 g or 6 almonds, meeting 60 % of your Daily requirement of B2. Apart from that soyabean, flax seeds, oats, sunflower seeds, soy nuts are fairly rich sources of B2.
Whole grains: Most of your RDA of B2 would be fulfilled if you eat whole grain based foods every day. You could also include whole grain fortified foods to increase B2 in your diet.
Milk and milk products: From milk to eggs and cheese, dairy products are good sources of B2.
Other sources: Roots like sweet potatoes and carrots, mushrooms and yeast can also serve as vitamin B2 sources.
Tips to absorb maximum vitamin B2 from these foods
Riboflavin is not easily destroyed when heated. So cooking vitamin B2 rich foods at high temperature will not degrade the vitamin. However, it is water soluble, hence there is chance that vitamin B2 will get evaporated or leached while boiling, soaking or straining foods. So you need to careful to maximise the bioavailability of B2 in these foods. Here are some useful tips:
Wondering why do you need to bother about vitamin B2 in your diet? Here are top health benefits of eating B2 rich foods. Here's a quick essential guide on vitamin rich foods.
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