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Looking and feeling good starts with a balanced diet. Eating the right foods can help boost your metabolism, which is essential for everyone looking to improve their health. The faster your metabolism is, the more efficiently your body can absorb energy from food. This means that having a fast metabolism helps you burn calories, feel energized and even lose weight.
Unfortunately, everyone’s metabolism starts to slow as we age, so it is always important to pay attention to the ways in which our diets can impact metabolism. There are plenty of vitamins and minerals that can help your metabolism when incorporated into a balanced diet, and the vitamin that doctors agree is best for this is B-complex.
According to Dr. Waqas Ahmad Buttar, family physician at Sachet Infusions, B-complex vitamins “help with energy production, fight fatigue and lethargy, promote a healthy nervous system, improve adrenal gland function and assist in the production of substances to regulate nerves and hormones.”
B-complex vitamins describe a class of eight water-soluble B vitamins: thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, pyridoxine, folate, cobalamin and biotin. Several of these are essential to regulating digestion, metabolism and energy absorption.
Each B vitamin has its own essential role that contributes to metabolism and weight loss.
Dr. Buttar told SheFinds, “[B vitamins] help metabolize carbohydrates, fats and proteins, activating stored energy instead of letting it turn to fat… To lose fat, vitamins B5 and B3 need attention. B5 loses weight by activating lipoprotein lipase, an enzyme that burns fat cells. One related study on B5 supplements showed that vitamin B5 reduced hunger when you were on a diet.
“B3, or niacin, has been shown to increase adiponectin, a weight loss hormone produced by fat cells. Clinical trials have shown that supplementing chromium with niacin can aid in weight loss."
Each B-complex vitamin works together to help regulate metabolism in different ways. Dr. Josh Axe, D.N.M., C.N.S, D.C., founder of Ancient Nutrition and DrAxe.com, told SheFinds, “While the different types of vitamin B all have their own individual health benefits, they work together in several ways, including playing a role in the metabolism of proteins, carbohydrates and fats—and to use the stored energy in food.
“The bottom line is that B vitamins are essential for a fully functioning metabolism, and coming up short on one or more of these B vitamins means your metabolism won’t be functioning at its best. That can make losing weight or managing a healthy weight difficult.”
Before taking any new vitamin or supplement, it is important to talk to your doctor. The best way to introduce any vitamin to your diet is through food, and luckily there is a diverse range of foods that contain B-complex vitamins.
If you want to add more B vitamins into the mix, focus on eating, poultry, eggs, seafood, whole grains and dairy. You can also get B vitamins from bananas, apples and grapes, nuts and seeds, spinach, potatoes and squash.
