A diet rich in vitamin B1 can reduce risk of getting Alzheimer’s

We all get a little bit more forgetful as we get older, it's not unusual, however for some people this could be an early sign that they are not getting enough vitamin B1 (also known as Thiamine). And over a long period of time this could have harmful consequences, including increasing the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, a form of dementia.

The role of thiamine is becoming more and more apparent - the brain needs it to use glucose for energy and without sufficient levels of it, brain cells die. The brain also needs thiamine to make acetylcholine, which is the main neurotransmitter than is deficient in patients with Alzheimer's and early stages of cognitive decline.

In fact medical trials are now underway which aim to assess whether thiamine derivatives can reduce the symptoms of the disease, in any case it's clear that a healthy brain needs sufficient levels of thiamine.

In the UK, thiamine is added to foods such as fortified cereals and breads but good sources include whole grains, pork, trout, peas and beans. Government surveys in the UK have painted a fairly positive picture regarding average thiamine intake however they exclude groups vulnerable to deficiency such as those avoiding cereal products due to gluten intolerance for example or those following restrictive diets. There has been a huge surge in followers of the Paleo diet, one of the core principles being to cut out all cereal grains. As bread and pasta are the main source of thiamine in the average UK diet it's easy to see how this group could be vulnerable to thiamine deficiencies.

Please note, for those of you who saw pork in the list of food sources above and thought "great, I'll tuck into sausages more often" then think again, unfortunately sulphites are added to pork sausages as a preservative and they destroy the thiamine in the pork meat.