Thiamin AI Table
| Life stage | AI (mg/day) |
|---|---|
| Infant 0–6 mo | 0.2 |
| Infant 7–12 mo | 0.3 |
| 1–3 years | 0.5 |
| 4–8 years | 0.6 |
| 9–13 years | 0.9 |
| 14–18 years | 1.2 (M) / 1.0 (F) |
| 19+ years | 1.2 (M) / 1.1 (F) |
| Pregnancy | 1.4 |
| Lactation | 1.5 |
| Upper limit | none has been set |
| Food | Portion | mg | %DV |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pork chop, bone-in, roasted | 3 oz | 0.9 | 75% |
| Fortified breakfast cereal | 1 serving | 0.5–1.0 | varies |
| Trout, cooked | 3 oz | 0.4 | 33% |
| Black beans, cooked | 1/2 cup | 0.3 | 28% |
| Acorn squash, baked | 1 cup | 0.3 | 26% |
| Brown rice, cooked | 1 cup | 0.2 | 17% |
| Sunflower seeds | 1 oz | 0.2 | 15% |
| Whole-wheat bread | 1 slice | 0.1–0.2 | 11% |
| White rice, enriched | 1/2 cup | 0.1 | 9% |
Thiamin (vitamin B1) carries the deepest history in this family of tables: polishing rice to white stripped away its thiamin-rich germ, and the beriberi epidemics that followed in 19th-century Asian rice economies killed sailors, soldiers and entire garrisons - until the 1890s, when a Japanese naval doctor fixed the fleet with a diet experiment and a Dutch physician isolated the 'anti-beriberi factor' from rice bran. White rice and refined flour have been fortified with thiamin ever since, which is why most Americans never think about it.
The requirement is small and the food shelf is forgiving: 1.2 mg a day for men, 1.1 for women, carried by pork chops (the standout common food), fortified breakfast cereal, brown rice, black beans, trout and acorn squash. Thiamin lives in the germ and bran of grains and is water-soluble and heat-sensitive, so the refined-flour fortification program is what quietly keeps the modern diet at the table's line.
The modern deficiency profile is no longer an epidemic but a hospital and addiction-medicine topic: chronic alcohol use blocks thiamin absorption and storage, producing Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome - confusion, unsteady gait, eye-movement paralysis, and a memory disorder that can be permanent if treatment waits. Heart failure patients on long-term diuretics (which flush thiamin in urine) and critically ill ICU patients carry hidden deficiency risk for the same reason, which is why thiamin is given empirically before glucose in alcohol-related emergencies.
How to use
- Find your row: 1.2 mg for men and 1.1 mg for women from 19; 1.2/1.0 for teens 14-18; 0.9 at 9-13, 0.6 at 4-8, 0.5 at 1-3; 0.2-0.3 mg AI in infancy; pregnancy 1.4 and breastfeeding 1.5.
- Cover it without thinking: a pork chop (0.9 mg), one serving of fortified cereal (0.5-1.0), brown rice or black beans (0.2-0.3 each), trout or sunflower seeds - any normal mixed diet crosses 1.1-1.2 mg because the flour and cereal in it are fortified by law.
- Know the two emergency contexts: if alcohol use disorder is in the picture - yours or someone's - deficiency risk runs ahead of any symptom, and thiamin must precede glucose IV (glucose metabolism consumes thiamin and can precipitate Wernicke encephalopathy); and long-term heart-failure diuretics quietly drain thiamin, a recognized and reversible contributor to fatigue in that population.
Frequently asked questions
How much thiamin (vitamin B1) do I need per day?
The NIH Adequate Intake is 1.2 mg for men and 1.1 mg for women from 19; teens 14-18 need 1.2 (boys) and 1.0 (girls); children scale 0.5-0.9 mg; infants 0.2-0.3. Pregnancy needs 1.4 and breastfeeding 1.5. The Daily Value on labels is 1.2 mg. There is no UL - no toxicity has ever been documented from food or supplements - because excess thiamin simply leaves in urine.
What foods are highest in thiamin?
Pork chops lead the common table at about 0.9 mg per 3 ounces (75% DV) - the one meat that stands out. Fortified breakfast cereal runs 0.5-1.0 mg per serving, whole-wheat bread about 0.2 per slice, brown rice 0.2 per cup, black beans 0.3 per half cup, acorn squash 0.3 per cup, trout 0.4 per 3 ounces, and sunflower seeds 0.2 per ounce. The pattern: thiamin lives in grain germ and bran, so refinement strips it and fortification quietly restores it - white bread and white rice carry thiamin only because the law says they must.
What is beriberi - and why is it tied to white rice?
Beriberi is thiamin deficiency disease: 'dry' beriberi attacks the nerves (numbness, weakness, strange gait), 'wet' beriberi attacks the heart (swelling, an enlarged heart, sudden failure), and infantile beriberi killed breastfed babies of deficient mothers. Rice polishing removes the thiamin-carrying germ and bran, so 19th-century rice-diet militaries and institutions were devastated until Takaki's Japanese naval diet reform (1880s) and Eijkman's rice-bran experiments (1890s) cracked the cause - Eijkman later shared a Nobel for it. Fortified rice and flour ended the epidemic; beriberi today appears in alcohol use disorder, extreme famine, and rare post-bariatric cases.
What is Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome?
The severe face of thiamin deficiency, almost always with chronic alcohol use: Wernicke encephalopathy arrives first (confusion, eye-movement paralysis, unsteady gait), and without immediate thiamin it can convert to Korsakoff syndrome - a devastating, often permanent memory disorder where new memories cannot form. Alcohol both displaces thiamin-rich food and blocks its absorption. The clinical rule that saves memory: give thiamin BEFORE any glucose in alcohol-related emergencies, because glucose metabolism consumes thiamin and can precipitate the encephalopathy.
Can you get too much thiamin - or be deficient despite a normal diet?
No toxicity exists: there is no UL because oral thiamin simply spills into urine. Yes to hidden deficiency, in two modern niches - heart failure patients on loop diuretics like furosemide, which excretes thiamin in urine (thiamin replacement has improved cardiac function in trials of this group), and critically ill or bariatric-surgery patients. Everyone else eating fortified grains meets the AI without thinking about it.