Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Health & Fitness

These Are the Top 5 Foods High in Niacin You Should Be Eating

By

Consuming a well-rounded diet is a great way to ensure you make the most out of your nutrition. This helps you cover all of your macros as well as your micros. Still, even with a balanced meal plan, there are times when you could be missing out on certain nutrients. One of those key nutrients that you want to make sure you are making the most of is niacin, by consuming foods high in niacin.

Steak, chicken, and pork
Getty Images

Niacin, or vitamin B3, is a crucial vitamin that plays a number of roles in our overall health. For starters, niacin can help us maintain healthy levels of cholesterol. Cholesterol plays a vital role in heart health and making sure you consume niacin in your diet can help regulate those numbers.

Recommended Videos

Another great benefit of consuming niacin is its ability to boost brain function, protect against damage to brain cells, and potentially help the brain fight off Alzheimer’s disease. Lastly, it may also help fight hypertension and high blood pressure, as it can improve blood flow, widening blood vessels. These are just a few of the reasons to make sure you get your niacin intake.

With its various advantages, it’s important to make sure you are consuming enough niacin throughout your diet. Try working these foods into your diet on a consistent basis to make the most of this wonder vitamin.

Steak/Beef

Marbled steak with garnish
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Like a lot of foods on this list, animal meat is going to be one of the best options for getting ample amounts of niacin in your diet. One of the best-tasting options available is red meat. Steak or beef both pack a pretty decent amount of niacin depending on cut and serving size. A typical 6-ounce cut of beef offers close to 12 mg of niacin. Consuming that on a consistent basis will get you close to 70% of your recommended daily allowance (RDA). 

Beef Liver

Pan fried liver.
Fotoblend / Pixabay

Speaking of beef, beef liver is definitely where it’s at; however, it is certainly an acquired taste for most people, as some say you either love it or hate it. That may be a bit harsh unless you know how to properly prepare and cook it. All that aside, beef liver reigns king when it comes to niacin per serving. Simply consuming a 3-ounce gets you 93% of your RDA and a staggering 15 mg of niacin. 

Salmon

Salmon filet
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Salmon is known for being an excellent protein source with a heart-healthy fatty acid profile. Another great fact about consuming salmon is it offers a pretty decent niacin serving. With as little as only 3 ounces of salmon, you get up to 55% of your RDA and 8.5 mg of niacin. Double that fillet size and you hit your mark, not to mention, you have a delicious tasting meal with plenty of vitamin D, omega-3 fatty acids, and magnesium.

Poultry

A roasted chicken is served on a plate
John Maher/The Manual

While there are vast poultry choices, chicken is the preferred go-to option for most. It’s affordable, tastes good, and isn’t hard to cook. The best part is that it’s one of the highest niacin options packing a nice 10 mg per serving and 65% of your RDA with only a 3-ounce breast. A close second on the list is turkey, with 10 mg of niacin and 63% of your RDA. So come Thanksgiving time, make sure to go for that second helping of turkey. 

Brown Rice

Brown rice
M Salman Hakim / Shutterstock

The only nonmeat option that made our top 5 list just so happens to be one of the most versatile side meal choices for healthy and fit individuals. Brown rice is the perfect option to pair with any of the options listed above to easily get your RDA totals. Even by itself, brown rice provides you with close to 33% of your RDA and 2.3 mg of niacin per 1 cup of cooked rice.

Brain-Boosting Benefits

Whether you knew it or not, that chicken and brown rice combo meal you keep making is the perfect way to get your recommended totals of niacin in one sitting. Not only does it taste delicious, but you’ll be fighting hypertension and boosting your cognition all at the same time. That’s a win, win, win in our books.

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
Jeff Turbett
Jeff Turbett
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Jeff Turbett is a health and wellness coach with over three years of experience transforming clients lives and physical…
14 of the best prebiotic foods you should be eating – from apples to oats and lentils
Prebiotic foods to add to your grocery list
Foods with prebiotics like chicory, beets, and leeks.

There are constantly new wellness trends to try on a seemingly weekly basis. Some are better for you than others. One of the more popular recent trends starts with your gut. Your gut houses a broad range of bacteria and fungi that help digest and absorb nutrients in the food you eat.
These bacteria and fungi are also responsible for maintaining the integrity of the intestinal barrier, producing vitamins, reducing inflammation in the body, fending off pathogenic microorganisms, and signaling the immune system to produce more white blood cells. These resident microorganisms together form what is known as the gut microbiome -- a complex ecosystem that is susceptible to disruption and imbalance by things like antibiotics, a chronically poor diet, stress, and medications.
While certain habits can negatively affect the gut microbiome, they can also be improved and made to flourish with supportive behaviors and foods. Though probiotics get most of the attention and credit for being the go-to salve for the gut, prebiotics are arguably just as important. Prebiotics are compounds comprised of oligosaccharides, inulin, lactulose, and glycan, which are dietary fibers (carbohydrates) that are indigestible for humans but are the preferred source of fuel and nutrients for our good bacteria in the gut. In fact, prebiotics selectively feed the beneficial bacteria in the gut rather than any harmful pathogens.
A good visual is to picture the gut microbiome as a garden. Probiotics can be equated to seeds or seedlings, and the healthy bacteria are the plants. Prebiotics, on the other hand, can be pictured as fertilizer, offering helpful bacterial plants nutrients to support their growth. In this way, the prebiotics feed or fuel probiotics and the other beneficial microorganisms already inhabiting our gut.
Prebiotics are found as fermented fiber in many fruits and vegetables, as well as some seeds and grains. Adding them to your diet can help fortify the good bacteria in your gut, improve bowel regularity, and support healthy digestion. Here are some of the best prebiotic foods to stock up on next time you go grocery shopping.

Asparagus
Asparagus contains between 2 and 3 grams of inulin per 100 grams or a 20-calorie serving. This makes one of the least calorically dense sources of inulin, a type of prebiotic fiber known to aid digestive health, regulate the optimal levels of glucose and insulin, and fuel Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus species and other good bacteria in your gut. The inulin is more effective when asparagus is raw, so try incorporating thin slices into fresh salads or shaving spears on sandwiches or atop avocado toast.

Read more
How to lose weight: Eat these foods that help you feel fuller longer
Add these foods to your meal plan
spinach and avocado on toast

Fad diets were once all the rage. Want to know how to lose weight? Standard advice centered around creating a massive calorie deficit by not eating (or barely eating). Thankfully, those days are behind us. Weight loss isn't about not eating anything at all. Generally, no foods are off the menu — unless you're allergic or they cause issues like severe GI discomfort (or you simply no longer wish to eat them).

Instead, losing weight is about consuming foods that keep you satisfied and energized for longer, so you're not tempted to consume too many calories later. Dropping pounds can be a delicious endeavor if you know what to add to your grocery list (and, later, plate). Let's indulge in the best foods for weight loss.

Read more
5 benefits of healthy fats and which ones you should be eating
Foods high in fats that aren't necessarily bad for you
A pitcher of avocado oil beside a sliced avocado on a wooden board.

Healthy eating is not only about getting the right vitamins, minerals, and fiber; it is also about eating the right types of fats. Unfortunately, the subject of healthy fats can be confusing because there are many kinds of fats in various foods we eat in our daily diets.

We need certain amounts of these different fats for our bodies to function correctly. The trick is to balance these out so that we are getting more beneficial fats, such as omega-3 fatty acids, and less of the more harmful ones, such as saturated fats.

Read more