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Nutrition Tips: Folic Acid: Killer or Cure-All?

Folic acid, the molecule that is used to fortify our food supply, is used in most studies and in most vitamins. It is a man-made, funny looking molecule -- a fully oxidized, synthetic chemical compound that seems to cause all the mischief. It costs less and is more stable than the nature-made form of this nutrient.

On the other hand, the nature-made form or forms, called "folates," do not seem to cause problems. This molecule is often found in foliage -- dark green leafy vegetables, hence the name folate. This can enter your normal biochemical pathways and gets properly metabolized. The folic acid may not be converted or metabolized by the body, increasing cancer and disease risk.…

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Articles of Interest

Folate vs. Folic Acid for Pregnancy: What you need to know

Avoid products that say “folic acid” on the label. Most health food stores will have quality brands of prenatal and multi-vitamins that have folate instead of folic acid. If choosing to supplement look for organic to avoid GMOs. If you take a multi-vitamin make sure to check the label because most multi-viatmins contain folic acid and not folate.

Folic Acid vs. Folate

Folic acid and folate are often used interchangeably and even many doctors will not be able to tell you the difference if you ask. The body needs folate, especially during pregnancy and folate is the form found in foods. You’ll often hear that folic acid is simply the supplemental form of folate, but there are some key differences...

How Much Folate Do You Need?

You may have heard that women need folate before and during pregnancy to prevent birth defects. This is true. Folate, a water-soluble B vitamin, helps produce DNA and form healthy new cells, which is why it’s especially important for mothers-to-be. We all need folate, for this reason and because, with vitamin B12, folate helps create normal red blood cells. We get two forms of folate in our diet: the naturally occurring form in foods, known as food folate, and folic acid, the form used in dietary supplements and fortified foods.

Is Vegemite Banned in the United States?

The FDA has approved adding folic acid to select foods as a way to ensure that consumers, particularly pregnant women, get enough of the vitamin. If artificial folate were more prevalent, though, it’s possible that people could ingest too much. The recommended daily allowance of folic acid from synthetic foods is 0.4 milligram per day for people older than 19. (For comparison’s sake, a “single serving” of Vegemite has 0.1 milligram of folate.) The “tolerable upper limit,” or the maximum amount of folic acid a person should eat in a day, is 1 milligram.

Should you skip prenatal vitamins with folic acid?

If you’re planning a pregnancy or you’re already pregnant, chances are your doctor told you to take a prenatal vitamin with folic acid to prevent neural tube defects like spina bifida and anencephaly. Yet new research shows that this recommendation may not be a one-size-fits-all approach and may increase the chances that your baby could be born with birth defects.

The Folate Debate

Arguments for mandatory fortification of folate are grounded on the improvement of the folate status of women most at risk of neural tube defect (NTD)-affected pregnancies.

The little known (but crucial) difference between folate and folic acid

Many health professionals would even argue that folate and folic acid are essentially the same nutrient. While folic acid is often considered to be a supplemental form of folate, there is an important distinction between these two different compounds. For women past childbearing age, and for men in general, excessive doses of the synthetic form of this nutrient are not necessary, and may even be harmful.

Resources

Linus Pauling Institute

Folate is a generic term referring to both natural folates in food and folic acid, the synthetic form used in supplements and fortified food. Folate is critical in the metabolism of nucleic acid precursors and several amino acids, as well as in methylation reactions.

WHFoods.org

Arguably, no conventional nutrient has undergone as much of a research renaissance in recent years as folate...If the word folate sounds like foliage to you, this is not an accident. The words share a common root (the Latin word folium, meaning "leaf"), which helps remind us that green plant foods can be among the richest sources of folate.