Folate - How Much Do You Need?

By Saleha Fatima

It's not only pregnant women who need to watch their folate intake...

If you've ever been pregnant, you would know just how important folate or its synthetic form folic acid (folacin) is to ensure the birth of a healthy baby. Although folate, a B vitamin, is essential for all adults and children, medical research has linked a folate deficiency in pregnant women with an increased occurrence of childbirth defects of the spine and brain.

Why every woman needs to have sufficient folate

Since the spine and the brain are made from neural tube (part of the embryo) cells, these defects are called neural tube defects. Now the tricky part is that neural tube defects occur 25 to 29 days after an egg is fertilized, a time when most women are not even aware of the fact that they have conceived and hence of what is going on in their bodies. Often, by the time a woman realizes she is pregnant - the damage has been done.

Given that not all pregnancies are planned, preventive measures must therefore be taken well in advance, preferably as a long-term action. Doctors therefore suggest that all women of child-bearing age capable of becoming pregnant, typically 15 to 44 years old, should consume 0.4 mg of folate daily to reduce their risk of having a pregnancy affected by a neural tube defect. Of course, the recommended consumption increases for pregnant women, who are usually prescribed folic acid supplements.

Further, this level of daily folate consumption also applies to children of age four and older, and adult men.

What should you eat to get enough folate?

So - what foods should you include in your diet so as to get your daily requirement of folate? Whole grains, dark green vegetables such as asparagus, peas, spinach, brussels sprouts and broccoli, lentils and legumes especially kidney, lima, pinto and black beans, citrus fruits and juices are good sources of folate. Folic acid fortified carbohydrates such as breads, cereals, pastas and other products that count enriched flour as an essential ingredient are also sources of synthetic folate or folic acid.

Interestingly, doctors find that people relying solely on natural food sources to meet their daily folate requirements sometimes fall short of desirable folic acid levels. This is because the quantity of natural folate found in substances like wholegrain breads is less than the folic acid included in enriched carbs.

This should by no means be taken as a green signal to ignore foods containing natural folates and solely rely on fortified food stuff. As wholegrain foods offer a natural goodness and fiber-content that processed carbohydrates are stripped of, women should aim to get half their daily carbohydrate intake from fortified, and the other half from wholegrain foods.

A few crumbs from a folate-rich foods laden table!

Here are some more tips to help you ensure you ingest sufficient folate in your diet:

When it comes to fortified foods, check their label for the percentage of the recommended daily value of folic acid that the product offers. This will help you calculate the number of servings you should eat per day.

If you'd like to avoid eating processed (fortified) carbohydrates for some reason, opt for a vitamin supplement that mentions folic acid as an ingredient, preferably 400 micrograms of folic acid. But speak with your GP before starting to take this supplement.

Some medical studies link lower folate levels with obesity. Apparently, obese people metabolize folate differently than thinner folk. If you are obese, you may want to check your folate level through a blood test or consult your doctor.

A poor diet, especially a low-carb diet which is increasingly becoming a dieting fad is also cause for low folate levels. Women avoiding carbohydrates miss out on folic acid enrichments as well as natural folates. Strictly speaking, fad diets that recommend eating too much of one food group and/or avoiding another should be avoided. It goes without saying that a balanced diet including carbohydrates, proteins and fats from a range of cereals, fruits and vegetables is essential for optimum health.

When it comes to folate, it's not only a case of the health of the next generation being in our hands but our health as well. That's more than enough reason to ensure our dietary habits change for the better, wouldn't you say?