Folate is a B vitamin that is essential to neural tube development throughout pregnancy. Not just necessary for pregnancy though, folate is also known to help significantly with DNA methylation and red blood cell formation. Folate deficiency can lead to conditions such as celiac disease which makes it difficult for the small intestine to absorb nutrients from foods. The average amount of folate that adults need in their diet is 400 micrograms, though pregnant women are advised to have up to 1,000 micrograms of folate a day. Luckily, folate can be found naturally in foods such as leafy greens, beans, melons, strawberries, oranges, lemons, and bananas. The synthetic version of folate called folic acid is also typically in cereals or kinds of pasta.
Benefits of Folate
Folate is known to help with many things. For one, research indicates that folate can significantly improve the risks of birth defects in a baby’s neural tube. By making sure your prenatal vitamin has folate in it, your pregnancy is sure to be more nutrient dense in giving your baby what they need. Folate supplementation is also great for people who have nutritional deficiencies. It is also known to help significantly with heart and blood vessel health which helps prevent heart disease and stroke. Because Folate is in the vitamin B family, it works with vitamins B-6 and B-12 to control and level out high levels of homocysteine. High levels of homocysteine increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Some research even indicates that folate might reduce the risk of various cancers and be helpful in treating symptoms of depression.
Folate versus Folic Acid
Folate is an important ingredient to make sure is included in your everyday diet and multivitamin supplement. Diet is an important topic to bring up here as it is essential in understanding the distinct differences between folate and folic acid. Folate vs folic acid is a debate that has gone on in the health world since folic acid rose to prominence in 1998. It is important to note that Folate is the truest form and is naturally already found in the body through an active form called 5-MTHF. This is exactly the form we want to see in our bodies as it is the form that the body can most naturally break down and easily utilize. Folate can be found in the foods we are already eating such as leafy green vegetables, citrus, kidney beans, and lentils. This is important to note because it means that Folate is already in a form that the body doesn’t have to convert and break down in order to reap its benefits. Folate is 5-MTHF which is already in the form that the body can receive. Alternatively, when folic acid hit the health scene in 1998, it rose quickly in popularity as a form of folate to help pregnant women with neural tube development. And though it is still effective, folic acid is a synthetic form of folate that is not naturally already found in the body. This means in order to work, folic acid must be broken down and converted into 5-MTHF. Unfortunately, however, one-third of adults have difficulty converting folic acid which means many aren’t getting the full nutrients they need from their supplement that has folic acid in it.
Why you should care about Folate
Ultimately, folate is important to our bodies because of its ability to produce DNA and RNA. Folate is able to transform carbohydrates into energy. It helps produce red and white blood cells in the bone marrow. This is health on a cellular level that is worth pursuing. Folate deficiency may appear through symptoms such as muscle weakness, problems with judgment, memory, or understanding, fatigue, paresthesia, a sore tongue, ulcers in the mouth, vision problems, and depression and confusion. Folate deficiencies are known to occur alongside other nutritional deficiency such as B12 or iron. Conditions that interfere with nutrient absorption such as celiac disease may prevent people from getting the proper folate they need. Eating disorders, alcohol use disorder, and mutation in the MTHFR gene (which impairs the conversion of folic acid) are some other conditions that might impair people from getting the folate their body needs. Because folate is water soluble and the body does not store it, it is important to replenish it regularly through your diet and through supplements.
If you choose to go the supplement route in addition to adding folate to your diet, make sure you are on the look out for a quality multivitamin or prenatal that has Folate instead of just Folic Acid, so you’re body can more easily maximize the nutrient and not have to work so hard to convert it.
