Although folic acid is small, it has many benefits

What is Folic Acid?

The name folic acid comes from the Latin word "folium", meaning "leaf", as it was originally found from spinach leaves. Folic acid belongs to the B vitamins, which is a yellowish powder that can sometimes be called vitamin b9 and vitamin m. Therefore, folic acid is particularly abundant in green leafy plants, such as spinach, broad beans, celery and cauliflower, etc., in addition to the liver and kidneys of animals, as well as pears, citrus and other fruits and some other nuts are also more abundant.

What are the physiological functions of folic acid?

Folic acid is essential for the growth of many organisms and microorganisms. Its main biological function is to participate in the intracellular methylation reaction and de novo synthesis of DNA as a methyl donor, mainly including: (1) as a coenzyme of a carbon unit transferase line in the biochemical reaction in vivo, playing the role of a carbon unit transmitter; (2) participating in the synthesis of purine and thymine, further synthesizing DNA and rna; (3) participating in amino acid metabolism, completing the conversion between amino acids, and playing a major role in the synthesis of non-essential amino acids ;(4) Involved in the synthesis of hemoglobin and methyl compounds such as epinephrine, choline and creatine.

Adequate folic acid can help reduce the risk of many diseases, such as coronary heart disease, breast cancer, esophageal cancer, pregnancy hypertension, preeclampsia, depression and Alzheimer's disease, and can also prevent megaloblastic anemia and fetal neural tube malformations.

Folate deficiency and recommended intake

Folate deficiency can affect normal physiological activities, which may first lead to megaloblastic anemia, and severe or even cause intellectual degeneration. Secondly, insufficient folic acid will also increase the incidence of preeclampsia and placental abruption in pregnant women, which may cause miscarriage and fetal neural tube malformations. There is also a long-term lack of folic acid in the diet that may also increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and tumors. It can be seen that the lack of folic acid is closely related to the occurrence of many diseases and must be paid attention to.

The Reference Intake of Dietary Nutrients for Chinese Residents (2013 edition) stipulates that the recommended intake of folic acid is 400 μg def/d for adults, 600 μg def/d for pregnant women, and 550 μg def/d for nursing mothers. "dfe" is called "dietary folic acid equivalent", because the human body's absorption and utilization of natural folic acid and synthetic folic acid is different, the bioavailability of food folic acid is 50%, and the bioavailability of folic acid supplements when mixed with diet is 85%, which is 1.7 times higher than that of folic acid derived from food alone, and the intake of folic acid should be expressed as dietary folic acid equivalent (dfe), and the calculation formula of dietary folic acid equivalent is: dfe (μg) = dietary folic acid (μg) + 1.7 * folic acid supplement (μg).

Why is it necessary to supplement with an appropriate amount of folic acid during pregnancy?

Folic acid is required for the synthesis of the pregnant woman's own erythrocytes and the synthesis of genetic material necessary for fetal and placental growth. Appropriate folic acid supplementation during pregnancy is not only beneficial to the health of the pregnant woman herself, but also conducive to the normal growth and development of the fetus, which can reduce the occurrence of pregnancy complications in pregnant women, such as pregnancy hypertension, preeclampsia and placental abruption. It also reduces the risk of many diseases such as allergic diseases, metabolic diseases, tumors and brain dysfunction in the future, and is also very important for the development of children's mental health. Therefore, during pregnancy, we must pay attention to supplementing the appropriate amount of folic acid.

How to supplement folic acid during pregnancy is also exquisite. The 2016 edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents states that women who are preparing to conceive should supplement with 400 μg of def folic acid daily starting 3 months before they are ready to become pregnant and continue throughout the pregnancy. The Guidelines for the Prevention of Neural Tube Defects with Folic Acid Supplementation During Per conception (2017) recommend that women without risk factors be supplemented with 400 μg def or 800 μg def daily from at least 3 months before pregnancy until the end of pregnancy.

What foods are high in folic acid?

Under the premise that there is no loss in the cooking process, we need to consume 119 grams of pork liver, or 269 grams of coriander, or 461 grams of baby cabbage every day to meet the recommended intake of adult folic acid. However, due to the fact that folic acid is unstable when it meets light and heat, it is easy to lose its activity, so the amount of folic acid that the human body can really get from food is not much. For example, the loss rate of folic acid in vegetables after 2 to 3 days is 50% to 70%; cooking methods such as soup and soaking vegetables in brine will also cause a large loss of folic acid in food. Therefore, we should change some cooking habits, minimize the loss of folic acid, and pay attention to increasing the intake of folic acid-rich foods, and if necessary, supplement folic acid-containing nutrient supplements and folic acid tablets.

Some common foods rich in folic acid, such as yeast (dried), chicken liver, amaranth, mung beans, pork liver, green amaranth, chicken hair, asparagus (purple), coriander, spinach, baby cabbage, peas, etc., we can eat with it to increase the intake of folic acid.

Contributed □ the Chinese Nutrition Society

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Source: China Market Supervision News