Fortifying Your Day to Prevent Disease 

Even diets rich in folic acid should be supplemented with a daily multivitamin to ensure you are getting the recommended 400mcg a day.

It’s the New Year and many of you have resolved to eat better, increase your servings of vegetables and cut the sweets. Think that you are now getting all the vitamins and minerals you need from your cleaned up diet? Think again. Certain vitamins are hard to get from food alone. Just because you eat a healthy diet does not mean you should skip a morning multivitamin. Many vitamins, including folic acid, are provided in daily multivitamins and are important for your health.

January 8 - 14 is Folic Acid Awareness Week, and the Department of Public Health (DPH) is encouraging all Georgians to make sure their diet is rich in folic acid and supplement it with a daily multivitamin in order to stay in good health.

Many people know that folic acid is important for pregnant women or those who may become pregnant as a protector against birth defects. What many people may not know is that folic acid many also reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and colon, cervical and breast disease. It is important for everyone to get enough folic acid.

Folic acid is an essential B vitamin; therefore, everyone needs it. Folic acid is the synthetic form of the naturally occurring folate in foods. Folate is found in foods such as leafy green vegetables, beans, liver and some fruit. The synthetic version, folic acid, is found in multivitamins and fortified foods like breakfast cereal, pasta and bread. Folic acid is easier for your body to absorb than folate, plus 50 to 90 percent of folate in food is destroyed in cooking. To ensure that you do get the recommended 400mcg a day, take a daily multivitamin.

Women especially need folic acid, even if not planning to become pregnant, since 50 percent of all pregnancies are unexpected. “Taking folic acid before pregnancy can reduce the risk of birth defects of the brain and spine such as spina bifida and anencephaly by up to 70 percent,” said Commissioner Brenda Fitzgerald, M.D. “Folic acid can prevent birth defects of the baby’s brain or spine if a woman takes it before and during pregnancy.” Important growth of the baby happens very early in pregnancy, before most women know that they are pregnant.

To read more about folic acid, check out CDC’s http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/folicacid/index.html


-Story by Kimberly Stringer, DPH Communications

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