Advice on dietary
supplements often vacillates, but here's a bit of advice that you
can take to the bank. If all women of child bearing age made sure
to take in about 400 mcg of Folic acid on a daily basis the incidence
of spina bifida could be virtually wiped out, and other congenital
abnormalities could be dramatically reduced. Spina bifida is a condition
whereby the canal that house the nerves that runs through the spine
doesn't close properly. This closure usually happens about 4-6 weeks
after conception at a time when many women don't even know that
they are pregnant, so they haven't taken any kind of nutritional
insurance to make sure that everything goes properly. And even with
all of the advice that is being given today about folic acid supplementation
about 30% of women who get pregnant are not taking a sufficient
amount of folic acid.
The US government
has decided to do something about this. They've mandated flour manufacturers
to add folic acid to flour so that about about 100 mcg a day are
delivered by flour and baked goods, this still only bring the average
up to about 300 mcg a day which isn't quite enough, it should be
about 400. In Canada there's no such regulation, manufacturers
can add folic acid if they want. Why this difference between the
Americans and us? Well, there is some controversy here. Folic acid
can mask a vitamin B12 deficiency, Vitamin B12 deficiency can happen
unfortunately on a regular basis to senior citizens.
Why? Because
as we get older our stomach doesn't produce as much acid and acid
is needed for the absorption of B12. But in the presence of folic
acid this B12 deficiency may not show up until there are permanent
neurological problems. So that's the concern here. The B12 problem
can be addressed by adding B12 together with folic acid to flour
or just by using B12 supplements. And there's still more. We know
that folic acid reduces levels of homocysteine a chemical in the
blood that has been linked to heart disease, it can act as an anti-depressant,
and a recent study has just shown that it can reduce the risk of
Alzheimer disease. So go out there and get the spinach, get the
asparagus, the liver if you can stand it. They may only have a few
micrograms of folic acid but those few micrograms of folic acid
make a very important deposit in the nutritional bank.
