It is vital during the first weeks of pregnancy, often before a woman even realizes she is pregnant. A deficiency of folic acid during this time can lead to serious birth defects. Women in their child bearing years should make sure to get enough folic acid every day.
There are several different types of vitamins that are out on the market and are said to be important to take. With this variety of information, how are you supposed to know what you should be taking, as well as what is important for your functioning? Knowing the qualities of each vitamin, where you can find it, as well as knowing its importance will help in determining what to take when. One of the vitamins that you can focus on is known as folic acid. This is one of the most important nutrients to be provided in your daily functioning.
Folic acid is also known as one of the B vitamins, specifically known as B9. Within this, it has several different areas that it focuses on in order to improve health and balance in the body. The main thing that folic acid is known for is to help prevent birth defects in babies. If you are pregnant, or are trying to get pregnant, taking an extra amount of folic acid will provide extra sources to help your baby’s growth.
From here, folic acid, like other B vitamins, can help with digestion and increase in metabolism. They are especially well known to help in digesting sources of protein that are moving through your system. Not only does it help with the production and loss of red blood cells, allowing for a balance of these types of cells in your system, but also provides for DNA synthesis, which helps with guiding which DNA is active in daily functioning.
There are several food sources where folic acid or B-9 is found. Grains and beans both have a large source of folic acid available in them. You can also find a large amount of B-9 in citrus fruits and juices, such as oranges, and dark vegetables. These are all important supplements that you should have available to you on a daily basis. Folic acid is also available in a variety of meats, such as liver, pork, fish and chicken type products.
Folic acid is easily destroyed during food processing. A deficiency of folic acid is fairly common today since a lot of people don’t include raw whole foods into their diets. To help compensate for this, many foods such as cereals are therefore fortified with this important vitamin.
If you want to find how much of folic acid to take on a daily basis, as well as which foods will provide the best sources, you can look into several available resources. There are recommended daily allowances, known as RDAs which provide the amount of B-9 intake you should be taking on a daily basis. These can be found through web searches or through local health providers. You can also look into recommendations from health care sources or a physician. This will help with determining how much folic acid you need in your daily diet.
Folic acid is an important nutrient for your every day functioning and balance. No matter what you are concentrating on in your life, B-9 will provide several sources and means of balance in order to allow for you to function at a higher level. By taking folic acid, either through a variety of foods or supplements, your body will be able to thank you later, both internally and externally.
A good multi-vitamin will contain 100% of the recommended daily amount of folic acid. You can confirm this with a quick check of the product label. You could also choose to take a folic acid supplement by itself in tablet form. Some breakfast cereals also contain 100% daily value of folic acid. Folic acid is commonly called folate on food packaging labels. With attention to diet and supplementation it is easy to maintain an adequate daily intake of this important vitamin.