Brides-to-be should take folic acid

WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Before brides-to-be say "I do," they should be taking a daily multivitamin with 400 micrograms of folic acid daily, U.S. researchers said.

Folate is a water-soluble B vitamin that occurs naturally in foods, such as leafy green vegetables; but folic acid is the synthetic form of folate that is found in supplements and added to fortified foods. Elizabeth T. Jordan, a perinatal clinical nurse specialist and member of the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition Board of Directors, said that this essential B-vitamin helps build and maintain healthy cells, which is especially critical for the developing fetus.

"We know that nearly half of all pregnancies in the U.S. are unplanned and that the average woman is getting less than one-third of the recommended amount of folic acid," Jordan said. "We also know that the odds of having a baby born with an neural tube defects could be greatly reduced by women of childbearing age getting the recommended amount of folic acid."

Despite the food fortification program that began in 1998, which enriched breads, cereals, flours, corn meals, pastas, rice, and other grain products with folic acid, the average non-pregnant Caucasian woman gets only 128 mcg per day of folic acid from fortified food, a study published in the May 2007 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Jordan said.