Folic Acid vs. Folate: prenatal care
Posted by little2ant on Mar 23, 2010 · Member since Aug 2004 · 3055 posts
I found this very informative. I think my prenatal does have folic acid in it. I'm sure I probably get enough with my food. Wish I had read this earlier!
All expecting moms should read this!
I guess it's a good tihing I refused to take the prenatals I was prescribed, because they wouldn't tell me what was in them. I had a B12/folic acid combination supplement that I took when I remembered, but I forgot it more ofter than not. I went through less than 3 months worth during my entire pregnancy. I did eat a ton of fruits and veggies though. They loved making fun of me at work about it.
huh. that's weird. i would have thought folate was just folic acid without the extra H+ (so the same thing at the same pH). Maybe there are other compounds that come with folate in foods that modify its effects?
Wouldn't it be possible to extract folate from these foods (vs synthesizing folic acid)? I wonder how the effects would differ then.
We covered this in nutrition at one point... for a long time, there were some vitamins that were supposed to be antioxidants/cancer-fighting/etc, and it was assumed that there were basically no toxic effects. But now that people are taking megadoses, it looks like some things (e.g. folic acid/folate) can be harmful in large amounts. Makes you wonder about the other things taken in huge doses, like vitamin C, E, and B12.
on the same note, what kind of prenatal vitamins did everyone take...I took, (and still take,) the Rainbow Light-vegan ones.. I met w/ a nutritionist once and she said supplementslabeled with a three letter code, (I forgot what it is now,) meant that the supplement didn't contain anything not on the label and did contain everything on the label...I could never find anything with this code though....anyways, I've heard of heavy metals being in supplements, which freaks me out!
It's the USP label:
http://www.usp.org/USPVerified/dietarySupplements/
basically voluntary regulation of dietary supplements.
It's the USP label:
http://www.usp.org/USPVerified/dietarySupplements/
basically voluntary regulation of dietary supplements.
Thanks FB! That is exactly what I meant! Now which ones actually have that?
http://www.usp.org/USPVerified/dietarySupplements/supplements.html
Not a whole lot of brands. It's probably pretty difficult finding something vegan AND usp, since it's probably only the bigger companies that can afford it.