Guest column

Folic acid is essential for all of us

Folic acid is a B vitamin that everyone needs to have every day.

It is used in our bodies to make new cells. Folic acid is a water soluble vitamin just like Vitamin C.

Water soluble vitamins dissolve in water and are not stored in the body in large amounts.

For those reasons, it must be eaten or taken every day to ensure the body has enough to function properly.

If a woman has enough folic acid in her body before she is pregnant, it can help prevent major birth defects of her baby's brain and spine.

Those birth defects are called neural tube defects, and they happen in the first few weeks, often before a woman finds out that she is pregnant.

Each year in the United States, 2,500 to 3,000 infants are born with neural tube defects. An estimated 1,500 pregnancies are stillborn or terminated because of those defects.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Public Health Service and Citrus County Health Department urge every woman who could become pregnant to get 400 micrograms of synthetic folic acid every day.

Even though there are several ways to get that amount of folic acid every day, two-thirds of women in the United States do not consume adequate amounts of the vitamin.

One easy way a woman can be sure she is getting enough folic acid is to take a vitamin that has folic acid in it every day.

Folic acid pills and most multivitamins sold in the United States have 100 percent of the daily value of folic acid. Check the label to be sure.

Another good way to get enough is to eat a serving of breakfast cereal every day that has been enriched with 100 percent of the daily value of folic acid.

Total, Product 19, Cheerios Plus, Special K Plus and Smart Start are some examples of cereals containing that amount. Always check the label on the side of the box and look for one that has "100%" next to folic acid.

For more information, please contact the Citrus County Health Department or your health care provider.

This public service article was provided by the Citrus County Health Department. For more information, please call the department at 527-0068.

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