Folic acid is very important for all women who may become pregnant. Adequate folate intake during the periconceptional period, the time just before and just after a woman becomes pregnant, helps protect against a number of congenital malformations including neural tube defects. Neural tube defects result in malformations of the spine (spina bifida), skull, and brain (anencephaly). The risk of neural tube defects is significantly reduced when supplemental folic acid is consumed in addition to a healthy diet prior to and during the first month following conception. Women who could become pregnant are advised to eat foods fortified with folic acid or take supplements in addition to eating folate-rich foods to reduce the risk of some serious birth defects. Taking 400 micrograms of synthetic folic acid daily from fortified foods and/or supplements has been suggested. The Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for folate equivalents for pregnant women is 600 micrograms.
1. Why Is Folic Acid Important?
The importance is quite real because folic acid has been directly linked to reducing the risk of a baby being born with a brain or spine defect. It is because of the way that cells grow and divide, however, that this treatment is only necessary during the first few weeks of development for the baby.
2. Avoid Health Problems
As was mentioned earlier, it is possible to eat vegtables to obtain your recommended dosage of folic acid, but determining exactly how much you intake by consuming vegtables is neither easy nor at all fun to try and calculate. It is therefore highly recommended that you put your trust in vitamin supplements (pills). For many products, especially multivitamins, folic acid may already be a part of them and you will not need to check the dosage whatsoever.
