What Is Folic Acid?
Folic acid is one of the most important vitamins for pregnant women. Read on to learn more about this nutrient!
Folic acid is an essential vitamin that helps prevent birth defects in babies. It also supports normal growth and development during pregnancy.
What is Folic Acid?
Folic acid is a B vitamin that plays a key role in cell division and DNA synthesis. This means that folic acid helps support healthy cells and tissues throughout the body.
Folic acid is an essential B vitamin that helps prevent birth defects like spina bifida and neural tube defects.
Folic acid is found naturally in foods such as leafy greens, beans, peas, lentils, oranges, and bananas. However, it is also added to some food products, including breakfast cereals, breads, and pasta.
How Does it Work?
Folic acid helps prevent birth defects by preventing certain cells from dividing too quickly during pregnancy. This prevents neural tube defects (NTDs) and spina bifida, two common forms of birth defects. NTDs occur when the brain and spinal cord do not form properly during early development. Spina bifida occurs when part of the spine does not develop correctly.
Folic acid works by helping to make new cells during pregnancy. This means that folic acid helps to prevent certain birth defects.
Folic acid is also known as vitamin B9. You can find folic acid in foods such as leafy greens, beans, peas, lentils, oranges, bananas, spinach, broccoli, and fortified cereals. If you are pregnant, take 400 micrograms per day of folic acid starting at least four weeks before conception and continuing until 12 weeks after conception.
Where Can I Find It?
Folic acid is found naturally in food. However, some people do not consume enough folic acid during pregnancy because they do not eat folate rich foods. In addition, some people who take certain medications (such as birth control pills) cannot absorb folic acid properly. Therefore, taking a supplement containing folic acid is recommended by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.