Folic Acid

[cocobean]

Just wondering if any of you mommas know of a natural way to get folic acid? We're TTC and I don't want to take a prenatal vitaman and want to make sure I am covering all of my bases!

[deditus]

Lentils
Greens
Liver - especially chicken livers
Avocados


More here:

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?t...trient&dbid=63

[Koalamom]

Herbal infusions.

[Smokering]

I looked it up recently (we're trying to conceive too). It seems dietary folate is only 50% as bioavailable as folic acid, so you'd need to have twice as much as the RDA. I looked at the folate-containing foods, and because I don't eat folic-acid-enriched breads and cereals, I thought it would be quite hard to get enough. So I'm taking the folic acid tablets - not a prenatal, just the folic acid by itself - and trying to up my dietary folate on top of that, mostly by eating greens every day and trying to eat more legumes (the latter without much success!).

I haven't heard of the herbal infusions thing, though! I'd like to do it naturally if possible - how much of the RDA can you get from a few cups? Which herbs? Tell me more!

[newcastlemama]

They actually make some folate only supplements that have the more absorbable form in them...I think Thorne is a brand.

[tanyalynn]

www.nutritiondata.com is a great place to look up nutrients in foods.

Chicken liver has a lot, beef liver's pretty good too, lentils, most vegetables.

I still like Thorne's supplements, they've got real folate instead of folic acid--it doesn't matter for a lot of people, but it's hard to know if you're one that it does matter that you get real folate, there's no downside to real folate, and their supps are quite affordable, they've got a prenatal, lots of B complexes, and stand-alone folate as well.

[mama1803]

Pastured eggs are quite high in folate.

[redvlagrl]

Lots of eggs and dark green leafy veggies.