According to officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Folate is a naturally occurring B vitamin. Folic acid and folate (the anion form) occur naturally in food and can also be taken as supplements.
Folic acid is a necessity for all women of reproducing age. Adequate folate intake during the preconception 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).
According to AP reports, a CDC study released Thursday found an 8 percent to 16 percent decline in folate levels in U.S. women of childbearing age. The report findings were found by large blood-drawing surveys done between 1999 and 2004.
Researchers found that the decline was most pronounced in white women, although black women continue to be the racial group with the least folate in their blood.
The study, which is being published this week in a CDC publication, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, however, is not very clear as to why blood folate levels dropped in this decade, but it offers several possible explanations.
The foremost reason for the decrease in folate levels is obesity among young women. Researchers say obese people metabolize folate differently than their thin counterparts.
Furthermore, Dr. Joseph Mulinare, a CDC epidemiologist who was the study's lead author also considers diet trends to be yet another factor for the decline.
Since diets low in carbohydrates gained popularity during the early 2000s, women who cut down on flour and bread products because of their carbohydrates may have also taken in less folic acid.
Vitamins and supplements are the best way to get the recommended daily dose of 400 micrograms of folic acid.
Leaf vegetables such as spinach and turnip greens, dried beans and peas, fortified cereal products, sunflower seeds and certain other fruits and vegetables are rich sources of folate, as is liver. Some breakfast cereals (ready-to-eat and others) are fortified with 25% to 100% of the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for folic acid.
