Wheat Foods Council

The cardiovascular benefits of folate and folic acid, the synthetic bioavailable form, have been reported previously, and are linked to the B vitamin’s effects on homocysteine levels, an amino acid that at high levels has been linked to an increase in the risk of heart disease. The new study, led by Sai Wang Seto from ...the Chinese University of Hong Kong, found that diabetic mice fed a daily folic acid supplement equivalent to 5 milligrams per day for a 70 kg human, led to a reversal in the dysfunction occurring in the lining of blood vessels (endothelial dysfunction), compared to a lower dose of the micronutrient. “Folic acid consumption may probably make it a beneficial addition to [improve] vascular disorders/complications associated with diabetes mellitus,” wrote the researchers in The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry.Read More

Folic acid and colon cancer: Some benefits and no harm - Wu and co-workers conducted a double-blind, randomised trial of the effects of folic acid supplementation (1 milligram per day) or placebo on recurrent colorectal tumours over three to six and a half years. Overall, no beneficial or detrimental effects were obser...ved as a result of folic acid supplementation. However, among participants with plasma folate levels below 7.5 nanograms per millilitre, folic acid was found to decrease the risk of tumour recurrence by 39 per cent. “Our results do not support an overall protective effect of folic acid supplementation on adenoma recurrence,” wrote the researchers. “Folic acid supplementation may be beneficial among those with lower folate concentrations at baseline,” they concluded.Read More

Children of mothers receiving the folic acid plus iron supplements had the lowest mortality rate of 10.3 per 1,000 child-years from birth to age 7 years, compared to 13.4, 12.0, 14.0, and 15.2 for the folic acid, folic acid plus iron plus zinc, multiple micronutrients, and control groups, respectively. "In a setting wh...ere maternal iron deficiency and anaemia are common, we found a 31 percent reduction in childhood mortality due to maternal antenatal and postnatal supplementation with iron-folic acid compared to a control," said Christian. The researchers concluded that such results provide additional motivation to increase global programmes for antenatal iron and folic acid supplementation. Enriched grain foods are a good source for getting folic acid as well as supplementation.Read More

Continued...An overwhelming body of evidence links folate deficiency in early pregnancy to increased risk of neural tube defects (NTDs) - most commonly spina bifida and anencephaly - in infants. This connection led to the 1998 introduction of public health measures in the US and Canada, where all grain products are for...tified with folic acid - the synthetic, bioavailable form of folate. Preliminary evidence indicates that the measure is having an effect with a reported 15 to 50 per cent reduction in NTD incidence. A total of 51 countries now have some degree of mandatory fortification of flour with folic acid.Read More

Folic acid over-intake not an issue: Study-Less than five percent of Americans are exceeding safe limits of folic acid despite intakes from a multitude of sources, both enriched and natural, says a new study. Intakes of folic acid from enriched cereal-grain products, ready-to-eat cereals, and supplements do not lead to... excessive intakes of the B vitamin, according to a study that may allay the fears over folic acid build-up, and weaken the arguments of anti-fortification groups around the world.Read More