
Folate is the key that unlocks your energy in so many areas. Folate is also known as B9 and is one of those vitamins that our body can’t produce so we need to take it from the food.
Folate is essential for metabolic pathways involving cell growth, replication, survival of cells in culture. Folic acid is crucial for proper brain functioning and plays an important role in mental and emotional health. It helps in the production of DNA and RNA, the body’s genetic material.
Folate also supports a system known as methylation which does many things such as
The official RDA however is 400mg and we can only store a very limited amount in the liver (around 20-70mg)
Folate is abundant in the three “L”
Folic acid (folate) is the vitamin found naturally in food while folic acid is the synthetic molecule created in the laboratory for the first time in 1943. Folic acid is not naturally present in food but is found in supplements. nutrition and fortified foods.
The natural vitamin is not exactly the same as the synthetic one. Folic acid, when exposed to air and heat, becomes unstable and breaks down, thus becoming useless to the body. But a small amount of the natural vitamin is converted by oxidation (a natural process) to folic acid which is a much more stable form and lasts a long time.
Human cells can not use folic acid per se but convert it (mainly in the liver) into natural forms of the vitamin. This is why folic acid, although not found in foods, is called a vitamin. But as a person gets older, the conversion of folic acid to folic acid in the body becomes more difficult.
Some researchers fear that the presence of folic acid instead of the natural form of the vitamin at abnormal levels in the body may be detrimental to health and suggest taking the vitamin only in a natural way, ie from foods and not from fortified foods or supplements.
Know your iron levels Iron-deficiency can be a major health issue since iron is vital for transporting oxygen in the blood and muscle. It is also involved in in energy production and replication in cells. Iron deficiency has severe consequences, including anemia and impaired cognitive function! But excess iron is also a problem. The body…
Vitamin B1 is also called Thiamin and it’s main role is to help extract energy from the food we eat. Thiamin specializes in burning carbs or any type of energy we get from sweet or starchy foods, (like sugar, fruit, potatoes, beans, and grains) since we need twice as much Thiamin to burn carbs as we need to burn fat. Let’s learn about the carb-burning Thiamin!
Today we will discuss B5 or pantothenic acid, an essential nutrient and a water-soluble B vitamin. When we break down food for energy, we break the food molecules into pieces and extract the energy from them. Pantothenic acid is what helps break apart the pieces. Thiamin, Niacin, and Riboflavin extract the energy. Let’s look at…
Vitamin-D is associated with so many issues that it is probably at the top of my list for the most important vitamins. I recently wrote an article about Vitamin-D (here) but it is so essential to get enough that I wanted to follow-up on the topic. You see there is a lot of mis-information around sun…
Winter has come….and everyone seems to be fighting-off some sort of virus or flu! Bacteria, infections, coughing, flu’s and colds all require a strong immune system. Let’s look into how to build up our immune firewalls! The foundation of the immune system is Vitmin-A, Vitamin-C , Vitamin-D and Zinc. We have already discussed Vitamin A…
Folate (or B9) is a key nutrient for many critical functions. Folate plays in many of our emotions. We sometimes feel angry, depressed, anxious or at times we have trouble concentrating or sleeping or feeling weak and tired. All this can be depend on folate. Folate and Methylation Folate supports a system known as methylation,…