Folate vs. Folic Acid

When Ben and I started to talking about having a baby we where both very concerned with my Auto Immune Disease and the fact that my Uncle was born with Spina Bifida. He had the classics signs of a clubbed foot and water on the brain when he was born and basically lived at the hospital for the first few years of life. Ben and I both had developmental issues when where little and learning disabilities so we where very aware of what our DNA was capable of producing without careful nutritional planning pre-baby.   I knew starting to take some kind of Folate very early on would be key in having a healthy baby along with keeping a extreme gluten free diet. I have Celiac so I am always on the alert but now I had to have extreme caution with food choices in un-controlled environments. Even though I was not pregnant I knew I still needed to be extra careful to make sure my system was absorbing as much nutrition as possible and not taking in any hidden gluten that would hinder the absorption of the foods i was taking in.

First I wanted to get down to the bottom of the difference in Folic Acid and Folate. The prenatals I am taking did not state that the had folic acid. I was puzzled. I was told that the New Chapter Prenatal was the best for women like me in my situation. It had lots of food based folate in it though. So I did some research on line and it was pretty clear. 

Folic Acid- Synthetically manufactured vitamin B9

Folate- naturally occurring vitamin B9

Note: If you read the label that says Folic Acid (L-5 Methyltetrahydrofolate) this is also fine. The manufacture may think if it does not say Folic Acid on the label that the customer will pass on the product not knowing that Folate is better then Folic Acid. If it says in (L-5 Methyltetrahydrofolate) or 5-MTHF in front of the word you are fine.

Bingo, red flag, synthetically manufactured did not sound good at all. Synthetically manufactured vitamins do not stay in your system and not readily absorbed in your system either. So I had my answer. Food based is the way to go to get the biggest bang for your buck for vitamin B9 absorption.

Also I have always been in favor of food based vitamins. They are not made with synthetically created vitamins and made from natural foods and easily absorb into your body and do not make you feel nauseous at all.

I have been reading about a few other brands of prenatals that use Folate and are food based. Here are the best:

Folate by shara91 on Polyvore

Also a little help with ladies that cannot swallow pills. You can crush them with a spoon and then just add them to some juice or a bit of yogurt and you are done.