Specially grounded dietitian Oria
Accompany you to discover the nutrition of the grounded child
"The people take food as the sky", our diet is closely related to our physical health, but when we give birth to a new life, a balanced diet and appropriate nutrients are the basis for the growth of the fetus.
Whenever a dietitian hears a woman trying to conceive, everyone's first reaction is:
"Did you take a folic acid supplement?"
"When did you start eating?"
Usually, nutrients are mainly based on protein, carbohydrates, and fats, but why is it that when it comes to pregnancy and pregnancy, folic acid, a "cold" nutrient, has become the protagonist?
Today, we will talk about folic acid and pregnancy-related content through Q&A, and get to know this "pregnant protagonist".
Pictured: Sunny
**NOTE**
This science belongs to the popular science
(The population is healthy pregnant women or women who are trying to conceive)
For personal problems or uncertainties,
It is strongly recommended to consult a healthcare provider.
Frequently Asked Questions Q&A at a glance
What is folic acid? Why should I take folic acid when I am pregnant?
Why is folic acid not enough during pregnancy? What if it were less?
How much folic acid is supplemented during pregnancy, and how to supplement folic acid?
If you take a large dose of folic acid orally, will something go wrong?
NO.1
Folic acid, also known as vitamin B9, is a water-soluble B vitamin;
It is an essential nutrient for the body's cell growth and hematopoiesis.
When pregnant, folic acid can help rapidly grow proliferating tissues.
For example, hematopoietic cells, embryonic cells, and DNA synthesis, so folic acid has become an essential nutrient for fetal growth and development [1-3].
At the same time, folic acid also makes a great contribution to the growth of the placenta.
Folic acid not only promotes placental development, but also reduces miscarriage rates [1-3].
During pregnancy, the placental tissue grows and the demand for folic acid becomes larger and larger.
Therefore, it is very important for women to consume enough folic acid during pregnancy!
NO.2
What happens if there is no folic acid in the body?
The importance of folic acid during pregnancy is mentioned above, but what happens if you lack folic acid during pregnancy?
For pregnant mothers, folate deficiency may cause problems such as miscarriage, preterm birth, anemia, and high blood pressure during pregnancy [1-4].
In the case of the fetus, cleft lip and palate, heart defects, Down syndrome, neural tube malformations, etc. may occur at birth [1-4].
And the problem of folate deficiency is perhaps more common than we think.
According to the 2012 China Birth Defects Prevention and Control Report of the Ministry of Health of the People's Republic of China:
Neural tube malformations are one of the most common and serious fetal malformations in China, and in 2000 there were 12 cases of neural tube malformations in every 10,000 pregnant women in the country.
However, by increasing the awareness and rate of folic acid in beautiful girls of childbearing age, the incidence of neural tube malformations decreased by 62.3% in only one year [5].
NO.3
What are the main causes of folate deficiency?
Well, we know what folic acid is and how important it is, but why are we deficient in folic acid?
The first major reason is that it consumes less folic acid.
The first thing to understand is that we can indeed get folic acid from foods such as fresh leafy green vegetables (such as rape, spinach) and so on.
However, folic acid in food is easily soluble in water, afraid of high temperatures, easy to oxidize, and it is difficult to be truly used in our bodies [6-7].
At the same time, at this stage of pregnancy, because women's folate needs will gradually become higher, in order to ensure that women can get enough folic acid throughout pregnancy, it is recommended to take a daily folic acid supplement containing 0.4 mg from the first 3 months of pregnancy [2-4, 8-10].
Because some people don't realize they're pregnant after months of pregnancy, but their folate intake hasn't kept up, it's generally recommended that women who try to conceive take a daily folic acid supplement [8-11].
In addition, the following reasons may also cause folate deficiency in the body:
1. Masorption (sufficient but not fully absorbed) [12].
This is generally associated with gastrointestinal surgery or disease. Since the fluid secreted in the stomach can help with folic acid absorption, if stomach surgery has been done, it is likely to increase the absorption of folic acid.
At the same time, folic acid is generally absorbed in the small intestine; if the small intestine becomes inflamed or diseased due to disease, folic acid is difficult to absorb normally.
2. Obesity
Overweight or obese people may need more folic acid, so intake may not be keeping up [13].
3. Genetic factors
Some genes also affect the metabolic use of folic acid in the body, resulting in dysfunction of folic acid metabolism [14].
NO.4
How to Choose a Folic Acid Supplement?
Since it is said that you want to take folic acid supplements, how to choose?
From a dietitian's point of view, it would be more recommended to consider the dosage and feel of folic acid supplements.
dosage
If you choose folic acid supplementation alone, there are currently two doses of folic acid supplements on the market:
For pregnant women/people who are trying to conceive, almost each dose contains about 0.5 mg of folic acid;
Provided to people with anemia, each dose is about 5 mg of folic acid.
Generally, each dose is usually 1-2 supplement tablets (refer to product packaging).
Therefore, everyone must look at the specific dose when choosing.
If you choose a multivitamin supplement, the general compound supplement for pregnant women contains folic acid, but we also have to look at the specific dosage written on the product packaging.
Feeling of consumption
Pregnant women may have morning sickness, nausea, acid reflux, etc. during pregnancy.
It's even more important to choose a supplement that you can accept.
For supplement pills, maybe you need to take into account the size of the pills and whether there are some strange flavors. Gummies-type supplements may be better to take, but there is also a greater risk of overdose (after all, it tastes much better).
So, will there be a problem with eating too much folic acid?
Of course.
Any nutrient you eat too much or eat less will have side effects.
Inadequate intake of folic acid can be risky for the fetus and pregnant women, but taking too many supplements (e.g., more than 1 mg per day) may have an impact on the intellectual development of young children [15].
At the same time, vitamin B12, folic acid, and iron are all related to ischemia, and if you have the problem of ischemia, too much folic acid intake may also mask the reality of vitamin B12 [2-3, 8-11].
epilogue
That's what I'm going to share with you today.
Having said all this, our central idea is a good family fun with folic acid supplements.
For healthy pregnant people and pregnant women, it is recommended to consume 0.4 mg of folic acid per day!
Intrauterine pregnancy, folic acid supplement evenly, healthy fetal heartbustache fetal buds, pregnancy all the way to the green light!
Swipe up to see references
1. Mahan, L. K., & Raymond, J. L. (2016). Krause's food & the nutrition care process-e-book. Elsevier Health Sciences.
2. Office on Women's Health. 2019. Folic acid.
Retrieved from: https://www.womenshealth.gov/a-z-topics/folic-acid
3. National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021). Folic acid. Retrieved from:https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/folicacid/index.html
4. Greenberg, J. A., Bell, S. J., Guan, Y., & Yu, Y. H. (2011). Folic acid supplementation and pregnancy: more than just neural tube
defect prevention. Reviews in Obstetrics and Gynecology, 4(2),
52.
5. Ling Han. (2012). Report on the Prevention and Treatment of Birth Defects in China (2012)l) released by the Ministry of Health, Chinese Contemporary Medicine, 19(28),
1-1.
6. Milman, N. (2012). Intestinal absorption of
folic acid-new physiologic & molecular aspects. The Indian journal
of medical research, 136(5), 725.
7. Liang, L. (2020). Folates: stability and
interaction with biological molecules. Journal of Agriculture and Food Research, 2, 100039.
8. Expert Working Group on The Revision of Dietary Guidelines for Women and Children of the Expert Committee on the Revision of Dietary Guidelines of the Chinese Nutrition Society (2016). Dietary Guidelines for Pregnant Women #br.Journal of Clinical Pediatrics, 34(10), 798.
9. Cheng Yiyong. Reference Intake of Dietary Nutrients for Chinese Residents, 2013, Journal of Nutrition 36, no. 4
(2014): 313-317.
10. LI Yanhua. (2005). Folic acid supplementation in women perinatal period for the prevention of fetal neural tube defects Chinese Maternal and Child Health Care, 20(14),
1827-1829.
11. Government of Canada. (2009). style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>Prenatal nutrition guidelines for health
professionals: folate contributes to a healthy pregnancy. Retrieved from:https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/hc-sc/migration/hc-sc/fn-an/alt_formats/hpfb-dgpsa/pdf/pubs/folate-eng.pdf
12. Ponziani, F. R., Cazzato, I. A., Danish,
S., Fagiuoli, S., Gionchetti, P., Annicchiarico, B. E., ... & Gasbarrini,
A. (2012). Folate in gastrointestinal health and disease. Eur Rev Med
Pharmacol Sci, 16(3), 376-85.
13. K se, S., S zlü, S., B lükba i, H., nsal,
N., & Gezmen-Karada , M. (2019). Obesity is associated with folate
metabolism. International Journal for Vitamin and Nutrition Research.
14. National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021). MTHFR gene, folic Acid, and preventing neural tube defects. Retrieved from:https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/folicacid/mthfr-gene-and-folic-acid.html
15. Valera-Gran, D.,Navarrete-Mu oz, E.M., Garcia de la Hera, M., Fernández-Somoano, A., Tardón,A., Ibarluzea, J., ...& Vioque, J. (2017). Effect of maternal
high dosages of folic acid supplements on neurocognitive development in
children at 4–5 y of age: the prospective birth cohort Infancia y Medio
Ambiente (INMA) study. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 106(3),
878-887.
END
The author | He Tianxue
Audit | Oria
Typography | Lao Yang
The | part of the picture comes from the Internet, invaded and deleted
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