Folic Acid vs. Folate: What's the diff?
Q. I’m trying to get more folic acid in my diet. But NutritionData lists four different measurements for folate in foods. Which one should I pay attention to?
A. There’s a lot of good reasons to pay attention to your folate (or folic acid) intake. Folate deficiency can lead to elevated homocysteine, which has been linked to heart attack, stroke, Alzheimer’s, osteoporosis and a host of other diseases. If you are trying get pregnant, getting enough folate will help prevent neural tube defects in your baby. Folic acid’s ability to prevent this devastating birth defect led the U.S. government in 1998 to require food manufacturer’s to fortify certain foods (like bread and cereals) with folic acid.
If you are trying to get more folic acid in your diet, you've come to the right place. You can see exactly how much folate is in a food by typing it into ND’s Food Search box, which you'll find at the upper right of every page on ND.
You can also find the foods that are highest in folate with ND's Nutrient Search tool. And ND’s total consumption tool makes it easy to see if you’re getting enough folate in your diet on a daily basis.
But when you use these tools, you’ll find the folate content listed like this:
Folate: 400 mcg
food folate: 10.4 mcg
folic acid: 389 mcg
Dietary Folate Equivalents 673 mcg
Why is it so complicated?
The words 'folate' and 'folic acid' are often used interchangeably but there are important differences between them. Folate is the naturally-occurring form of the vitamin. Spinach, lentils, and garbanzo beans are all good sources of dietary folate. Folic aid is the synthetic form of the vitamin that is used in supplements and in fortified foods. Just to make it even more confusing, folic acid can also be called folicin. (Don't blame me…I'm just the messenger!)
The nutrient listing for foods shows you the total folate content, which is then broken down into naturally-occuring folate and added folic acid.
In the example above (which is for Total Raisin Bran), you see that one serving contains 400 mcg of folate; 10.4 mcg of naturally-occuring folate, plus 389 mcg of added folic acid. (Rounding of the numbers accounts for the small discrepancy between the values.)
Folic acid and folate work the same in the body, with one exception: the synthetic form (folic acid) is better absorbed by the body than the natural form. You only need 60 mcg of folic acid to get the same benefits you'd get from 100 mcg of naturally-occurring folate. That's where the dietary folate equivalent comes in. The above example lists a DFE if 673 mcg. That means that even though Total Raisin Bran provides 400mcg of folate, you actually get the benefit of 673 mcg, because most of it is coming in the more absorbable form of folic acid.
Why do they do that?
The daily requirement for folate (400 mcg) is based on how much of the natural folate form you'd need to consume to maintain a healthy level of the nutrient in your blood. But you don't need as much folic acid to achieve the same levels. In other words, if you are getting 400mcg Dietary Folate Equivalents per day, you don't need to worry if your total folate consumption is lower than that.
Frankly, I'm not sure that this extra level of precision is worth the confusion that it causes, but there you have it. (And if you follow this through to the logical conclusion , the government should probably allow manufacturers to calculate the percentage of DV (daily values) according to the DFE, but they don't.)
Is there any danger in consuming too MUCH folate or folic acid?
There's little danger of consuming too much naturally-occurring folate. Folic acid from supplements or from fortified cereal can add up in a hurry though. The government considers 1000 mcg a day to be the safe upper limit. The biggest concern is that higher levels of folic acid can mask a B12 deficiency, which can lead to serious health problems if it goes undetected.
This is mostly a concern for older people who are at higher risk of B12 deficiency. It's become a more common problem since the emerging research on homocysteine, folic acid, and heart disease has led many older adults to take high dose folic acid supplements. Older people taking folic acid supplements should be screened to make sure that they don't have an undetected B12 defeciency.
For more information on folate, folic acid, and the government's fortification policy, check the NIH fact sheet on folate. For a more technical article on the medical and biochemical aspects of this nutrient, see this article from the Linus Pauling Institute.
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Posted by: josh lishka | Aug 19, 2009 12:22:43 PM
My mother has lung cancer..and taking Cumidin a blood thinner.She is supposed to stay away from foods with vitamin k.Now the dr. has ordered her to increase her folates.But most foods with folates have vitmin k in them.Any suggestions?
Posted by: Susan Schremser | Mar 7, 2009 3:14:05 PM
Is the maximum daily mcgs of folate for the Folate DFE or Folate total category? Thanks! Sue
Posted by: | Apr 20, 2007 10:45:26 AM
Why does the package of dried lentils list folate 0%. Do some lentils lack Folate?
Posted by: Kareeman | Mar 5, 2007 3:27:03 PM
please send me information about B12 deficiency and it's related with age,sex,cigarates,or if there is other factors affect B12 absorption.
Posted by: mindy | Jan 20, 2007 9:28:11 AM
Do you have any information and thoughts about eating out with celiac disease? Can one with minor visible symptoms eat occasional small amounts of gluten?
Posted by: Monica | Jan 4, 2007 8:40:09 AM
Hi Maryann,
Are you using fractions when you put in your quantities, such as 1/2 or 3/4? If so, entering them as decimals (for example, .5 or .75) should fix the problem.
Posted by: Maryann | Jan 2, 2007 10:21:38 AM
Just started yesterday using ND. I do not know what I am doing wrong but when I put in the quantities of what I am eating for the day and hit "total +" a screen comes up saying to put in the quantities (which I have already done). Please help me to understand what I am doing wrong. Thanks so much. Maryann
Posted by: Monica | Dec 6, 2006 6:57:01 PM
Dear Marcia,
I agree with you that all those DVs, RDAs, and DRIs get very confusing. Let me first do a quick run-down of the alphabet soup.
The RDA (Recommended Dietary Allowance) is the amount of a nutrient that most people need to be healthy. (If you had an illness or medical condition that increased your need for a particular nutrient, then the RDA might not be enough.) When the FDA feels that it doesn’t have enough information to establish an RDA, it makes a provisional recommendation called an AI (Adequate Intake). Some nutrients also have ULs (Upper Limits), which is the maximum amount of a nutrient that the FDA thinks is safe to consume. That doesn’t mean that a little more will kill you…it just means that beyond that amount, they’re not making any promises.
Together, the RDA, AI, and ULs make up the DRI (Daily Reference Intakes). The DV (Daily Value) is something that food manufacturers put on the nutrition facts label to help you figure out how much of each nutrient a food contributes to your daily needs. The DV is based on the DRI (which may be an RDA, and AI, or a UL). Is this ridiculous, or what?
If a food contains 100 mg of calcium, for example, it provides 10% of your DV (which is 1000 mg). On the other hand, if a food contains 10 g of saturated fat, the label will also warn you that this food provides 50% of the DV of saturated fat. (By the way, when you do a total consumption report on ND, your nutrient intakes are shown in comparison to the DV for those nutrients.)
Now, back to your question. As you’ve pointed out, the FDA states that the RDA for folate (400 mcg) is expressed in DFE. Let’s go back to our Total Raisin Bran example. A bowl of Total Raisin Bran provides 400 mcg of folate, most of it in the form of synthetic folic acid. That translates to a DFE of 673 mcg, or 168% of the RDA. However, the analysis indicates that it provides 100% of the DV.
And so the answer to your question (drum roll, please) is: Nope, the DV and the RDA are not exactly the same thing! And sometimes, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
Next time, Mom, can you ask an easier question?
Posted by: Marcia Reinagel | Dec 6, 2006 9:58:24 AM
This is very informative. I am still confused by the DV on food labels. This quote from your NIH link seems to suggest that it is expressed in DFE. "The RDAs for folate are expressed in a term called the Dietary Folate Equivalent." Are DV and RDA different references?
