US women, especially minorities, short on folate

NEW YORK, May 26 (Reuters) A government study shows that despite requirements that grains be fortified with folic acid, many US women particularly blacks and Hispanics are not getting enough of the B vitamin.

Folic acid is the synthetic form of the B vitamin folate, which is found naturally in green vegetables, like spinach and broccoli, in oranges and orange juice, and dried beans and peas, among other foods.

Since 1998, the US has required that folic acid be added to fortified grain products. The move was based on research showing that adequate folate intake early in pregnancy helps prevent neural tube defects birth defects of the brain and spine.

Because neural tube defects develop in the early weeks of pregnancy, before many women even know they're pregnant, it's recommended that all women of childbearing age get 400 micrograms of folate or folic acid every day.

However, only a minority of US women are reaching that goal, according to the new study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Among white women in the federal health survey, 40 per cent reported getting at least 400 mcg of folate or folic acid each day. The numbers were even smaller among minority women: only 19 per cent of black women and 21 per cent of Hispanic women were getting enough of the vitamin.

The findings suggest that many women should be taking folic-acid-containing vitamins to bolster their intake from food, say lead investigator Dr Quan-He Yang and colleagues at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

The researchers based their findings on data from a federal health and nutrition survey that included 1,685 women between the ages of 15 and 49 who were not pregnant. They estimated the women's folate/folic acid intake from their responses to a detailed dietary questionnaire.

On average, Yang's team found that the women consumed 128 mcg of folic acid from fortified foods each day. Only 8 per cent got 400 mcg or more from those food sources.

In general, women were more likely to get the recommended amount of folic acid from supplements than from food. There was again a racial disparity, however, with Hispanic and African-American women being less likely to get 400 mcg of folic acid from vitamins.

''Our findings show that most women need to consume a supplement to obtain the recommended amount of folic acid every day,'' Yang's team concludes.

This is especially true of minority women, the researchers add, and public health programs should encourage them to take a vitamin supplement every day.

REUTERS KN HS0923