Folic Acid

“know, B vitamins and folic acid and things that you want to be replete in with pregnancy. So I think a lot of folks will have adequate levels if they're eating a well-balanced diet with fruits and vegetables and whole grains.”

“MTHFR stands for methylene tetrahydrofolate reductase. It's a fancy way of saying your body has impaired folic acid or folate metabolism. And why is that important? Because in the human body, we rarely use compounds based on how they enter the human body.”

“We refine them into the usable form. This gene, which is one of the most common in the world, refines folate and folic acid into the form that your body can use. Now, if you cannot refine the most prevalent nutrient in the human diet, what does that cause?”

“not want to be taking folic acid. You want to be supplementing with something called methylfolate. If you're in the pregnancy phase, you want to be taking a methylated prenatal vitamin.”

“Question number eight, folate versus folic acid. My doctor prescribed folic acid. This is super common. So let me just tell you what folic acid is and what it's not. Folic acid is an entirely man-made compound. It's an entirely synthetic compound.”

“federal government decided that we needed to spray this on our entire grain supply. So all breads, cereals, flour, pasta, grains of any kind are sprayed with the chemical folic acid. You will never convince me that a nutrient that we did not even compound in a lab until the 1940s is somehow essential for a healthy pregnancy or necessary for a healthy lifestyle.”

“It's not. Folate occurs naturally in nature. Folic acid does not. So if you're going to supplement for folate, the best way to supplement is with something called methylfolate or 5-MTHF.”

“And it is a nutrient deficiency. It is the inability to convert folic acid and folate into something called methylfolate, the gasoline that your body needs to run. This is why I have never, in 10 years of doing these talks and of owning a functional medicine clinic, I have never once met a single person that suffers from anxiety that didn't also have gut issues.”

“And that doesn't sound like a big deal. I'm deficient in methylfolate. Until you understand that folic acid is the most prevalent nutrient in the human diet. So you now can't break down the most prevalent nutrient in the human diet. Until you understand that folic acid is a completely man-made chemical.”

“to make flour shelf stable, also nutritionally dead. Because the nutrients were gone, we enriched it with folic acid, which a large majority of the population can't even metabolize. Therefore, many people experience fatigue, anxiety, hyperactivity, and inflammation. But then the bread wasn't white enough.”

“There's a gene called MTHFR that stands for methylene tetrahydrofolate reductase. This gene controls the enzyme that converts folic acid into the usable folate. And genetic variants in MTHFR are way more common than you think. It's estimated that roughly 46% of the population has this gene mutation.”

“So while you're taking a supplement with folic acid, you think you're getting folate, but actually folic acid is just building up in your body. This comes with its own issues. It can mask B12 deficiency. It can interfere with methylation pathways that are critical for everything from detoxification to neurotransmitter production.”

“If you're taking supplements right now, look at the label. Check the forms of the ingredients. If it says folic acid, switch to methylfolate. If it says cyanocobalamin, switch to methylcobalamin. If it says magnesium oxide, switch to magnesium glycinate.”