Folate, also known as vitamin B9, is a water-soluble vitamin essential for human health.
We call folate the form of vitamin B9 naturally found in foods and folic acid its synthetic form.
Folate is less bioavailable than folic acid. To account for these differences in bioavailability, scientists use Dietary Folate Equivalents (DFE) units:
Folate helps your body make red blood cells that carry oxygen to your body.
Folate play a crucial role in DNA formation and repair mechanisms. DNA repair is crucial in maintaining our genome stability and compromised DNA repair is associated with increased risk of malignancy (1).
Folate is essential during pregnancy to help protect against neural tube birth defects which are malformations that occur in an unborn baby’s brain or spine (2).
Recommended Daily Allowance for a 44-year-old male moderately active, weighting 70 kg and 175 cm tall is 400 µg and the Tolerable Upper Intake is 1 000 µg (3).
Do you want to know your personal recommendations ?
Folate deficiency can cause:
Too much folate increases the risk of neurological complication in people with vitamin B12 deficiency. According to the FNB (Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine), data are too limited to know if there are other adverse effects associated with folate from food. The upper limit applies to synthetic forms obtained from supplements and fortified foods.