Throughout its history, the vitamin we call folic acid or folate has gone under many different names, including Wills Factor, anti-anemia factor PGA, vitamin M, vitamin Bc, factor R, SLR factor, vitamin U, factor U, vitamin B9, vitamin B10 and vitamin B11. Well, many different laboratories were doing research on the same substance at the same time, and many were working on related compounds that had the same vitamin activity. Folate, as it turns out, is a generic term that refers to a family of related compounds, the simplest of which is folic acid. We usually don't find folic acid in nature, but rather they are folates, which you can think of as being a form of folic acid with different lengths of a particular side chain attached. In food, therefore, we hear of folates, while in supplements we tend to find folic acid.
Folic acid appears to be a key compound in human nutrition.
The increased frequency of articles on the benefits of folates reflects the fact that an inadequate intake of this nutrient is now being associated with a number of different ailments, including heart disease and certain birth defects. What's of interest here is that you don't need megadoses to avoid problems. You can get all the folate you need from a healthy diet. Good sources include green leafy vegetables, organ meats, legumes, orange juice, beets, avocado and broccoli. Send questions to him by clicking here.