Sign the White House Petition to end Mandatory Flour Fortification with Folic Acid

[Hip]

The only "strong beliefs" I have in this context, is in having responsibility for your own life. I don't need a government parent.

It's one thing to say that you personally don't need a government as a parent, and that your can take care of your self; it's another to assume that every other individual in the population does not need this parental government, and can take care of themselves.

The attitude that if you are not smart or responsible enough to take care of yourself, tough, you will not get any help from the government can be considered as a selfish one.

But I suppose this not directly about folic acid, but more a question on what people think is the best way to run a society.

That's your proof that they're the same thing? Really?

Often in biochemistry, the names for an acid and the salt of that acid are used interchangeably, because as I understand it, both these chemical compounds interconvert in the body. The body needs to maintain a neutral pH, so I believe acids may be buffered by converting them into their salts.

For example, the names ascorbic acid and ascorbate (which are an acid, and a salt of this acid respectively) can be used interchangeably, because both with provide the vitamin C needs of the body.

Although sometimes an acid and an salt of that acid can have different biochemical effects. For example, I read that sodium ascorbate (the sodium salt of ascorbic acid) when applied topically on the skin has anti-melanoma properties (see this study).

But I don't really understand the full ins and outs of this interchangeability. When I am not so brain fogged, I will go searching for a good article about it.

 

[Valentijn]

Folic acid and folate can be used pretty interchangeably. But on this forum (and elsewhere), "folate" is almost always used as a shorthand for the active forms (which have long annoying names), whereas "folic acid" is used to refer to the inactive form.

 

[JPV]

There are other reasons not to eat wheat. So, ultimately, we really shouldn't care what they do to it. We just shouldn't eat it at all. Problem solved!

 

[Hip]

Folate is often used interchangeably with folic acid (and in fact the FDA is intentionally confusing this issue)

That link is to the ANH-USA (Alliance for Natural Health) website, and ANH don't seem to understand what is going on at all.

The FDA are trying to clarify the issue rather than confuse it, by stipulating that the correct labeling is used, so that people know whether a product contains folic acid, or contains a folate. The FDA are stipulating that when a product contains pure folic acid, this must be labeled as such, and that products containing pure folic acid cannot be labeled as containing folate. At present food labeling uses the terms folic acid and folate interchangeably, but the FDA want to end this, and make sure that the precise term is used. See this post.

 

[dannybex]

This thread is ancient, but here's a couple of studies suggesting problems with metabolizing 'folic acid'.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24944062

"CONCLUSIONS: The human gut appears to have a very efficient capacity to convert reduced dietary folates to 5-MTHF but limited ability to reduce folic acid."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2730961/

"This limited ability to activate the synthetic vitamer raises issues about clinical trials using high levels of folic acid. The extremely low rate of conversion of folic acid suggests that the benefit of its use in high doses will be limited by saturation of DHFR, especially in individuals possessing lower than average activity. These results are also consistent with the reports of unmetabolized folic acid in plasma and urine."