Food sources of L-Methylfolate?

[bpcat]

I am slowly recovering from CFS/ME with methylation protocols and detoxing. I have MTHFR mutations and so have been avoiding folic acid and most folates from my diet for over a year.

I am starting to introduce more foods back in, and I don’t really understand which foods I should avoid. There seem to be three different forms of folate from foods, according to this:

https://www.dietvsdisease.org/mthfr-folic-acid-folate/

And he lists the specific foods high in L-methylfolate. Does anyone know how accurate this is or if there is another list? Are these foods low in DHF, THF, and 5,10-methylene THF? I just really want to do this carefully and not mess up the progress I’ve made. I hate it when I add a food, wait a week to see results, then find out it’s bad, crash, and have to recuperate. On the other hand my diet has been limited for years, I’m sure that’s also not healthy. Thanks!

(For reference, the foods he says are high in L-methylfolate, which means they don’t need the MTHFR enzyme to become methylfolate, are:

• Romaine (Cos) Lettuce
• Sprouted legumes (buckwheat, mung beans, chickpeas, etc)
• Broccoli and cauliflower
• Asparagus
• Kale and spinach
• Cabbage
• Fermented foods such as miso and kefir
• Berries like strawberries and raspberries
• Citrus fruits like oranges and grapefruits

)

 

[alicec]

Here and here are a couple of posts relevant to folate forms in vegetables, along with studies analysing content in vegetables and fruit.

The website you quote is not correct in saying that small amounts of folic acid are found in vegetables. Folic acid is not found in nature, it is a synthetic laboratory product. The small amounts sometimes detected reflect oxidation of natural folates during preparation for analysis.

Also the website entirely omits to mention the second most predominant folate form in vegetables, folinic acid.

 

[ChrisD]

Originally I was motivated to source nutrients from vegetables for the same reason, but after much experimentation I have found that actually eliminating a majority of these due to FODMAPs, Histamine, Oxalates and Lectins has been beneficial for me. I think it's something worth bearing in mind if we assume that the gut is heavily involved in our illness.

Of your list, this is what I would personally still eat for the above reasons....

• Romaine (Cos) Lettuce
• Broccoli
• Kale
• Cabbage
• Blueberries

 

[bpcat]

Thank you so much @alicec foe the links! Those are very helpful!

@ChrisD that’s a really good perspective. When I start to feel well, I realize I get anxious to get my diet back to “normal”. But I’ve had issues sourcing from food, and got better so far with very targeted supplementing. So it’s probably best to not reintroduce foods back until I’m doing well for a long time. You know what’s really interesting... the final list of fruits/veggies you posted are primarily what I crave and do well with! Thanks for reminding me of the big picture and how correlated our gut is to this complicated illness.