What's so good about leafy greens?

All right, feminists...sit up and take notice: it was a female investigator who discovered an important B vitamin--folacin, or folic acid, which is one of the biologically active forms. Dr. Lucy Wills became intrigued by a specific type of anemia among the pregnant women she was treating in India. Eventually she determined that these ladies were lacking something in their diet and that 'something' was called 'Wills Factor'. Finally the vitamin was extracted from spinach leaves and some clever devil came up with the name folic acid from the Latin 'folium' for leaf. Which is a handy way of remembering one of its excellent sources, if you can't or don't care to remember its best sources, liver and brewer's yeast. Brewers must be very healthy people, not to mention happy.

Time out for a little fun with chemistry. The technical name for folacin is pteroylglutamic acid, or PGA. This means that it's made up of pteroic acid along with one or more molecules of glutamate. I know you're gasping at this information--well hold on, it gets even better. The form that's used in food supplements has one glutamate molecule--a monoglutamate, which is very heat stable but most vulnerable if cooked in an acid solution. Meaning what? Meaning that you shouldn't add lemon juice when you're cooking greens. Another form of pteroic acid is para-amino benzoic acid, fondly referred to as PABA which, for those of you who love summer, will conjure up visions of beaches and sunscreen. PABA was originally thought to be a vitamin but we now know it's useless on the inside...meaning don't drink your sun-screening products.

Absorption of folacin is pretty routine except under certain conditions: amino salicylic acid and cyclosporin (drugs sometimes used in treating tuberculosis), some anticonvulsant medications, and alcohol diminish the level of absorption. As a matter of fact, the type of folacin that's found in food can't be absorbed by chronic alcoholics, forcing them to rely on a synthetic supplement, which I'm sure is high on their list of priorities. When you stop to think about it, there are so many vitamins whose absorption is impeded by alcohol, one can readily envision the day when the I.U.D. (International Union of Dissipators) stages massive protests to demand the vitaminization of booze. I jest, but I have it on good authority that Austrlia already requires the addition of thiamin to alcoholic beverages to ward off a condition (Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome) in alcoholics.

Sex pops up in nutritional discussions as it does in just about everything, and we find that the use of many oral contraceptive pills will lower serum folic acid levels. So guys that would a-courtin' go would be well advised to bring spinach instead of flowers. Pregnancy, which sometimes occurs in people not taking the aforementioned birth-control pill, demands a lot from a woman...especially folic acid. So much so that it is definitely recommended for pregnant women. Even more important is ensuring adequate folic acid intake around the time of conception to reduce the risk of Spina Bifida in the baby. Anyone considering becoming pregnant would be wise to consider a folic acid supplement as well.

Now then, supposing you're not taking any medication, are a teetotaler and your folacin absorption is just fine, thank you very much, what does it do for you once you've got it? Basically it's involved in amino acid metabolism and the synthesis of nucleic acids. If you don't have enough of it, your red blood cell formation suffers. The major symptom or result of folic acid deficiency is megaloblastic anemia in which the red blood cells are very large, but not plentiful. Anyone on a normal, well-balanced diet should have no fear of problems in this area. Other symptoms of folate deficiency include a high frequency of irritability, forgetfulness, hostility and paranoid behavior. Fortunately, in Canada at least, folacin is added to flour and cereals. Be careful, though. Large supplements of folic acid can hide symptoms of pernicious anemia or vitamin B 12 deficiency. Unbeknownst to the supplement taker, this condition could be proceeding dangerously, undetected because of the folic acid. So, as with any other supplement, don't overdo it.

The plot thickens still as research indicates that a low folic acid intake might be responsible for elevated levels of a substance called homocysteine, which may in turn lead to atherosclerosis. As it turns out, it might not be the presence of fat in your diet that's a problem, but rather the absence of fruits and vegetables with their high level of folic acid. So, no matter your sex or age, make sure that you get at least five servings of these foods daily.