Avoiding folic acid supplementation
I heard a respected scientist/physician/leading authority on gene variations say that avoiding folic acid supplementation in your food was ‘not complicated’. This annoyed me because it is a typical comment from a well-educated, affluent male who [probably] may not food shop and do his own cooking.
This leads me to thinking about families that I know and treat, and what the whole folic acid supplementation scenario is all about.
I first mentioned this in January 2026 here; Mandatory Folic Acid Fortification when the UK government confirmed that all non-wholemeal wheat flour [including organic] will be mandatorily fortified with folic acid, and that article discusses the reasons why that is not a good thing.
His comment annoyed me because, even if people want to avoid the dangers inherent in the mass ‘prescription’ of a synthetic vitamin [which is only meant for a section of the female population] I do not think it is ‘not complicated’.
He says all you have to do is;
‘Go through your kitchen right now. Check every label. Look for the words folic acid specifically, not just folate, folic acid. Read supplement labels carefully. Supplement bottles will say folate, but then right after that in parentheses, it will say folic acid. That’s garbage can material right there. Fortified cereals, breads, pastas, white rice, protein bars, energy drinks, meal replacement, green powders, prenatal vitamins, multivitamins, B complex supplements. It hides in things people consider healthy foods, especially anything marketed towards women, athletes, or children. If it says folic acid, it goes in the trash. This step matters more than anything else. Partial reduction does not work. The source has to stop completely. If it says enriched or fortified, put it back. Once the source is cut, eat real folate while your body clears the UMFA.* Spinach, liver, asparagus, avocado, eggs, beets, broccoli. These provide actual folate your body recognizes.’
In one sense he is right, of course. This isn’t complicated in theory…
My patients live in the real world, and if I advised them to do this they would just sag visibly and bodily as if I had just placed a burden on them that was just too hard to bear.
One 45-year-old woman has four kids, three of whom have special needs. She works, her husband works, there is a house to run and children to take care of, school uniform to get ready, homework to supervise, kids squabbles to settle, teaching them to tie their own shoelaces and make their own lunch boxes up, bills to pay, appliances to repair and replace, washing, ironing, cooking, shopping, ad infinitum….
None of her household are going to get pregnant.
Up to now she has been reorganising her life so that she cooks dinners from scratch most of the time, because she knows that way she reduces the cumulative health risks that ultra processed food brings to her family.
She has just been trying to extend this to making her own bread and biscuits because she feels this is the healthiest option knowing they are made with good fats and not vegetable oil.
And, let me tell you, this is no mean feat.
Now even the organic flour she can pick up from the supermarket with her weekly shop is supplemented with folic acid. Surely, she should be able to choose non-fortified-with-folic-acid flour when she shops?
So, Doctor, even if you are a respected scientist/physician/leading authority on gene variations, I think you are just plain wrong. Avoiding folic acid supplementation in food IS COMPLICATED.
At least for my patients.
My patients are real people with little time, and less disposable income. They haven’t got the time to source for artisan specialist bakers who don’t put folic acid in their spelt flour. They also have children who have become accustomed to the fortified cereals that the Mum had bought because she thought they were healthy [as they claim]. It is complicated to change the diet of young children. It is exhausting to face daily battles over what they will or will not put in their mouths when the clock is ticking and everybody has to get out of the house on time…
And people have all manner of life’s burdens with poor housing, poor mental health, unstable family relationships, grief, loneliness, poor access to affordable food, no access to transport. They may be suffering from fatigue, pain, inflammation, sleep debt, trauma, and also have caregiving, work hours, commuting, childcare responsibilities.
Most of my patients would love it if they could follow this man’s advice and eliminate synthetic folic acid supplements in their food. But there is just too much of it to be practical in any sense of the word.
You may be able to tell that I am annoyed. But I do love discussing with people what we can do practically and affordably to improve our health bit by bit in this world in which we live with the time and money we have at our disposal. With food, with lifestyle, with herbs. You are welcome to join me in HerbWorks.
*UMFA= unmetabolized folic acid – Folic acid is not the same as folate. Folate is the family of naturally occurring, forms of vitamin B9 found in food. Folic acid is an oxidised, synthetic molecule created for stability and shelf life. The human body does not use folic acid directly; it must first be reduced by dihydrofolate reductase [DHFR], an enzyme that is slow and easily saturated.
Once DHFR is overwhelmed, unmetabolised folic acid appears in the bloodstream. This is not a rare occurrence. In fortified populations, UMFA is detectable in most adults, in children, and even in cord blood. It is a predictable consequence of exposing the entire population to doses that exceed the metabolic capacity of DHFR.
UMFA is not simply ‘extra folate’. It is a distinct chemical species with different receptor interactions and breakdown products. It is biologically unusual, and it is now ubiquitous.
Why I am against supplementing and fortifying an entire population with synthetic folic acid:
- It creates a nonphysiological exposure [UMFA] at scale, driven by a known metabolic bottleneck.
- It masks B12 deficiency and may contribute to neurological harm.
- It likely modulates immune pathways in ways we do not yet fully understand.
- It is associated with concerning signals in cancer, cognition, metabolic health, and allergy.
- It imposes lifelong exposure on men, older women, and children for a benefit that applies only to a narrow reproductive window in women.
