Easy Ways to Eat More Folate Every Day - Healthy For Life Coalition

Folate is in lots of everyday foods, and a few small habits can add more of it to your week. If you could become pregnant, food is only half the plan. You also need 400 mcg of folic acid a day from a vitamin, enriched foods, or both.

Folate or folic acid?

Folate is the B vitamin found naturally in foods like leafy greens and beans. Folic acid is the form used in vitamins and in enriched foods like bread and cereal. The CDC notes that folic acid is the only form of folate shown to help prevent neural tube defects, serious birth defects of the brain and spine. For more on the difference, see Folic Acid or Folate.

How much you need

The NIH Office of Dietary Supplements sets these daily amounts for adults, in mcg DFE (dietary folate equivalents, a unit that accounts for how well your body absorbs each form):

Who	Folate per day
Adults 19 and older	400 mcg DFE
Pregnancy	600 mcg DFE
Breastfeeding	500 mcg DFE

Most people in the U.S. get enough folate from food, according to the NIH. But the NIH also notes the higher amount in pregnancy can be hard to reach through food alone. Our dosage page explains DFE in more detail.

Six easy habits

The amounts below come from the NIH folate fact sheet. For foods with natural folate, mcg of folate equals mcg DFE. 1. Make beans and peas a regular main dish. Half a cup of boiled black-eyed peas has 105 mcg DFE. Half a cup of canned kidney beans has 46 mcg DFE, and half a cup of green peas has 47 mcg DFE. Try a bean chili, bean tacos, or a pot of black-eyed peas once or twice a week. 2. Eat dark green vegetables most days. Spinach is one of the richest sources: half a cup boiled has 131 mcg DFE, and a cup raw has 58 mcg DFE. Four spears of asparagus have 89 mcg DFE. Half a cup of Brussels sprouts has 78 mcg DFE, and half a cup of broccoli or mustard greens has 52 mcg DFE. A cup of shredded romaine adds 64 mcg DFE to a salad. 3. Pick enriched grains. Since 1998, the FDA has required folic acid in enriched breads, flours, cornmeal, pasta, rice, and other grain products, according to the NIH. The CDC says these products say “enriched” on the label. Many breakfast cereals have folic acid added, too. 4. Snack on fruit and nuts. Half a cup of sliced avocado has 59 mcg DFE. A small orange has 29 mcg DFE, a medium banana has 24 mcg DFE, and an ounce of dry-roasted peanuts has 27 mcg DFE. 5. Add an egg. One large hard-boiled egg has 22 mcg DFE, and it’s an easy add to breakfast or a salad. 6. Read the label. Food and supplement labels now list folate in mcg DFE, with any folic acid shown in parentheses. The CDC gives this example: “667 mcg DFE (400 mcg folic acid)” means the serving has 400 mcg of folic acid.

A note on cooking

The CDC says folic acid holds up to heat and light better than the folate found naturally in food, even through cooking and baking. That’s one reason it’s used in vitamins and enriched foods.

If you could become pregnant

Keep eating folate-rich foods, and also get 400 mcg of folic acid every day. The CDC suggests a vitamin with folic acid, enriched foods, or both. Start at least one month before pregnancy. More isn’t better: the NIH sets an upper limit of 1,000 mcg of folic acid a day for adults from supplements and fortified foods. That limit doesn’t apply to folate from regular food. Related reading