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PFD Wellness: The Answers to Your Questions!

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If you have a comment or question for the Wellness team, click HERE. (For intranet users only.)

1. Why is Folic Acid important in your daily diet?

Folic Acid, also known as Folate is a B-Vitamin. Women should take it everyday if they are of childbearing age, and they might become pregnant. Folic Acid decrease the risk of an unborn baby developing serious birth defects. Folic Acid may also protect men and women from heart disease, cervical and colon cancer, and possibly breast cancer.

2. What foods naturally contain Folic Acid?

Folic Acid is richly found in spinach, asparagus, turnup greens, lima beans, beef liver, broccoli, romaine lettuce and orange juice.

3. What are Trans-fatty Acids?

Trans fat results when polyunsaturated oil is partially hydrogenated in order to make it stick into stick margarine or solid shortening in a can. Research has found that trans-fatty acids increase the "bad" cholesterol and decrease the "good" cholesterol, even though it started out as a good polyunsaturated fat before hydrogenation. You can only tell if a margarine is trans-fatty acid-free if the margarine has a claim on the label that states "Trans-fatty Acid-Free."

4. What are the best vitamin supplements to take?

The body absorbs about 10% to 15% of the nutrients in a vitamin pill, assuming you don't have a deficiency for a particular nutrient. The rest is excreted in your urine. If you eat more than 1600 calories per day from a variety of food, you may be wasting your money and making some very expensive urine.

If you are consuming less than 1600 calories per day, you are not getting all the vitamins and minerals you need, therefore you probabibly need a multivitamin that has 100% of the RDA for all vitamins and minerals.

So basically if you are eating a well-balanced diet from a large variety of foods, $85.00 of the $100.00 you may have just spent on vitamins will be flushed down the toilet.