3 Easy Ways to Pick a Prenatal
Here are some easy ways to make sure the supplements you pick are helping you. If you’re trying to get pregnant you most likely know that you should be taking a prenatal vitamin with folic acid or supplementing folic acid in addition to your multivitamin. But how do you pick which one? The one your doctor recommends or your sister or best friend? The cheapest or most expensive?
Choose Whole Food Sourced/ Non-Synthetic
The most important factor in picking any vitamin or supplement is that you choose one that is not synthetic. Synthetic vitamins are NOT easily absorbed into your body and therefore might not be doing the job they’re supposed to be doing. Additionally, synthetic supplements can cause toxicity in your liver and tax your kidneys, both which play a huge role in your hormones and reproduction.
Read the Label
Prioritize supplements that are red, yellow and blue dye free.Each ingredient should be listed separately with the source of the vitamin from a recognizable food source. (Vitamin C from aronia cherry etc). Gummies are not a great source for high potency vitamins so avoid those unless it’s the only option. In addition gummies are often made from gelatin which can contain high levels of glyphosate.
Learn to Spot a Fake
Another easy way to spot “fake” or synthetic vitamins is by looking at the ending of the word. If it ends in “ate” or “ide” as these are indicative of synthetic vitamins. Never take a B vitamin that is listed as cyanocobalamin as this is translated, cyno =cyanide .
Folate versus Folic Acid
For years we have been told about the importance of supplementing with folic acid to prevent neural tube defects in early pregnancy. Now the information has been clarified to show that the supplement should be natural folate and not folic acid which has been shown to contribute to midline defects.
What Folate Does
The purpose is to prevent birth defects, provide energy, help generate red blood cells, repair DNA and aid cellular detox. The recommended dose of Folate/ methyl folate is 800-1000 mg (consult your healthcare provider). You can also get a natural healthy dose of folate from lentils, leafy greens and broccoli.
The bottom line is this. Supplements can be costly, don't let them also be an obstacle to getting pregnant by choosing the wrong ones.
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