Juice Plus is a line of nutrient supplements made from whole fruits and vegetables designed to help you meet your fruit, vegetable, vitamin and mineral needs in a simple supplement form. One daily serving of Juice Plus supplements meets 195 percent of your daily folic acid needs.
Juice Plus
Juice Plus is a specially formulated nutrition supplement made from real fruits and vegetables, such as apples, beets, berries, broccoli and tomatoes, with added vitamins and minerals. The Juice Plus supplements include three types Orchard Blend, Garden Blend and Vineyard Blend, and you need to take one pill from each blend each day. These three pills provide 195 percent, or 780 mcg, of your daily folate needs a day. While Juice Plus can increase your serum blood levels of folate, it is not superior to eating real fruits and vegetables, according to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
Folate
Folate is one of the essential B vitamins, and it plays an important role in the production of new cells. It is especially important during periods of rapid growth, such as pregnancy and infancy. Women of childbearing age need adequate intakes of folate to prevent neural tube defects in their children. Folate is also important for the formation of RNA and DNA, and may help prevent changes to DNA that lead to cancer, according to the Office of Dietary Supplements.
Daily Folic Acid Needs
The Food and Nutrition Board at the Institute of Medicine determines your daily folic acid needs. Recommendations Dietary Allowances, or RDA, for folic acid are the average requirements needed to meet the needs of nearly all healthy individuals. Needs vary depending on your age. Children ages 1 to 3 years need 150 mcg of folic acid a day, 4 to 8 years, 200 mcg and 9 to 13 years 300 mcg. Everyone over the age of 14 needs 400 mcg of folic acid a day. If you are pregnant, your daily needs are higher, requiring 600 mcg a day.
Toxicity
As a water-soluble vitamin, it is difficult to develop toxicities to folic acid because whatever you consume in excess is excreted in your urine. However, it is recommended that you limit your intake of folic acid from supplements to less than 1,000 mcg a day to prevent the folic acid from causing a vitamin B12 deficiency. While the amount of folic acid in Juice Plus exceeds the RDA, it is not near toxic levels.
Member Comments