TITLE:
Effect of a 12-Week Dietary Intervention with Folic Acid or Folate-Enhanced Foods on Folate Status in Healthy Egyptian Women
AUTHORS:
Mohammed E. Hefni, Mohamed T. Shalaby, Rasha A. Mohamed, Ahmad M. Elwa, Cornelia M. Witthöft
KEYWORDS:
Folic Acid, Folate-Enhanced Legume Foods, Human Intervention, Folate Status
JOURNAL NAME:
Food and Nutrition Sciences,
Vol.7 No.14,
December
5,
2016
ABSTRACT: The Egyptian government introduced wheat-flour fortification with iron and folic
acid to reduce the incidence of neural tube defects, but suspended it for technical
reasons. We previously developed novel legume foods with enhanced folate content.
In this study, we investigated the efficacy of 12-week intervention with folate-enhanced
foods versus folic acid supplement in improving folate status in Egyptian
women. A randomized, parallel intervention trial with two active groups (n = 19, n =
18) and one blinded control group (n = 20) was executed over 12 weeks. Volunteers
received either germinated legume foods and orange juice (≈250 μg/d folate) or folic
acid supplement (500 μg/d) or apple juice (0 μg/d folate). Folate status was assessed
by erythrocyte and plasma folate and total homocysteine (tHcy) at day 0, and after 8
and 12 weeks of intervention. After 12 weeks, mean plasma folate increased by 14 (P