Read the full episode + resources here:

https://becomingnatural.com/folate-vs-folic-acid/

Folate vs Folic Acid — Two names that sound the same, yet lead the body in very different directions. Today, we’re slowing down to understand why this matters, especially for women. Our bodies were designed to use folate — Vitamin B9 found in leafy greens, lentils, eggs, citrus, and liver. But most processed foods and many prenatal vitamins use folic acid, a synthetic form that must be converted before the body can use it. And for up to 40–60% of women, that conversion doesn’t happen efficiently.

This episode explains what happens when folic acid builds up in the bloodstream, why methylation (your body’s “on/off switch”) matters for hormones, mood, detox, fertility, and nervous system health, and what to do if your body has been quietly struggling to keep up.

This is not about panic, perfection, or pressure. It’s about recognizing that your body is brilliantly designed — and sometimes it simply needs nutrients in the form God originally created.

We’ll explore:

1. Folate vs folic acid (what’s the difference?)
2. The MTHFR gene and why conversion matters
3. Gentle ways to support methylation without overwhelm
4. Foods rich in natural folate you can begin adding today

You are not behind. Your body is not broken.

Restoration is already happening.

Share this with a friend who needs clarity and peace in her healing journey.❤️

Hosted by Penelope Sampler

Natural Wellness • Chronic Illness Journey • Faith & Wellness

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📌 Note: I share what I’ve learned on my own journey — the things that have supported me in hard seasons. I offer personal experience, thoughtful research, and lots of encouragement. This podcast isn’t medical advice, and it shouldn’t replace care from a qualified professional. Always talk to someone you trust before making changes to your health routine.

© Becoming Natural Podcast.

🎙️ 57 Folate vs Folic Acid: Recommended Nutrient Withheld that Women Need to Know

Hey friend, welcome back to Becoming Natural.
I’m so glad you’re here with me today — really.

If you’re listening to this episode and you are like me….

You’re hungry for truth.
You’re curious.
You care about your health — not from fear, not from pressure,
but because you’re learning how to live inside your body with wisdom.

You want to understand how God designed the human body to heal, to repair, to adapt… and how sometimes, modern health advice can get a little noisy. (gentle pause) Most of all as I have researched, read, dug deep for every episode, I have truly opened my eyes to the fact that our bodies are created perfectly. Not to get sick. And on that rare moment of illness it knows how to heal. But if we are not keeping our vitamins, minerals, stress, external pressures in check and our bodies in nature, our bodies will break. We weren’t designed to be in a cubicle, but out in the sunshine and fresh air. I had NO idea how truly physical nature is when it comes to keeping your body healthy. WE NEED to be OUTSIDE and in NATURE. Then, we can hopefully reduce our needs for medications and correct our body from the inside out and the outside in. Amazing.

Today, we’re going to talk about something that shows up almost everywhere in the food and vitamin world:

Prenatal vitamins.
Breakfast cereal.
Flour.
Bread.
Energy drinks.
Even your kid’s gummy vitamins.

It’s fortified into half the food system.

Folic. Acid. I have recently come upon several discussions about Folic Acid that caused me to perk up. So I took a dive.

But here’s the catch:

Folic acid is not the same as folate.

And that difference matters — especially for women.
Especially during pregnancy.
Especially if you’ve ever heard the term MTHFR
or wondered why your body feels like it works harder than it should.

So today we’re going to talk about:

What folic acid is

What folate is

Why women are told to supplement it

How folic acid ended up inside almost every processed grain

What happens if your body can’t convert folic acid

And how to gently support your body with what it recognizes as nourishment

This is a grace-filled conversation — no shame, no panic, no overhauling your life.

Just understanding.
Let’s learn.
God is in this story.

WHAT EXACTLY IS FOLATE?

Folate is a natural B vitamin — Vitamin B9.
It comes from food that is actually alive:

Leafy greens.
Avocado.
Lentils and chickpeas.
Eggs.
Beets.
Citrus fruits.
And yes — liver, if you’re brave.

Folate is something God actually placed in creation — and our bodies use it for:

DNA repair

Red blood cell formation

Tissue healing

Fetal spinal cord + brain development

Wound healing

Making neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine

Methylation (the body's “on/off switch” for detox, mood, hormones)

It is essential.
God designed you to need it.

So yes — folate is a vitamin.

And methylation is where the story becomes deeply meaningful. Yet another word that is coming to the surface…getting methylated vitamins Methylated this…

✨ WHAT IS METHYLATION?

You may have heard this word floating around — methylation support, methylated vitamins, MTHFR.

Let’s simplify.

Methylation is your body’s on/off switch.

Think of it as the way your body tags molecules and tells them what to do.

It’s happening billions of times every second inside you.

Here’s the simplest way I can explain it:

A methyl group is basically a tiny chemical “tag” made of one carbon atom and three hydrogen atoms.

Your body attaches that tag to different things in order to activate, deactivate, or transform them.

And why does that matter?

Because methylation is how your body:

Detoxifies chemicals, medications, pesticides, and even your own hormones

Builds neurotransmitters (like serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine — your mood chemicals)

Balances estrogen and clears used hormones from the body

Regulates your stress response

Repairs DNA after stress, illness, or trauma

Creates healthy nerve and brain cells

Supports immune function

So yes — methylation is major.

It’s quiet but foundational.

Always moving.
Always organizing.
Bringing order where there could be chaos.
you don’t always see it happening,
but you absolutely feel its absence.

🌱 HOW DOES FOLATE FUEL THIS?

Your body needs folate to create those methyl groups.

But most supplements and fortified foods don’t contain natural folate.
They contain folic acid.

And here’s the key difference:

Your body needs folate (Vitamin B9) — specifically methylated folate — to make those methyl groups.

But folic acid — the synthetic form — has to be converted first before the body can use it.
And if your methylation pathway is slow (like in the MTHFR gene variation), that conversion bottlenecks.

So you may have:

Plenty of folic acid in your system

But not enough methyl groups to run the show.

So what happens?

Folic acid enters →
But doesn’t fully convert →
So it builds up in the bloodstream →
Meanwhile the body remains low in usable folate.

So methylation slows.

And when methylation slows, women may feel:

Anxiety or mood instability

PMS intensity or hormonal overwhelm

Sluggish detox

Fatigue that doesn’t make sense

Brain fog or emotional heaviness

Inflammation increases

Not because your body is broken.
Not because you're “too sensitive.”
But because the form of the vitamin matters.

It’s like

Folate is groceries PLUS a working stove.
Folic acid is groceries… but no heat to cook them.

Folate = the raw ingredient
Methylation = the cooking, converting, nourishing process

The ingredients are there.
But your body can’t turn it into nourishment.

And that conversion depends on the MTHFR gene.

🧬 THE MTHFR PIECE

Up to 40–60% of women have a variation in the MTHFR gene that makes conversion slow.

🤰 WHY THIS MATTERS SO MUCH DURING PREGNANCY

The baby’s brain and spinal cord begin forming at 18–28 days.
Often before a woman even knows she is pregnant.

That formation requires usable folate.

folate is crucial for:

Cell division

Brain and spinal cord development

Placenta formation

Healthy nervous system growth

This is why women are told to take prenatal vitamins before they get pregnant if possible.

Folate (not folic acid) is like the blueprint designer for new life.

Not folic acid sitting in the bloodstream unconverted —
but methylated folate actively participating in cell formation.

This is why women were told to take folic acid — the intention was right.

But if the conversion step doesn’t work well?

The support doesn’t land.

This does not mean worry.
This means understanding. When we know better we do better.

And then, we can share and empower others.

🌸 DEFICIENCY CAN LOOK LIKE:

Fatigue

Pale skin

Shortness of breath

Anxiety or low mood

Tingling in hands/feet

Slow wound healing

Brain fog

During pregnancy: increased neural tube defect risk

SO WHAT’S FOLIC ACID THEN?

It does not exist naturally in any food.

Think of it like:

Folate = apple from the tree 🍎

Folic acid = apple-flavored gummy candy 🍬

They’re not the same, even though the name sounds similar.

📜 HOW DID FOLIC ACID ENTER THE FOOD SYSTEM?

When we say “neural tube defects,” we’re talking about situations where the baby’s brain or spinal cord doesn’t form completely in those first few weeks of development. It happens very early, often before a mom even knows she’s expecting. Spina Bifida is an example.

Folic acid is a synthetic form of Vitamin B9.
It is not the same as the natural Vitamin B9 found in food (which is called folate).

So yes — folic acid is classified as B9…
but the body cannot use it as-is.
It has to be converted into the active form (methylated folate).

Why folic acid?
Because it was:

Cheap to produce

Stable on shelves

Easy to mix into processed food

So suddenly, folic acid was everywhere — cereal, bread, pasta, crackers, tortillas, pastries, supplements, prenatal vitamins.

The intention was good.
The execution… had gaps.

The oversight: the body’s conversion system varies.

And now:

Bread

Pasta

Cereals

Crackers

Snack foods

Most prenatals

contain a form half the population struggles to use.

Not your fault.
Not your doctor’s fault.

Just information we now get to work with.

🎯 WHEN TO CHOOSE METHYLATED FORMS

Not everything needs to be methylated.

But some vitamins make a huge difference when they are:

Top Vitamins That Matter Most in Methylated Form

These are the ones where methylation is especially important — particularly for women, mood health, hormones, detox, energy, and fertility.

What that means for methylation: Folate brings the methyl groups.

B12 moves them into action.

B6 turns those nutrients into neurotransmitters we feel as mood, calm, focus, and emotional steadiness.

And B2 is what switches the MTHFR enzyme on, allowing folate to convert into the form your body can use.

Those are the big four.
If you focus on these, your methylation pathway is well-supported.

🔥 But here’s the important caution:

Too many methylated vitamins — especially too quickly — can cause:

Anxiety

Wired-but-tired feeling

Racing thoughts

Irritability

Trouble sleeping

Overwhelm

Why?
When methylation speeds up too fast, your nervous system speeds up too.

This is why I always say this with love:
We are working with the body, not pushing or forcing.

God does slow and steady restoration.
We do, too.

In nature, if we were still eating soil-rich vegetables and drinking untreated spring water, we’d get B12 from the bacteria in the soil and on the food.

But because our modern food supply is sanitized, chlorinated, and sterilized, we simply don’t get B12 the way we used to — so we supplement.

💛 So what’s the gentle, wise approach?

Start with:

A prenatal or multivitamin that uses:

L-methylfolate

Methylcobalamin

So here’s the difference.
Folate — Vitamin B9 — is what your body uses to create methyl groups.
B12 is what your body uses to place those methyl groups where they need to go.

Think of folate as the building material…
and B12 as the builder.

You need both for your nervous system, your hormones, your brain chemistry, your detox system, and pregnancy development to work in harmony.
If one is low, the other can't do its job — and that’s why so many women feel like their bodies are “trying” but not quite getting there.

Obviously, best way to get your vitamins is to eat them. But we can’t always do that these days. Some of the richest natural sources of folate are leafy greens like spinach and romaine, lentils and beans, avocado, citrus fruits, beets, and egg yolks. God already put folate in the foods that nourish life. It’s not complicated — it’s just often been crowded out by processed and fortified foods.

Whole-food folate-rich foods (God knew what He was doing)

🥬 Highest in Folate (Top Tier)

These are your nutritional powerhouses:

Spinach (cooked has more available folate than raw)

Romaine lettuce

Arugula

Collard greens

Swiss chard

Beet greens

Kale

Asparagus

Brussels sprouts

Broccoli

(If it’s a leafy green or cruciferous veggie, it’s likely a folate friend.)

🫘 Beans, Lentils & Legumes

These are folate superstars — especially for women.

Lentils (one of the BEST sources of folate on earth)

Chickpeas

Black beans

Pinto beans

Split peas

So yes — your grandma’s soup was actually medicinal. 😉

🥑 Everyday Foods You Already Love

Easy to add without overthinking:

Avocado 💚

Oranges & citrus fruits

Papaya

Mangos

Beets

Carrots

🍳 Animal Sources (If you eat them)

These are especially nutrient-dense:

Egg yolks (gently cooked is best)

Grass-fed liver (beef or chicken)
(tiny amounts go a long way — think 1–2 oz/week or in capsules)

Liver is one of the richest natural folate foods on the planet.

🌾 Important Note

You’ll often see “folate” listed on labels of:

Bread

Pasta

Cereals

Crackers

But those are fortified with folic acid — the synthetic form.
So when we talk about food sources, we’re talking about whole, unfortified, God-grown foods.

And reduce:

Fortified grains

Cereals

Foods labeled “enriched” or “fortified”

Supplements containing folic acid or cyanocobalamin that’s the synthetic form of B12 — pronounced: sigh-ANN-oh-co-BAL-uh-min.”

Rabbit hole: Cyanocobalamin is:

A lab-made, synthetic form of Vitamin B12

Created by binding Vitamin B12 to a cyanide molecule (yes, real cyanide, but at extremely tiny, technically “safe” levels)

Your body then has to:

Convert cyanocobalamin → methylcobalamin (the usable form)

And detoxify the cyanide molecule

So:

It requires extra energy from the body

And it provides no biological advantage

This is why we do not recommend it.

“Methylcobalamin is what we call the active form of B12 — which means it’s the form the body can use right away, without needing to convert it. Now, sometimes people hear that and ask, ‘So does that mean it’s natural and not synthetic?’ And the answer is: not always. “Active doesn’t always mean naturally sourced — it means biologically recognizable. Your body says, ‘Oh. I know what to do with this.’”

Even methylcobalamin can be made in a lab — but the important thing is that it matches the form your body actually uses.
So the body recognizes it. It can receive it. It doesn’t have to work first to turn it into something usable.

So when I recommend methylcobalamin, it’s not because it’s perfect and pure in every way — it’s because it’s the form that honors the design of how your body works.”

Just this one swap changes so much.

It is truly mind-blowing how our bodies are fearfully and wonderfully made. The perfect orchestra between God given nutrients designed to serve our bodies well.

So the super summed up version is that we NEED Folate, a natural vitamin (B9) found in nature. But the world fortified all of our processed foods with Folic Acid, which is synthetic and unusable until it can be methylated or CONVERTED to a useable form. Vitamins B2,6 and 12 work as a team to carry out the entire conversion process properly.

🌿 A Simple Reassuring Truth

You don’t need to be perfect.
Your body does not need dozens of supplements.
You are not behind.

The goal is simply to:

Remove what blocks the pathway

Replace with what your body recognizes

And let healing be a slow, holy process

God is such a patient gardener.

Restoration is not rushed.
It is tended to.

You are being tended to.

The growth is in the process.

OUTRO

If this episode brought clarity, would you share it with someone who may need it too?

Thank you for being here.
This is Becoming Natural.