Translations:Folate/62/en

The U.S. National Center for Health Statistics conducts the biannual National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) to assess the health and nutritional status of adults and children in the United States. Some results are reported as What We Eat In America. The 2013–2014 survey reported that for adults ages 20 years and older, men consumed an average of 249 μg/day folate from food plus 207 μg/day of folic acid from consumption of fortified foods, for a combined total of 601 μg/day of dietary folate equivalents (DFEs because each microgram of folic acid counts as 1.7 μg of food folate). For women, the values are 199, 153 and 459 μg/day, respectively. This means that fortification led to a bigger increase in folic acid intake than first projected, and that more than half the adults are consuming more than the RDA of 400 μg (as DFEs). Even so, fewer than half of pregnant women are exceeding the pregnancy RDA of 600 μg/day.