The Hemp Connection:
folic acid

I just returned from the Natural Products West Expo in Anaheim, California. This show is where companies providing products to health food stores, Whole Foods, etc., bring their information and samples to introduce to buyers. I came home with enough trends and food ideas to keep me blogging until next year's conference! It was really exciting to see the many possibilities for people who want to eat healthier but who do not want to sacrifice taste.

One of the trends was snacks from the sea. I wasn't fond of a lot of them, but one I really loved was the toasted seafood snacks made from nori. Nori is the seafood used to wrap sushi with. It's now becoming popular on its own, for its nutritional value, including calcium, magnesium, potassium, zinc, iron, vitamin A, vitamin E, vitamin K, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, folic acid, and vitamin C. There's even a little bit of DHA, the kind of omega-3 that is primarily found in fish. Those are a lot of the things you hear me writing about here. For you vegans out there, take note of the vitamin B12!

Toasted nori is very much like the kale chips many of you told me you are now enjoying. It's very light and probably not something that would cure a case of the munchies, but crumbled onto salad or into a seafood salad, into soup, or on top of a pizza, they would be a great and tasty way to add nutrition to your diet without having to take yet another supplement. I will say that the type of fat is not the one you see us recommend here, but the amount you are likely going to get in the way I envision most of you eating this, it's not going to be the food that makes or breaks your fatty acid balance.

This product is so new the website listed on their package is not even up yet. For those of you who read this down the road, you will eventually be able to learn more at http://www.jayone.com/.

For now though, these nori snacks are available at amazon.com. Here is the order link for the salted flavor., and there is a sweet flavor to try as well.

The relationship between nutrition and pre-eclampsia is getting stronger! Researchers have reported that using a multivitamin supplement containing folic acid in the second trimester of pregnancy helped to reduce the risk of pre-eclampsia. Personally, since folic acid is also recommended to any woman who is trying to conceive, I'd recommend taking it all the time instead of trying to guess when is the right time.

I've worked with many women trying to conceive, who have trouble changing their food habits. Some, out of fear of those changes or frustration at the challenge, give up, let the reproductive endocrinologist be the primary person fixing the problem, and figure they'll worry about their diet later.

Bad idea.

What you eat when you're preparing to become pregnant, while you're pregnant, while you're nursing, and while you're getting back into shape after all of that, are all vitally important. There's no such logical strategy as putting nutrition on the back burner, letting the doctor fix the problem, and worrying about the food later. It all fits together…and it affects more than just you!

By the way, good sources of folic acid include: lentils (right now is great weather for soup!),boiled collard greens (great if you're a Southern belle), chickpeas (whoo hoo for hummous!), papaya (always great in a fruit salad), frozen peas (easy to keep in the freezer), asparagus (this is the season when it starts getting cheap), broccoli (easy to keep around), strawberries (not a hard thing to have to eat), oranges (a winter favorite).

Wen SW, Chen XK, Rodger M, White RR, Yang Q, Smith GN, Sigal RJ, Perkins SL, Walker MC. Folic Acid in Early Second Trimester May Reduce Risk of Preeclampsia Am J Obstet Gynecol. 2008;198:45.e1-45.e7.

d-Chiro inositol is an extremely popular supplement with women with PCOS. I've heard some fantastic stories about it helping when nothing else seemed to make a difference.

That being said…

…I ran across a very interesting study published this past summer. It has to do with myo-inositol, another member of the same family that does not convert well to the d-chiro form in women with PCOS.

In this study, two groups of women undergoing in-vitro fertilization (IVF) were evaluated for pregnancy outcome with two different supplement protocols. One group received myo-inositol plus folic acid, the other received these two supplements as well as melatonin.
Each group produced a similar number of eggs, but the women receiving the melatonin had a greater percentage of mature vs. immature eggs (i.e., better egg quality). Though the fertilization rate was equal in both groups, actual pregnancy rates tended to be better in the women receiving melatonin.

********BEFORE YOU RUN OUT AND BUY YET ANOTHER SUPPLEMENT!!!*********
Take a look at your sleep hygiene! Are you keeping regular sleep hours? Or are you up late at night reading, watching TV, surfing the Internet?

Melatonin is the sleep hormone. There are many aspects of PCOS that are associated with not sleeping well, including insulin resistance and weight gain.

Supplements do their best work in a well-balanced environment. One that is balanced nutritionally, emotionally, physically (with exercise), and with regards to sleep.

Create your own melatonin naturally, with more attention to sleep and rest. As with some of our success stories, you might be surprised at what happens when you focus on the little things rather than on the name of the supplement.

Rizzo P, Raffone E, Benedetto V. Effect of the treatment with myo-inositol plus folic acid plus melatonin in comparison with a treatment with myo-inositol plus folic acid on oocyte quality and pregnancy outcome in IVF cycles. A prospective, clinical trial. Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci. 2010 Jun;14(6):555-61.

It's that time of year again, asparagus time!

I just love this veggie. You can eat it raw, steam it to go with your favorite fish, saute it and add it to your breakfast omelet, or marinate it in your favorite vinaigrette. If you're grilling your fish, you can put the aspargus out there just before serving time and cook it that way. One of my good friends taught me to cook asparagus in the microwave--just cover it with a paper towel and zap it for a very short time. So easy you'll wonder why you ever thought vegetables are high maintenance.

If that doesn't inspire you, here are 230 more ideas that hopefully will! http://allrecipes.com/Recipes/Everyday-Cooking/Spring/Asparagus/Main.aspx

And did you know asparagus is a decent source of folic acid…which you need lots of if you're even thinking of getting pregnant? It also contains iron, something women can have a hard time getting into their diet.

My mom loves white asparagus, which in her native Germany is called"Spargel". It's a little harder to find here in the United States…but if you have a chance to try it you won't be disappointed. It's essentially a"blond" or"albino" asparagus, grown covered in soil to prevent photosynthesis, resulting in a less bitter version.

Next time you're in the grocery store I hope you think of this post and bring some home for yourself!