When you are pregnant what you eat is vital, not just to your own well-being, but to your unborn baby’s health and future. Although many of the causes of premature birth and birth defects are unknown, one possible cause is thought to be low levels of folic acid in a pregnant woman’s diet.Folic acid is a B vitamin found in such foods as leafy green vegetables, beans and orange juice.Low levels of folic acid in pregnant women are thought to be a possible reason for birth defects such as spina bifida and anencephaly, neural tube defects that can result in damage to the unborn baby’s spine and brain. Scientists think that folic acid may be vital to DNA development. According to the website http://kidshealth.org, women who get 400 micrograms (0.4 milligrams) daily prior to conception and during early pregnancy reduce the risk that their baby will be born with a serious neural tube defect by up to 70 percent.To reduce the birth defect rate, in the late 1990s both the United States and Canada began fortifying foods such as breakfast cereal, bread and pasta with folic acid. Researchers have now found that the rate of spina bifida, anencephaly and other similar birth defects have fallen since they began fortifying foods. But some scientists are calling for the level of fortification to be raised even higher.In April 2006, Robert Brent of the A.I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Delaware, and Godfrey Oakley of Emory University in Atlanta, stated that the fortification level should be doubled in foods like breads and pastas, to be 280 micrograms of folic acid per 100 grams of grain.Researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the University of Alabama also found racial disparities. They found that children born to black women were less likely to be protected, perhaps because of genetic differences or gaps in education. It is recommend that black women and hispanic women, in particular, take prenatal vitamins.“Educational efforts regarding the importance of consumption of folic acid-containing supplements and food high in folic acid and natural folate among women of all racial/ethnic groups should be continued,” the study recommended. The results of the study were published in the September 2006 issue of ‘Pediatrics’, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.If you are pregnant or planning for a pregnancy, it is important to talk about prenatal vitamins with your physician or obstetrician. Prenatal vitamins are important even in the planning stages because some neural tube defects are thought to occur during the first 28 days of pregnancy, before most women even know they are pregnant.At home, you can also eat foods that are high in folic acid. To reap the full benefit of the folic acid it is better to eat fruits and vegetables raw, if possible. Some food items that are high in folic acid include asparagus, spinach, oranges, sunflower seeds, pinto beans, chickpeas and black-eyed peas.At right is a salad to make at home that is high in folic acid: