Folates or folic acid? IU vs mcg or mg?
09-27-2010, 04:38 PM
#1
FitDay Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 171
Folates or folic acid? IU vs mcg or mg?
I'm a recently diagnosed diabetic getting into the nutrition game for the first time. Have a couple of questions. (also kind of new to the Internet, so please excuse any goof ups in that regard too)
I see folates on some nutrition labels, but not on our list of nutrients, shouldn't they be?
I'm confused by the nutrition labels for some vitamins that show IUs and micro - or milligrams. There doesn't seem to be any consistency between how many iUs there are per mg. Is there a way to translate one into the other?
I see folates on some nutrition labels, but not on our list of nutrients, shouldn't they be?
I'm confused by the nutrition labels for some vitamins that show IUs and micro - or milligrams. There doesn't seem to be any consistency between how many iUs there are per mg. Is there a way to translate one into the other?
09-30-2010, 08:29 PM
#2
FitDay Member
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 1
IU to mg
In pharmacology, the International Unit is a unit of measurement for the amount of a substance, based on measured biological activity or effect. "International Unit" is abbreviated as IU. It is an old measurement of vitamin activity determined by biological methods as opposed to new measures that are determined by direct chemical analysis.
Many health foods and supplements still use i.u. ( IU ).
For Vitamin A, 1 i.u. = 0.3µg retinol, 3.6µg b-carotene, or 7.2µg other vitamin A carotenoids
For Vitamin D, 1 i.u. = 0.025µg cholecalciferol
For Vitamin E, 1 i.u. = 0.67µg natural a-tocopherol (different conversion factors are used for different forms of vitamin E)
Many health foods and supplements still use i.u. ( IU ).
For Vitamin A, 1 i.u. = 0.3µg retinol, 3.6µg b-carotene, or 7.2µg other vitamin A carotenoids
For Vitamin D, 1 i.u. = 0.025µg cholecalciferol
For Vitamin E, 1 i.u. = 0.67µg natural a-tocopherol (different conversion factors are used for different forms of vitamin E)
09-17-2011, 01:40 PM
#4
FitDay Member
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: 86
Posts: 1,875
This would be a good request to post in the Beta thread.
http://www.fitday.com/fitness/forums/fitday-beta/
There's already other requests there for sugar etc. but I haven't seen folic acid.
