Hispanic/Latinas experience lower blood folate levels due to their limited consumption of folic acid and their lack of knowledge on the subject. For this reason, Latinas are 1.5 to three times more likely to deliver a child affected by birth defects, compared to non-Latino whites.

Dark leafy greens (spinach or romaine lettuce), orange juice, enriched grains (white bread, pasta, white rice, peanuts, flour tortillas, breakfast cereal, crackers and bagels), asparagus, beans (lentils, pinto beans and black beans) and peas are terrific sources of folic acid. Also, some of these items are staples in the homes of some Latinos, yet many Hispanic women of childbearing age fail to consume folic acid, leading to serious birth defects, such as spina bifida, anencephaly, heart defects and congenital defects in the baby's mouth, called "cleft lip and palate."

But what is folic acid?

Folic acid or folate is a B vitamin, and the names derive from the Latin word folium, which means "leaf." Folic acid plays an important part in producing red blood cells. It can be found in plenty of natural foods, it can be synthetically produced, and it can be used in fortified foods and supplements to boost the nutritional properties of food and correct folate deficiencies. Some common symptoms of folate deficiency include nerve damage with weakness and limb numbness (peripheral neuropathy), diarrhea, macrocytic anemia with weakness or shortness of breath, mental depression, sore or swollen tongue, peptic or mouth ulcers, headaches, pregnancy complications, mental confusion, forgetfulness or other cognitive deficits, heart palpitations, behavioral disorders and/or irritability.

"Folic acid is really good for brain development and really good for hair, nails and skin (yours and the babe). It's included in most prenatal vitamins," Victoria Daza, the mother of a 9-month-old and campaign organizer for Immigrant's Rights at Long Island DREAM Act Coalition, said to Latin Post. "Avocados are really high in folic acid, and, fortunately, one of the few things I could stomach during my first trimester. When [my daughter] Leila was born, she had a full head of hair, long nails, and has been ahead of the learning curve developmentally."

The National Council on Folic Acid recommends that U.S. women of childbearing age take a daily multivitamin with folic acid, at the recommended amount of 400 mcg, to protect mothers and future children in the case of unplanned pregnancy. According to the NCFA, taking folic acid prior to pregnancy can reduce risk of birth defect of the brain and spine (neural tube defects, or NTDs) by up to 70 percent. Also, the NCFA reports that U.S. Latinas consume the least amount of foods fortified or enriched with folic acid or folate supplements, and they have the least amount of knowledge about folic acid when compared to other racial or ethnic groups. Because Latinas are twice as likely to have a baby with neural tube birth defect, it's important that they boost their folic acid intake prior to becoming pregnant.

In the past, National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDDD) launched a campaign to increase folic acid awareness among Hispanic/Latina women. They shared important folic acid education through television, radio and print messages in English and Spanish, targeting health providers who service Hispanic/Latina women. The long term plan for that campaign and similar campaigns is to change behaviors and decrease the rate of neural tube defects in the Hispanic/Latino.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, National Council of La Raza and the March of Dimes have pushed for masa cornmeal and flour to be fortified with folate because masa is common ingredient used when making corn tortillas, tamales, pupusas, arepas and numerous other Latin American dishes. This effort would covertly benefit individuals in the Hispanic community and help them to resist the negative effects of deficiency. Since the FDA required that enriched grains be fortified with folic acid in 1998, there has been a 36 percent drop in neural-tube birth defects among Hispanics and non-Hispanics. For this reason, the CDC has called folic acid-fortified enriched grains one of the top 10 public health achievements of the last decade.

To learn about folic acid and its impact on all women of childbearing, the U.S. population and overall health, please read more on the subject.