If you’ve been cutting your carbohydrates, you might also be cutting your folate, and that could be bad for your arteries. Folate, a B vitamin, helps control levels of artery-damaging homocysteine in the blood. In fact, a study at Tulane University found that increased folate intake lowered stroke risk.

Folate is better known for helping to reduce birth defects when taken by pregnant women. That’s why it was added to many grain products, such as bread and cereal. This turned out to be a boon for adults, too, as folate also reduced the risk of stroke and heart disease.

Then came the low-carb craze, with many people cutting back not only on bread and cereals, but on vegetables, fruits and beans. That phase seems to be waning, but some of us still don’t get enough healthy carbs. Folate isn’t that hard to obtain from your diet – if you eat wisely, with lots of green, leafy vegetables, beans and whole or fortified grain products. Drink your orange juice, too. These kinds of foods are loaded with a variety of vitamins and minerals and should be key in your diet. Folate works with other B vitamins to help the body perform many functions.

Most people should aim for 400 mcg of folate (or folic acid) daily, but not more than 1,000 mcg. The list below gives some high-folate foods and the amounts they provide.

You need more than folate and grains, vegetables and fruits for a healthy body, of course. You also need, for example, to watch out for excess calories, not smoke, consume fewer bad fats and more healthy fats, and exercise regularly.

SELECTED HIGH-FOLATE FOODS

• Folate-fortified cereal, ¾-1 cup, 100-400 mcg
• Broccoli, 1 cup, 168 mcg
• Pinto beans, ½ cup, 147 mcg
• Garbanzo beans, 1/2 cup, 140 mcg
• Asparagus, one-half cup cooked, 131 mcg
• Spinach, one-half cup cooked, 131 mcg
• Kidney beans, ½ cup, 115 mcg
• Orange juice, 1 cup, 110 mcg

Source: USDA