Imagine your body as a big oil refinery, working hard to turn raw materials into useful products. In this depiction, the raw materials are folates and other vitamins and minerals, which you get from foods like leafy greens, beans, and fortified cereals.

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First, these nutrients enter your body, just like crude oil arriving at a refinery. Your digestive system starts breaking it down into a usable form, much like the refinery processes the oil. This breakdown is extremely important because those usable forms are required to become the fuel to operate the biochemical engine called methylation.

 

Note: Some individuals have a genetic marker called MTHFR polymorphism that does not allow for the efficient or effective metabolization of folate that creates the active form, methylfolate, which is needed to methylate properly.

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Now comes the refining stage, where your body takes the broken-down folate and other vitamin coenzymes and uses them in a special process called methylation. This is like the refinery turning crude oil into gasoline, diesel, and other products. In your body, methylation helps create important things like DNA and neurotransmitters (which help with mood and brain function).

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Once your body has made what it needs, any extra folate or waste is cleared out, just like how a refinery manages its leftovers. This keeps everything in balance and running smoothly.

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In the end, just as a refinery turns oil into fuel, your body turns folate into essential compounds that normalize your overall mental health and wellness.