Updating the German recommendations for folate, part 1

The German Society of Nutrition (Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Ernahrung, DGE) is planning to revise its 1991 recommendations of nutrient intake. They wil l be updated and adapted to the present state of knowledge. Recent recommen dations of the USA and Canada (Dietary Reference Intakes, DRIs) will certai nly be taken into account. Within this project, the present DGE recommendations for folic acid are com pared with recent DRIs for folate. Scientific fundamentals and approaches a re checked and possible discrepancies are shown. The relevance of the Ameri can figures for the conception of the new folate recommendations in Germany is discussed.