You may not have noticed, but there is a specific substance in the foods we eat that can ruin your life. Take asparagus for example. What is missing now? I am a cook and I can help you. I know. I know. There are purple vegetables, and you buy your purple asparagus farm fresh. To reach the production shelf in your market an average of 1250 miles from the factory farms, there is no exhaustion. No. You get organically grown good produce from the farmer’s market and cook only the approved, right and proper way; You steam it (according to a recent study in the journal Food Science). Good. You model it, it tastes good on Kina. So, what is missing? Perhaps, as your chef suggests, you can add a little mayor’s lemon butter, some French sea salt and imported, freshly ground black pepper. Now that it’s so good, you taste good food with a personal chef. But still missing something? Now that you've read the print well and find that it lacks all of the essential nutrients folate or vitamin B9, all that was there when you cooked is lost (according to the USDA). To make matters worse, it doesn’t matter where you bought the asparagus or whether it was purple, white or green. This is because the United States Department of Agriculture first knows that you do not have enough folate. Read on. Everything is OK. So folate is colorless, something you can not taste, something you can not live without. In fact you and I have something in common with the colored asparagus you eat: none of us can live without folate (Andrew D. Hanson, Department of Horticultural Sciences, University of Florida, personal communication). We know by reducing that asparagus was enough for itself, but not enough for you. So how do you know there or not? You do not have time. Science can tell you, but try and find the answer. Of course a nutritional analysis can be done before and after you cook, of course you will find out. But if you get my skid, it will give you back a lot of greens. Asparagus is not so beautifully tapped, I will leave as your cook. You say, so what? I know it is coming. Your life without enough folate or vitamin B9? If the primary source of your folate is asparagus, you could put yourself at risk for devastating health problems. Here is a short list: Heart disease, birth defects, developmental delays (in children) and low doses can lead to anemia in adults with an increased risk of colon cancer. Oh, your body needs folate to make new cells and genetic material. Bold details. But do not throw out the asparagus. After science built up the story of this missing ingredient and studied it through research and discovered what happens to us when it does not exist, the federal government offered to help fix the problem. But first science proved that we do not get enough folate from our natural foods. In fact about 50 or more years ago science proved that asparagus is a food rich in folate, but it is also found in other green leafy vegetables, eggs and beans. All of these are published by the USDA and the FDA. However, in 1998 the Food and Drug Administration began urging some grain manufacturers to fortify their diets with folic acid, an artificial form of folate. According to nutritionists, low and low folate deficiencies are rare (this is what every licensed nutritionist you can contact can often tell you by contacting a few). But the amount of folate in our naturally available foods is still low to maintain our health and we need to strengthen our diet or experience the effects. We know this for sure, because science is beyond doubt and has established it with the agreement of the federal government.In addition, there is no less authority than Harvard University (in Harvard's public health department) that fresh fruits and vegetables alone cannot provide us with adequate nutrition. So we now know that there are missing ingredients in our diet, but not now, and we don’t know why: the basis for getting enough nutrients from our foods has changed. As your chef I recommend, it is best to eat your asparagus, boil sauce and pop the folate-rich vitamin supplement (FDA recommends 400 to 800 mcg daily you should see it with your doctor before you start). Of course, if you do not like to look for missing items in your diet, you can eat grains fortified with folic acid and other wonderful ingredients.