Here is one New Year’s resolution public health officials are encouraging women of child-bearing age to make - eat a diet rich in folic acid. That is the B vitamin found in dark leafy vegetables, dried beans, citrus fruit and such enriched products as bread, flour, macaroni and cereals. Women who get enough folic acid are less likely to have children with spina bifida and certain other birth defects.

National Folic Acid Awareness Week starts the first Monday of January.

To mark the event, the Memphis & Shelby County Health Department is set to give away free multi-vitamins with folic acid. They will be offered to women of child-bearing age between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Jan. 8 in the lobby of 814 Jefferson.