Its ferking crazy - theres about 60,000 births a year, compared to about 4 mill who eat bread.
I do not understand how it is that these pregnant women are not given folic acid along with their iron pills. I understand that some dont even go near a birthing person until the time is near, however, IMO if a woman is pregnant its imperative she learn about what is happening and what MIGHT happen. This is the pregnant womans responsibility, tis not our responsibility to force feed it.
Is it possible that some could have a reaction to folic acid?
This is from
http://www.sph.emory.edu/wheatflour/Comm/Resource/CDs/London04/MobilizationPUBLICawareness/FlourPowerBrochure.pdfFLOUR POWER QUESTIONS AND
ANSWERS
Q: What health benefits have been documented from
flour fortification with folic acid?
A: Folic acid fortification of flour in the United States, Canada
and Chile has resulted in immediate and profound increases in
blood folate levels.
Studies in the United States and Canada show reductions in
birth defects, near elimination of folate deficiency anemia,
plus reductions in plasma homocysteine, strokes and heart attacks.
Q: How many countries are fortifying flour with folic
acid?
A: Nearly 50 countries including the United States, Canada and most
of South and Central America are now fortifying flour with folic acid.
Q: How strong is the scientific evidence linking
synthetic folic acid with prevention of birth defects?
A: The strongest epidemiological evidence, randomised controlled
trials, has demonstrated conclusively that daily consumption of at least
400 micrograms of folic acid will prevent 70 per cent of cases of spina
bifida and anencephaly.
Q: What is the expected impact of folic acid fortification
on serious birth defects?
A: The higher the population frequency of NTDs and the higher
the flour fortification levels, the greater the reduction in NTDs.
Fortification in the US at a level of 1.4 ppm reduced NTDs by
20 per cent. In Chile, where the fortification level was 2.4,
NTDs have declined by 47 per cent.
The lowest rate of NTDs in a significant population was five per
10,000 live births during a demonstration trial of folic acid
supplements in China.
Q: Why do we need mandatory fortification?
A: Voluntary fortification has not persuaded staple food
manufacturers to add folic acid to levels that would protect
most women against the risk of a baby born with an NTD.
Health education programs have left more than 50 per cent
of women unprotected from pregnancies affected by folic
acid-preventable birth defects.
Mandatory fortification of flour with folic acid at levels that
offer significant protection against NTDs (usually 2.4 to 4 ppm) is
inexpensive and highly effective. Because not everyone eats bread,
continuing education campaigns about consuming folic acid are
valuable – but we don’t have to rely on them as the cornerstone
of the public health initiative.
Q: How much do neural tube defects cost society?
A: Each child born with severe spina bifida will require expensive
medical care during the first year of life, often costing more than
$50,000.
Medical, developmental and other services throughout that child’s
lifetime will cost society on average $1 million.
Q: What is the link between folic acid and heart
disease? Do epidemiologists agree that this link has
been proven as causal?
A: There is quite strong evidence that increasing consumption
of folic acid will prevent heart disease.
Research has suggested that increasing folic acid intake reduces
the risk of heart attacks by 16 per cent, of deep vein thrombosis
by 25 per cent and of strokes by 24 per cent. Research into these
areas is continuing.
Q: Why should fortification be mandatory?
A: Voluntary fortification of white flour at 2.8 ppm has been allowed
in Australia and New Zealand since the mid 1990s, but most millers
have been reluctant to voluntarily fortify all flour.
This has resulted in only a small increase in the average daily folic
acid intake of women of childbearing age and a reduction in NTDs.
But mandatory fortification of flour is a much more successful
approach.
Q: Why have some nutritionists opposed mandatory
fortification with folic acid?
A: Nutritionists encourage people to increase their consumption
of foods rich in natural folic acid, such as fruit and vegetables.
But folic acid found naturally in foods is far less easily absorbed by
the body and more than 90 per cent of people fail to consume the
recommended daily allowance of folic acid from their standard diet.
There is no evidence from the United States that flour fortification
has changed dietary patterns.
Q: Is folic acid toxic?
A: No. The Web site of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta,
Georgia says: “Folic acid has no known toxic level. If you were to
eat a bowl of fully fortified cereal (400 micrograms), take a folic
acid supplement (400 micrograms) and eat fortified foods and
foods rich in folate … [you] would not have a problem with too
much folic acid. Even in very high amounts folic acid is non-toxic.
“Even with doses as high as 15 mg per day, there have been no
substantiated reports of side effects.”
