Proposals to add folic acid to flour

Sorry I can't get upset about this. I'm on folic acid supplement atm as dr found a deficiency in my blood sample. When I commented that I wasn't concerned as I'm
Not ttc and I'm on contraception I was admonished that no one should have a folic deficiency as there are other related health issues and it's not only important for pregnant women, that's just the most known issue. Defo not the same as refusing alcohol for child bearing age women

Btw as a person with a neurotube defect I welcome this
As a woman who has had a baby stillborn with a severe neural tube defect, I also welcome it.

@Birdsfoottrefoil which of my posts are you referring to?

glossy it already does... naturally

A lot of bread has added calcium, vitamin d and b vitamins. Most cereals are also fortified with folic acid. If you didn’t jump on your high horse then, why are you doing it now?

Are there any dangers associated with fortifying with folate

Consuming additional folic acid from fortified foods increases the risk of 'masking' megaloblastic (including pernicious) anaemia caused by vitamin B12 deficiency (prevalent in 20% of over 65s ). Simply put - lots of old people may not be diagnosed with a serious problem (I am old, I was diagnosed, I find it worrying that it is being ignored).

Anecdotally - from my perception, more old people than women of childbearing age eat bread.

Nearly all my female friends are on low carb diets anyway and i'm sure i read somewhere that supermarkets were seeing a massive downturn in the amount of bread products being bought at the moment due to this trend....

Yes, I'm not against fortifying things - but I do think they need to do the research to decide what to fortify, and maybe bread isn't the right choice for the groups they want to target. For example, in Costa Rica, rather than putting flouride in the water, they put it in table salt, because the tap water isn't something that lots of people will be drinking anyway.

Are there any dangers associated with fortifying with folate?

I don't think it can be compared to compulsory vaccination - if there's no downside, it's just trying to boost a population deficiency with a population supplementation. Of course it won't help everyone, but they're looking at a low risk, straightforward way to get a population-level benefit.

do you also feel similarly about making children's vaccinations mandatory?

I think it's different because the people opposing childhood vaccinations have what they think is strong evidence that it'll harm their children. And that the government/ big pharma is engaged in a cover up. There's a massive massive loss of trust between anti vaxxers and the medical community. Compulsory vaccinations doesn't solve that problem, it exacerbates it. If I genuinely believed vaccines could kill my child, and that the government was conspiring to make me do this, and then the government made it illegal not to (or banned my kid from going to school without it) I would immediately conclude that I was right to be afraid and not send my kid to school/ leave the country. Where trust is broken and suspicion is rife, an authoritarian top down approach will never work.

As far as I know, no one thinks that folic acid is a harmful substance/ part of a conspiracy to harm fetuses. But I don't think it should be in all flour based products, just some so people can opt in or out.

Just out of interest, those of you who have posted in favour of this, do you also feel similarly about making children's vaccinations mandatory? I mean it's not a huge leap is it?

Well this isn't making folic acid mandatory, just difficult to avoid. Personally I wouldn't be in favour of making vaccination mandatory (a little too Orwellian for me) but I would be in favour of making it very inconvenient not to e.g. Australia's "no jab, no play" policy.

I think it's a good thing personally. You're supposed to take folic acid for something like 3 months before conceiving - I didn't find out I was pregnant til I was 2 months gone! And I felt sooooo guilty and anxious for not having taken folic acid during that time. It'd also relieve the cost to pregnant women of buying folic acid in addition to regular groceries. In countries where there are long periods of darkness (like Iceland) they put vit D in lots of products (cooking oil, margarine, milk etc). It's a common public health strategy. I don't personally think recognising the potential of women to become pregnant is the same as treating us as potential incubators.

Agreed @GlossyTaco

It's interesting because in the NHS article i posted above, they mention many health campaigns about taking folic acid when trying for a baby. I don't think I've seen any. I happened to know about it and its importance (possibly from too much time on Mumsnet!), but i am honestly not sure many people are...

This is a helpful article...
www.nhs.uk/news/pregnancy-and-child/case-folic-acid-be-added-flour-overwhelming-argues-review/

Just out of interest, those of you who have posted in favour of this, do you also feel similarly about making children's vaccinations mandatory? I mean it's not a huge leap is it? Just musing...

Way I see it taking folic acid when you’re not pregnant is going to have zero ill effects whereas taking it whilst unexpectedly pregnant could stop a lot of baby’s being born with neural defects. It’s hardly being treated like an incubator since men eat bread too. It’s a simple cause/effect medical prevention. So no I don’t have an issue with it.

*ttc not the

@TheHodgeoftheHedge the fact that we are now discussing FA and NTDs and that this was on the BBC news are bloody good things in my opinion! Even if you don't eat this bread , you still have this issue at the forefront of your mind right now which may lead to you remembering your FA if you're the or just in general.

I wonder why we don’t propose doing it with more things? Surely there are illnesses and disorders that can be reduced by adding things into the flour? Why focus on folic acid specifically?

Flour/bread is already fortified with calcium, iron, niacin and thiamine. Some stores include additional vitamins e.g. M&S bread is fortified with Vitamin D.

Presumably there is a cost/benefit analysis regarding how many people are deficient and how serious the consequences of that deficiency are. Some vitamins, eg vitamin C, would probably have a noticeable effect on taste whilst others have too low a RDD for it to be safe to include them e.g. vitamin A.

A proposal that will impact on me in no way what so ever.
But could prevent future children being born with a disability.
Yep..... I’m devastated about this one. I think it’s an outrage

Would this really actually achieve anything? How much bread do i need to eat daily to be taking in enough folic acid?
Nearly all my female friends are on low carb diets anyway and i'm sure i read somewhere that supermarkets were seeing a massive downturn in the amount of bread products being bought at the moment due to this trend....

But it’s not bread for women is it. It’s just bread everyone can chose to eat it or not.
I briefly heard this on bbc breakfast this morning and thought it sounded like a good idea( no more than that).

@Mrsjayy , I'm guesing that FA will appear in a variety of everyday foods if this bread proposal goes ahead.

@Dyrne , from my perspective, I feel that FA in bread should be an opt out rather than an opt in thing.

If you don't want it , look for alternatives , or bake your own.

They can't be certain women eat enough bread and flour but fortification is there to improve featal health . I am off out but I will link research on it later.

Thank you @CloudRusting .

Iirrc I read some an article a few years ago about a campaign to encourage all women of childbearing age to take daily FA. This proposal looks to be an extension of that.

Megaloblastic anaemia has (several but) 2 primary causes: one is a gut abnormality preventing sufficient uptake of B12 from food, the other is insufficient folate in the diet. Increasing dietary folate across the bread/flour eating population will not mask B12 deficiency, but rather decrease folate deficiency. Folate deficiency is a cause of anaemia in adults and children.
It's a positive for everyone because everyone needs folate. They are concentrating on the benefits for neural tube development because it's easily measurable, but it's a necessary nutrient for everyone, not just childbearing women.