Proposals to add folic acid to flour

[Dyrne]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-48608653

Does anyone else feel a bit uncomfortable about being treated as a potential incubator?

I understand that folic acid is very important for the development of a baby, and spina bifida is horrendous; but I kind of resent being treated as though I have the potential to get pregnant at any second. What’s next? FAS is devastating as well; so are they going to ban selling alcohol to all women of childbearing age?

I know they add some vitamins in already, but why target folic acid specifically? Surely there are a much wider range of people suffering from other vitamin deficiencies, so why not add those in as well? Surely that would help on a much wider scale? Why the specific targeting of women who may or may not get pregnant?

Or am I just being massively over touchy today?

I don't see anything wrong with it TBH. If it saves even one child from spina bifida it's worth it.

There is a difference in my view between reducing women to being potential incubators and recognising women as potential incubators. Our reproductive capacity is part of who we are, and many women do become pregnant unexpectedly, something like 50% of children are unplanned and while some of those are passive situations a good number are women who were trying to prevent. Chances are they don't want neural tube defects in their kids just because they didn't intend to reproduce.

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).
This is factually incorrect.
Megaloblastic anaemia can be caused by low folate levels as well as by an inability to absorb B12. Increasing folate levels in the elderly will decrease the prevalence of megaloblastic anaemia overall, then where diagnosed it will be quicker to confirm a diagnosis of B12 insufficiency.

It certainly is incorrect!

I have both of those forms of anaemia. No amount of ingested folic acid will be processed by my body because of the pernicious anaemia, I am missing the intrinsic factor to process it. So I have B12 injections! It wouldn't be masked. Megaloblastic may be caused by lack of B12 or folate, so might be 'masked' but would also be relieved by it.

I also realise that only half of what I ntended to type actually made it into my initial post appeared, I was too busy checking other possible issues with additional B12 in the diet. As it stands my post makes absolutely no sense - sorry! In my defence I am due my B12 injection

Many forms of anaemia don't show until later in life, pernicious anaemia is one, but would NOT be helped by any folate in the diet! The issue is more that we don't have a properly balanced diet, often not enoght o cause us any harm, but could be detrimental if we are ill, pregant etc. That's why flouride and others are added to our diet for us!

@DontCallMeShitley - Apologies, I had misunderstood your post. I thought you meant "All I want added to my bread is a little soya / chickpea flour and some palm oil to keep it fresh!"
Re-reading it, I see what you actually meant! Sorry!

I have a friend who has a rare but severe allergy to folic acid. Among other serious symptoms such as weight gain and additional risk of stroke and heart attack, it caused her to lose several babies before she was diagnosed. Adding folic acid to flour (including gluten free flour) means she will have a diet far more restricted than a coeliac for the rest of her life.

@Hollywhiskey - I have a MUTHR mutation too. Depending on the mutation It’s actually the high doses of folic acid taken during pregnancy that causes the miscarriage (and sometimes the baby is miscarried because of a severe neural tube defect because we can’t absorb folic acid we do take correctly). Eating Folate is encouraged and is found in a lot of food naturally. If my giving up bread means the majority of the population produce babies without neural tube defects I’m fine with that.

I'm sad that the average diet can still be so deficient in basic nutrients, and people so ill informed, that we need to fortify staple foods like flour and margarine.

Adding folic acid to flour (including gluten free flour) means she will have a diet far more restricted than a coeliac for the rest of her life.

Currently only non-wholemeal wheat flour is fortified and the government proposals are for the same to apply for folic acid fortification.

"We are proposing that the BFR definition of non-wholemeal wheat flour is the baseline for considering this folic acid fortification proposal. Other products, such as gluten free, are not covered by the BFR, which is another reason that it is important to maintain a clear message about the continued need for folic acid supplements for all women who could become pregnant."

www.gov.uk/government/consultations/adding-folic-acid-to-flour/proposal-to-add-folic-acid-to-flour-consultation-document#other-countries

You can't eat enough folic acid that is why women are recommended to take it if they plan to conceive and if it is in flour then any unplanned pregnancies the babies development is given a chance.

Wtf. "a potential incubator"?! Give over. Women have babies. Wouldn't it be nice if those babies had more chance to not be disabled?

Currently the fortifiers don't have to be listed as ingredients. If folic acid is added it needs to be publicised widely

www.fob.uk.com/nutrition-and-health/other-ingredients/

Oh and someone said it is already added in Scotland. I don't think that is correct. It was considered but found to be unfeasible except as a UK wide measure.

Oh that was me I thought it was passed in Scotland

Everyone will be eating the extra vitamins so I don’t see it as a sex issue.

Fortification of white flour and other selected grains with folic acid has been mandatory in Canada since 1998. There has been a 46% decrease in the prevalence of neural tube defects as a result.

I am childfree, sterilized, and clearly don’t like being treated as “pre-pregnant”. But I don’t honestly see issue with this. Many things we eat are enriched: it not only may but WILL prevent many babies from having neural tube defects when their mothers were not planning the pregnancy, these issues can in particular hit people in situations where well-rounded nutrition is not otherwise achieved or possible (eg lower income families).

Flours, breads, etc are already fortified with other things in recognition of this.

There is a scenario where if someone has low B12 and folate and you treat the folate deficiency first it can lead to major problems - subacute combined degeneration of the spine- and in this scenario you would always replace the b12 first (via b12 injections). However I don’t know if the proposed dose of folic acid in bread would be enough to cause this problem

I really don't understand the objection to this. It sounds like a really good idea to me.
Lots of foods are fortified with vitamins & minerals.
Lots of people would benefit from folic acid.

I am often treated as “potentially pregnant first, person second

What do you mean by this?