Bread must contain folic acid

Peter Veness

June 23, 2007 12:00am
Food Standards Australia New Zealand's decision was made in a bid to stop spina bifida and other crippling defects in babies.

Adding folic acid would deliver pregnant women half the dose of folic acid needed to avoid the neural tube defects, which affect 350 newborns a year.

"This . . . is expected to prevent between 14 and 49 neural tube defects in the 300-350 affected pregnancies in Australia each year, when combined with existing voluntary fortification permissions and current levels of supplement usage," a FSANZ statement said.

"In NZ, this level of fortification is expected to prevent 4 to 14 neural tube defects each year.

"There is a transition period of two years for the new standard."

Organic bread will be exempt from the decision.

A review of the decision will be held two years after mandatory fortification is introduced.

"The review will consider health impacts and the effectiveness of the initiative, the actual cost impacts on the food industry and the adequacy of the monitoring framework," FSANZ said.

It and some health specialists say compulsory fortification is the safest, most effective and economical way to address the health problem.

But the move was stalled last year after opposition from manufacturers and some scientists.

The Australian Food and Grocery Council said the health problems required a public health solution, not medication of the food supply.

The industry believes most people do not want folate added to bread, and implementing the plan may push up the cost to consumers. - AAP

Source: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/st...1-24331,00.html

I was thinking how green leafy vegetables did not get a mention in this article as a source of folic acid. Although that omission pales in comparison with something I googled about folic acid just now

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health...olic-acid_x.htm
"Though the natural form, folate, is found in citrus fruits, beans and green leafy vegetables, it's not as well-absorbed as the synthetic kind, scientists say."

Seems like our last few million years of evolution were preparing us for taking supplements, not for eating food. Hum...

Funny how neural tube defects in babies can be an indication of gluten intolerance in the mother...and they're going to fortify BREAD. Awesome. Not eating foods that hinder vitamin and mineral absorption (such as...BREAD) might be a better idea.

You have to eat 16 slices of enriched white bread per day to get the RDA of folic acid. A nice salad of mixed greens to include spinach, will meet the requirements quite nicely. No bread is necessary. If you want mega doses, eat chicken or beef liver. (OH, we can't do that, liver has a lot of cholesterol. )

Hmm, I get nearly 1200 micrograms of folate daily from food, nearly 300% of RDI. I guess I won't be needing that special white bread then.

Funny how she makes the statement about the natural form of folic acid being not as easily absorbed as the synthetic kind, but then her article does not elaborate on this claim whatsoever. None of the research she mentions compares the two.

They also neglected to mention liver as a very good source.