- Most women don't take folic acid before they conceive as more than half of pregnancies are unplanned
By Claire Bates
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Pregnant woman are recommended to start taking folic acid three months before they conceive
Flour should be fortified with folic acid to prevent birth defects in babies such as spina bifida, according to doctors.
UK governments should legislate to require folic acid to be in 'flour and flour-based products,' according to a majority at the British Medical Association's annual conference.
Consultant David Pring from Yorkshire told the meeting earlier on that most women don't receive the benefit of taking folic acid three months before they conceive because more than half of pregnancies in the UK are unplanned.
Fortifying flour could therefore reduce the risk of neural tube defects like spina bifida in thousands of pregnant women. The condition causes a baby's backbone to form incorrectly, often leading to lower-body paralysis.
Dr Pring said: ‘Fifty per cent of pregnancies are unplanned, that is 300,000 women a year. That is a lot of women, a lot of pregnancies.
'If we don’t believe in the prophylaxis (preventative medicine) we should be campaigning for the removal of vitamin D from margarine.’
He urged the conference to adopt a policy that was in line with Food Standards Agency recommendations and the scientific advisory committee on nutrition.
However, Consultant Protap Gupta from Lincolnshire argued against mandatory fortification, saying that it could have adverse health effects on others.
Dr Gupta said: ‘What is beneficial for one target group may not be good for the whole population.’
Previous research has suggested the human body might struggle to break down folic acid, which is the synthetic form of a B vitamin found in leafy vegetables.
A paper published by the Institute of Food Research in the British Journal of Nutrition in 2007 found folic acid is broken down by the liver, whereas natural folates are broken down in the stomach.
Scientists claim a liver flooded with folic acid may end up releasing it undigested into the blood.
Excess levels of folic acid in the blood have been linked to bowel and breast cancer, and could accelerate brain decline in some elderly people.
The scientists said the full impact of putting folic acid in food may only become apparent in 20 years' time.
Adults are recommended to have 0.2mg of folic acid in their daily diet, however pregnant women should be getting twice as much after stopping contraception up to the 12th week of pregnancy.
So far neither this nor the previous government has acted on medical recommendations to fortify flour.
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Nature did not make flour, man did, and because he needs to add artificial nutrients to it demonstrates how nutrient poor it is (apart from the gut damaging nature of gluten). Nature, however, made meat super high in folate all by itself. Nature knows what's best to grow a baby, not a man in a white coat.
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What would happen to those of us who have an intolerance to Folic Acid? Added to bread in the quantities outlined would put me in either hospital or a coffin! Will there be clear warnings on the packaging? If people need folic acid let them take a supplement, don't put other people at risk by adding it unnecessarily to bread!
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If they stop milling flour so white that all the goodness have been ground out of it, they won't need to add anything !!!! The same applies to "white" rice !
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Before getting pregnant with my son my diet was bad, I was practically living on muesli and milk and the odd apple, not thinking about what I was eating. I carried on like that for the first couple of months of the pregnancy and then started worrying about folic acid. The ante natal doctor said my blood folates were normal, but prescribed some iron with folic acid tablets anyway, my haemoglobin was about 11, marginally low, but I think I would probably have been ok without the tablets anyway. I made an effort to eat more green vegetables for the rest of the pregnancy. My son was fine.
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Some research suggests that vitamin B12 contributes to the early onset of Alzheimers in older people.
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Instead of supplementing everyone's food the Department of Health could change their guidance and recommend that all females of a childbearing age take a daily Folic Acid supplement regardless of if you are immediately planning to get pregnant. Spina Bifida is one of the most common birth defects occurring in 1-2 pregnancies per 1,000 births and yet good Folic Acid levels could reduce this figure by approximately 70%. Perhaps education is partly the key to helping reduce birth defects.
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Better idea.....Eat Healthier Foods and Balanced Diet! Skip processed foods!
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I thought that folic acid was added to virtually all foodstuffs in the UK, or it appears to be.
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Totally agree with the comments so far - we all need to take responsility for ourselves - what about all the women of childbearing age who drink, smoke, take legal or illegal drugs that can affect the foetus, participate in dangerous activties. I don;'t get the whole accidental pregnancy anyway - ok accidents happen sometimes but I don't think that results in 50% of pregnancies. These are mainly people who are not using contraception so they are not really accidents and this is more of an issue! It's enough to have preservatives etc added to food - please just stick to the necessary ingredients. I am allergic to soya and it is so hard to find even simple things such as bread without soya added.
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Stupid idea, my mum has an allergy to folic acid, although quite rare, it is quite severe. She cant eat many vegetables (ones that grow above the ground) as most have large quantities of folic acid. If they start adding it to products then she will be severely limited to what she can eat.
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