Originally published September 8 2005
Fortified cereals help reduce folate deficiency
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Folate deficiency has declined in the United States from 16 to 0.5 percent of the population since 1998, when the FDA began requiring enriched cereal grains be fortified with folic acid, the synthetic form of the B vitamin folate.
Vitamin B levels have improved significantly in every segment of the U.S. population since the Food and Drug Administration mandated folic acid fortification of enriched cereal-grain products in 1998.
"Folate fortification is an example of how easily the vitamin status of the entire population can be improved with a relatively simple and cost-effective measure," Dr. Christine M. Pfeiffer from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, told Reuters Health.
Folic acid is a synthetic version of folate, a member of the vitamin B complex.
Food fortification was aimed largely at preventing birth defects that can occur when pregnant women are deficient in folate.
Pfeiffer and her colleagues used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) to examine blood levels of folate, vitamin B-12, homocysteine and methylmalonic acid in the US population before and after folic acid fortification of cereal-grain products began in 1998.
Between NHANES III (1988-1994) and NHANES 1999-2000, average folate levels more than doubled, the investigators found.
These changes were evident in each sex and racial-ethnic subgroup, except for vitamin B12 in non-Hispanic blacks, the researchers report in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
"The US folic acid fortification program might have other benefits beyond the reduction of the incidence of (birth) defects," Pfeiffer said.
Mandatory folic acid fortification "may be the most important science-driven intervention in nutrition and public health in decades," writes Dr. Irwin H. Rosenberg from Tufts University, Boston, in a related editorial.
"However, this should not take away the focus from proper and balanced nutrition," Pfeiffer cautioned, "because there are many other compounds and factors contained in our daily food that can have a positive impact on health exceeding the benefit of a multivitamin or a vitamin added to food through fortification."
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